Heinrich Ferdinand von Krosigk

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Heroic death of Major von Krosigk near Möckern. (October 16, 1813) , color print c. 1890 after a painting by Richard Knötel
Cross on the Ilsestein
Memorial plaque with von Krosigk's name

Heinrich Ferdinand von Krosigk (born February 23, 1778 in Poplitz ; † October 16, 1813 near Möckern (Leipzig) ) was a squire and Prussian major who died in the Battle of Leipzig .

Life

Heinrich Ferdinand von Krosigk came from the noble von Krosigk family and was one of fourteen children of the Majoratsherrn on Poplitz , Ferdinand Anton von Krosigk , and his wife Dorothea Luise, née von Cramm . His brothers included Dedo , Ludwig , Ernst , Friedrich and Anton Emil von Krosigk .

After his father's death he took over the Poplitz estate. During the years of the French occupation, in which Poplitz and the Saalkreis belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia , he waged a kind of guerrilla war against the government for seven years, which earned him the French nickname "le mauvais Baron" ("the bad baron") he regarded it as a name of honor like a Geusenwort . He was considered "one of the most original and tough opponents of the French".

Krosigk was interned at Magdeburg Fortress , then from 1811 in Kassel . In the autumn of 1812 he was released on bail of all of his property. Thereupon, however, he first brought his family to safety and then made himself available to the Prussian army, which resulted in the confiscation of his property by the French authorities.

On May 20, 1813, he was given command of a Brandenburg fusilier battalion in the newly established Brandenburg Infantry Regiment No. 12 , with which he fought in the Battle of Bautzen . For his courage at Löwenberg in August 1813 he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class. At the beginning of October he returned to the liberated but badly damaged Gut Poplitz. He fell at the head of his battalion on the first day of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig on October 16 in Möckern.

Christian Niemeyer described his death a little later:

“Here, on a green meadow next to Möckern, Heinrich Ferdinand von Krosigk, the Anhaltin, was at the head of a brave Brandenburger, which he, another Winkelried, broke through his own chest into a hostile square, the fifth, by, above all , attacked and threw down the enemy wingman, pierced by a bayonet stab and a bullet at the same time, waving his sword with his sword to his band with his sword, as he was lying on the ground, and defending those who wanted to stay with him with the words: "Leave me here and go and do your duty!" His brave adjutant Honey, a lawyer, passed away next to him. "

He was buried on Poplitz. His burial mound there became a kind of place of pilgrimage for patriotically minded people.

Heinrich von Krosigk was married to Friederike, geb. from Schurff. He was a member of the Halle Masonic Lodge " To the three swords ".

Afterlife

The figure of the major and the circumstances of his death made him particularly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Richard Knötel's dramatic picture of his death was widely distributed as a color print by the Berlin publisher Paul Kittel. Paul Schreckenbach made him the main character in his historical novel in 1908.

Heinrich Ferdinand von Krosigk is one of the friends and acquaintances who fell in the wars of freedom , for whom Anton zu Stolberg-Wernigerode had the iron memorial cross erected on the Ilsestein in 1814 .

literature

  • Gustav Friedrich Hertzberg: History of the city of Halle on the Saale. Volume 3, pp. 410, 423.
  • Paul Schreckenbach : The evil Baron von Krosigk. A novel from the time of German disgrace and revolt. Staackmann, Leipzig 1908 - Online
  • Hugo von Mueller: History of the Grenadier Regiment Prince Carl von Prussia (2nd Brandenburgisches) No. 12. 1813 to 1895. 2nd edition, Berlin: Mittler 1896, p. 79ff.
  • Henner Huhle: Speech for the 2oo. Day of death at the grave of the "Evil Baron".
  • Henner Huhle: Poems in Alsleben cycle. The grave of Heinrich von Krosigk and "fuimus trojes".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hertzberg (Lit.), p. 410
  2. ↑ Mueller (Lit.), p. 48.
  3. ^ Christian Niemeyer: Heldenbuch: A monument for great deeds in the Wars of Liberation of 1808-1815. 5th edition Leipzig 1821, p. 344 ( GBS )
personal data
SURNAME Krosigk, Heinrich Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krosigk, Heinrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Landlord, Prussian major
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1778
PLACE OF BIRTH Poplitz
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1813
Place of death near Möckern (Leipzig)