Heinrich von Hagen

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Lieutenant General Heinrich von Hagen

Ernst Heinrich Hagen , von Hagen since 1871 (born May 19, 1831 in Königsberg , † November 18, 1905 in Schönheide ) was a Prussian lieutenant general .

Life

origin

He was the son of the Privy Councilor and Professor of Art History and Aesthetics Ernst August Hagen (1779–1880) and his wife Molly, née Oestreich (1876–1915). His grandfather was the well-known court pharmacist and polymath in Königsberg, Karl Gottfried Hagen , who was temporarily the teacher of Queen Luise's sons and a close friend and confidante of Immanuel Kant . Ernst Heinrich von Hagen's ancestors went down in the history of the Königsberg Albertus University as the family of scholars . His brother Johann Maria (called Hans) Hagen (1829-1910) also had a military career, achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and was active as director of the Kassel War School . The two brothers Ernst Heinrich and Hans stayed in close lifelong contact through their sons Curt and Reinhold.

Military career

Hagen attended the old town high school in his hometown and on March 22, 1849 joined the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Prussian Army in Danzig as a musketeer . By mid-December 1851 he was promoted to second lieutenant and from October 1855 was adjutant of the Fusilier battalion. When he was promoted to Prime Lieutenant , Hagen was transferred to the 4th Infantry Regiment and in mid-April 1860 he was assigned to the Guard Dragoons Regiment for six months . Left in this command, he was transferred to the 41st Infantry Regiment on July 1, 1860 .

When the army was reorganized, Hagen was placed à la suite of the Litthau Dragoon Regiment (No. 10) on October 1, 1860 , and was assigned to this association in May 1862 . In mid-May 1866 he was promoted to captain and squadron chief . As such, Hagen took part in the battles near Trautenau and Königgrätz and the battle near Tobitschau during the war against Austria . For his work, especially near Trautenau, where he and his squadron crushed two enemy squadrons, Hagen received the order Pour le Mérite on September 20, 1866 .

On the occasion of the war against France , Hagen was appointed personal adjutant to Prince Albrecht of Prussia for the duration of the mobile relationship and was promoted to major on October 28, 1870 . He took part in the battles at Weißenburg , Wörth , Sedan and Orléans as well as in the battles at Steinburg, Marsal , Raucourt , Frénois and Daunoise. Awarded the Iron Cross II. Class was Hagen after the peace treaty , leaving as a personal aide of Prince Albrecht à la suite of Litthauischen Dragoons. 1 (Prince Albert of Prussia) provided and on June 16, 1871 for his services by Kaiser Wilhelm I to the hereditary Prussian nobility raised . After the prince's death, he was transferred to the army officers on October 22, 1872 in his regimental uniform.

On September 22, 1874, Hagen was appointed staff officer in the Magdeburg Dragoon Regiment No. 6 in Schmiedeberg . Under position à la suite, he was then commissioned on January 2, 1876, initially with the command of the Rhenish Dragoons Regiment No. 5 in Hofgeismar and on January 11, 1876, Hagen was appointed regiment commander. In this position took place in March 1876 was promoted to lieutenant colonel and in September 1880 to Colonel . This was followed from June 1882 to mid-March 1884 as a commandant of Neubreisach . Then Hagen was transferred to Brandenburg an der Havel as commander of the 6th Cavalry Brigade and was promoted to major general on November 18, 1886 . With the award of the Order of the Red Eagle II. Class with Oak Leaves, he was put up for disposal on March 8, 1887 due to illness in approval of his resignation request with the statutory pension .

After his departure, in January 1896, Hagen was awarded the Crown Order II. Class with Star and the Commander's Cross First Class of the Order of Henry the Lion . In recognition of his many years of service, Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded Hagen the character of Lieutenant General on March 18, 1899 .

Grave of the couple from Hagen

family

Hagen married Ella Gerlach (1836–1915) on June 29, 1857 in Schippenbeil . She was the daughter of the Commerce Councilor August Eduard Gerlach. The marriage had four children:

  • Klara (1858–1943) ⚭ Anton Niendorf, pastor
  • Heinrich Curt (1859–1897), governor of the German New Guinea colony ⚭ Helene Winkler (* 1861)
  • Magdalena (1862–1924) ⚭ Paul von Wühlisch, Lord of Lieskau
  • Heinrich (1868–1917) ⚭ Maud Bruxner (1869–1940)

In 1887 Hagen bought the manor house in Schönheide near Spremberg , where he lived with his family until the end of his life. The family burial site, which is still in existence today, is a reminder of the former equestrian general. This von Hagen family is not a member of the Hagen family association that exists in Germany.

