Hans von Rochow (politician)

Coat of arms of the von Rochow family

Hans Wilhelm von Rochow (born January 10, 1824 on Gut Plessow near Potsdam , † January 18, 1891 ibid) was a Prussian landowner and politician. He achieved a certain fame through a duel with the Berlin police chief Ludwig von Hinckeldey , in which the latter was fatally injured.

family

Hans Wilhelm von Rochow, nickname Hans, came from one of the oldest aristocratic families in Brandenburg . His parents were the royal Prussian colonel and court marshal Hans Karl Dietrich von Rochow (1791–1857) and Wilhelmine von Schack (1801–1848), daughter of Major General Wilhelm Georg von Schack . The father was also landlord at Plessow, Burg Zolchow , Bliesendorf , Kammerode , Resau, Ferch , Wildenbruch , Klaistow, 1/2 Kanin and a little later also on Krahne and Rotscherlinde; all located southwest of Potsdam.

Hans Wilhelm von Rochow-Plessow married Emmy Wilhelmine Karoline Davida von Gundlach on July 15, 1852 in Ankershagen (* July 24, 1830 at Gut Möllenhagen; † February 11, 1879 in Menton , Côte d'Azur ). She was the second daughter of Rittmeister Friedrich von Gundlach on Möllenhagen and Julie Henriette Leopoldine, born Freiin von Le-Fort , and sister of the manor owner and chamberlain Friedrich von Gundlach .

Five children emerged from the marriage between Hans Wilhelm and Emmy. The only daughter Anna (1855-1928) married the Mecklenburg court marshal, Major Dietrich von der Schulenburg . The eldest son Hans Wichard (1853–1881) was like his father a lieutenant in the Thuringian Hussar Regiment No. 12 and died in a horse race in Weimar . The second son Rochus Friedrich Rudolf (1856–1901) made it up to the rank of Rittmeister, was a knight of honor of the Order of St. John and inherited the great rule of Stülpe . The third son and heir to Fideikommiss Plessow, Dr. jur. Friedrich Ludwig , called Fritz (1858–1914), was a. a. Knighthood Council of the Kur- und Neumärkischen Knighthood. He fell as a reserve officer at the beginning of the First World War . The youngest son Gustav Hans (1864–1936) became Prime Lieutenant , lived for a few years in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires and even published his travel memories. Most recently he was an official of the German-South American Bank in Berlin. Incidentally, all four sons of Hans Wilhelm von Rochow were pupils at the Brandenburger Ritterakademie .

Life

In his youth, Hans Wilhelm was briefly a pupil at the Brandenburg Knight Academy and then went to the cadet corps in Berlin. He spent his military service with the 12th Hussar Regiment in Merseburg , Weißenfels and Eisleben . Rochow served there as a lieutenant for six years. At his father's request, in 1852 he took over Plessow and the properties that the family had owned since the mid-14th century.

As early as 1854 he was a member of the Prussian manor house as representative of the knighthood for the districts of Zauch-Belzig , Jüterbog-Luckenwalde and Teltow ; most recently he was vice president of the manor house.

On March 10, 1856 dueled Hans Wilhelm von Rochow with the Berlin Police President Carl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey , after which the latter died. Rochow was then sentenced to four years' imprisonment, but only had to spend one year at Magdeburg fortress . Prior to this, the widow Karoline von Hinckeldey asked for a pardon to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

The duel and the prosecution did not hinder Rochow in his political or military career. In 1859 Hans Wilhelm was promoted to Rittmeister . He received his departure in 1871 as Major d. R.

In 1867 he was accepted as a legal knight in the Order of St. John in what was then Sonnenburg (now Słońsk ) . In 1883 Rochow was elected Canon of Brandenburg and curator of the Knight Academy there.

The fact that Rochow showed an interest in art is relatively unknown. On his initiative, the Rochow mansions Golzow (Mittelmark) , Reckahn , Plessow and Stülpe were included in the large table work The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy, along with the royal family, house, entails and coffers Goods taken up by Alexander Duncker . At his request, the family's chronicler, Adolf Friedrich August von Rochow (1788–1869), himself a landlord on Stülpe for almost fifty years and u. a. Commander of the Brandenburg Cooperative of the Order of St. John . Adolf Friedrich August was Hans Wilhelm's uncle . As the builder and patron of the church, Hans Wilhelm von Rochow had the Plessow church completely redesigned at the end of the 1860s.

In the years 1886/1887 Hans Wilhelm von Rochow-Plessow also became landlord on Stülpe. This larger manor was bought by his cousin Adam Ernst III. von Rochow-Stülpe (the brother of the retired Major General Wichard von Rochow auf Stülpe) and had been family property since the end of the Thirty Years' War .

Emperor Wilhelm II called Rochow: "an old Brandenburg nobleman of loyal, solid grist and grain, a model of old knightly virtues, who was loyal to his princely house until the last breath of his life." This is what happened in a celebratory speech at the Brandenburg Provincial Assembly .

literature

• Genealogical handbook of the nobility , noble houses A Volume VIII, page 404, volume 38 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1966, ISSN  0435-2408
• Dr. H. Pobolsky: Hans von Rochow , in: Der Bär - Illustrierte Wochenschrift für die Geschichte Berlins und der Mark, No. 24, March 14, 1891, p. 298.
• News on the history of the von Rochow family and their possessions, Berlin 1861, collected by Adolf Friedrich August von Rochow, pp. 181 ff., 204 ff.
• The pupils of the Knight Academy in Brandenburg aH 1705–1913, compiled by Walter von Leers; Self-published by the association of former pupils of the Knight Academy in Brandenburg aH; Ludwigslust 1913, pp. 211, 274, 284, 292 and 318.