Hans Rudolf Werdmüller

Hans Rudolf Werdmüller (born February 6, 1614 in Zurich , † December 16, 1677 in Villingen ) was a Swiss officer .

Life

Portrait of Hans Rudolf Werdmüller, which has been reproduced by the engraver David Herrliberger since 1749

Werdmüller at the age of 62, drawing by Matthäus Merian

Hans Rudolf Werdmüller was born in Zurich as the son of the wealthy silk merchant Johann Rudolf Werdmüller, but lost his father when he was only three years old. He received his school education at the academy in Geneva , where his brother Hans Georg Werdmüller also learned, who later planned the third fortification of Zurich as a fortress engineer . Werdmüller later continued his training in Lyon , where he studied fortress construction.

As a Reformed citizen of Zurich, he entered the service of the Swedish general Gustaf Horn in the Thirty Years' War in 1633 and took part in the siege of Constance and the battle of Nördlingen . In the same year, at the request of the family, he married the 14-year-old Junker daughter Anna Reinhard.

In 1637 Werdmüller was drawn back into military service. Under his stepfather Colonel Caspar Schmid, who gained respect and wealth as an officer in foreign services, he went to Valtellina and served as a lieutenant colonel in a regiment of Henri II. De Rohan . After the death of the Duke of Rohan (April 6, 1638) Werdmüller retired into private life and devoted himself to the silk business. After Gustaf Horn was released, he returned to the Swedish military service until 1647 and made it to the rank of colonel during the siege of Freiberg in 1643 under Lennart Torstensson .

After this rise, he took over command of a regiment on behalf of Zurich in 1648, which fought in Dalmatia in support of the Republic of Venice until 1650 . Because of his tough leadership style, Werdmüller received a sharp reprimand from the government after his return to Zurich and withdrew into private life.

He built a country house on the Au peninsula on Lake Zurich . From 1655 to 1659 he was one of the representatives of Constaffel in the Zurich Small Council. In the Peasants' War of 1653 he served as major general under the command of General Konrad Werdmüller . In the first Villmerger War of 1656, as a general, he commanded the Zurich troops in the unsuccessful siege of Rapperswil , supported by Mayor Waser as assistant councilor. Because of the unsuccessful siege and the accusation of having made blasphemous speeches, he was charged with treason in Zurich and sentenced to the dismissal of councilor and to the payment of a fine.

He then left Zurich and entered French services in 1659, which he soon left because he was deported to the post of commandant of Château d'If . In 1663 he returned to the service of Venice as lieutenant general of the artillery. Here he was u. a. Commander of the land troops on Crete in the 6th Venetian Turkish War . He secretly converted to Catholicism and then entered the imperial service of Leopold I as field marshal lieutenant in 1673. His personal dislike of Henri de Turenne played a decisive role in this step .

In the war against France he was able to achieve a number of successes, including: a. 1673 during the siege of Bonn , 1676 during the conquest of the fortress Philippsburg and the capture of Saarbrücken the following year.

In the winter of 1677/78 Werdmüller planned to secure the passes in the Black Forest and therefore took quarters in Villingen . Here he died on December 16, 1677. Since Zwinglian Zurich refused to allow the Catholic Werdmüller to be buried, he was buried in Villingen's Nicolai Church.

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer later made Hans Rudolf Werdmüller the main character in his novella The Shot from the Pulpit .

literature

H. Zeller-Werdmüller: Werdmüller . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 771-774. (Family item)
Leo Weisz: The Werdmüller. Fates of an old Zurich family . 3 vols. Zurich 1949
Anton Pestalozzi: In the footsteps of General Johann Rudolf Werdmüller in the Aegean 1664-1667 (illustrated book). Commission publishing house, 1973

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Werdmüller, Hans Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss officer
DATE OF BIRTH	February 6, 1614
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zurich
DATE OF DEATH	December 16, 1677
Place of death	Villingen