Heinrich Schmidt (General)

Heinrich Schmidt (born February 26, 1788 in Kassel ; † June 26, 1850 there ) was a major general of the Hesse family and minister of war.

Life

His parents wanted him to become a lawyer. But the introduction of compulsory military service in the Kingdom of Westphalia led to his joining the Garde du Corps in 1808, but soon afterwards to the battalion of the Chasseurs-Carabiniers. He took part with the regiment in the fifth coalition war and fought in Saxony and Bohemia. In 1811 he became Capitaine adjutant major . He took part in Napoleon's Russian campaign, where he earned the Order of the Legion of Honor and the West Phalian Crown . After the French defeat at Leipzig , the Russians occupied Kassel and the Kingdom of Westphalia dissolved. Schmidt switched to the electoral Hanoverian army and came as a captain to General Graf Kielmansegg's hunter corps . He fought against the French and Danes on the Lower Elbe. After the dissolution of the corps and the restoration of Kurhessen, he joined the Kurhessian army . Here he was initially a captain in the Jägerkorps and took part in the blockades of Diedenhofen and Metz. In the summer campaign of 1815 he then fought in northern France. During the siege of Montmédy, he took part in the assault on the lower town of Médybas together with 800 Hessians, Prussians, Weimarans and Waldeckers . For his bravery he was awarded the Prussian Pour le Mérite and the Hessian Iron Cross.

After the war in 1821 he became a major in command of the Guard Battalion, there in 1823 a lieutenant colonel and in 1832 a colonel. In 1834 he became deputy and in 1838 chief of the general staff. As early as 1832 he represented the interests of the government in negotiations on military matters, and from 1834 he also chaired the military study and examination committee. During that time, he continued to rise until he became major general in 1841. From June 1842 he was head of the War Ministry, from 1845 also the actual War Minister. The unrest of 1848 led to his replacement as Minister of War. During his tenure as minister, he was involved in most of the work and arrangements involving the military. But he always saw himself as the executive organ of the regent.

literature

• Marco Arndt, Military and State in Kurhessen, 1813–1866: the officer corps in the field of tension between the monarchical principle and the liberal bourgeois world , p. 195, fn. 45, in volume 102, sources and research on Hessian history 1996
• Bernhard von Poten :  Schmidt, Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 731 f.