Memorial stone in Schönheide

The so-called “Prinzenretter Gedenkstein”, as the 2.20-meter-tall boulder is called colloquially, now set up in front of the former manor house in the center of Schönheide , was moved there in 2011 and was previously located on the edge of the forest southeast of Schönheide.

“Prinzenretter Memorial Stone” in Schönheide

The scene shown on the memorial stone is a copy of a bronze plaque of the Prince Albrecht monument in front of Charlottenburg Palace and is intended to illustrate a war situation on December 2, 1870. The meeting of the staff around Prince Albrecht of Prussia with a scattered group of French soldiers in a chimney room occurred after the battle of Loigny and Poupry in the Franco-German War (1870–1871) . The Prince's personal aides immediately recognized the threatening situation. Since Prince Albrecht had a perfect command of the French language , he was able to engage the French soldiers in a casual chat. After a short warm-up break, the adjutants Hagen and Reclam made it possible to safely withdraw from the farmhouse parlor. The danger of a possible capture by the French was thus averted.

The battle painter Conrad Freyberg also belonged to the staff of the princely adjutants for the chimney situation; in his notes he described the scene less heroically than it was later retold.

“It was also on this day when the prince was lifted down from his horse , frozen in the evening , and the adjutant Major v. Hagen was led into a little house, propped up. The division had already marched past . Only Major von Reclam and I were present, but the room was also filled with mobile guards and other French soldiers, including the wounded and dead . The people lifted their caps and with a "Mon gènèral" they began to tell the prince who was sitting by the blazing fire , gesticulating violently, to tell their heroic deeds. Since there was still shooting in the vicinity , even with grenades , and the apparent danger of the situation admonished us to set out, we got back on horseback; burning villages lit up the darkness. "

In recognition of his military achievements during the war of 1870–1871, the memorial stone with the well-known fireplace scene was probably erected for Heinrich von Hagen by the Schönheid local residents around 1910. After 1945, however, the Schönheide memorial stone suffered a regrettable fate.

At the end of the Second World War , Schönheide was taken in April 1945 by advancing Russian and Polish associations. The memorial stone was not damaged, however, possibly due to the somewhat remote location. It was not until the 1950s (approx. 1955–1958), when reconstruction began in the newly founded GDR , that the bronze relief fell victim to the FDJ campaign “Martin needs scrap ”. The slogan referred to the fact that as much scrap as possible should be collected by school classes in order to be able to equip a Siemens-Martin furnace , which in turn produced valuable steel for the reconstruction.

The memorial stone, now deprived of its relief, was then almost forgotten. Only with the political turning point in the GDR did the residents of Schönheide make efforts to move the memorial stone in the center of the village and to complete it again. For cost reasons, however, it was necessary to forego replacing the lost bronze relief. Since then, this spot has been adorned with a photocopy depicting the bronze relief.

Unlike the memorial in Berlin-Charlottenburg, the “Prinzenretter Memorial Stone” in Schönheide was never a memorial itself. Due to the loss of the bronze relief, it was not classified as relevant by the Brandenburg State Monument Authority .

literature

  • Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 9, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1941], DNB 986919780 , pp. 240-241, no. 2859.
  • Siegfried Hagen: Three hundred years of Hagen's family history.
  • General von Hagen's diary sheets in the 1870/71 campaign as a special reprint in the military weekly paper. 1896, No. 69-72.
  • Alfred Niemann: History of the Dragoon Regiment Freiherr von Manteuffel.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich von Hagen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses. Thirteenth year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1919, pp. 328–329 .
  2. ↑ Hagenscher Familienverband (last accessed on June 10, 2019).
  3. ↑ The base decision is made on the hook . In: Lausitzer Rundschau-online. August 18, 2011.
  4. ^ Diary of the battle painter Conrad Freyberg , Berlin State Library, p. 318.
  5. ↑ The memorial stone is being maneuvered to the manor house . In: Lausitzer Rundschau-online. July 7, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Hagen, Heinrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hagen, Ernst Heinrich von (full name); Hagen, Ernst Heinrich (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1905
Place of death Schönheide