Hildebrand von Kracht
Hildebrand von Kracht (* December 20, 1573 Gut Lindenberg ; † August 19, 1638 in Küstrin ) was an officer from Brandenburg. He initially served different gentlemen until he entered Kurbrandenburg services. Among other things, he was captain of the Küstrin Fortress .
family
He came from the old noble family von Kracht and was the son of Isaac von Kracht and Even (born von List). In 1613 he married Anne Marie von Rintorf († June 30, 1630) in the presence of the electoral court. The marriage resulted in a son and two daughters. The son Dietrich von Kracht was an imperial colonel.
After her death in 1630 he married Elisabeth Sophie von Rohr, daughter of Klaus von Rohr auf Schönberg. The two have a daughter. The daughter Hedwig Sophie (* March 17, 1633; † October 12, 1694) married the Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich von Arnim auf Boitzenburg († September 8, 1660) on April 26, 1653 , then on May 18, 1662 the court chamber president Raban von Canstein and after his death in 1681 the Brunswick Lieutenant General Jobst Moritz von Offen .
Life
He served as a page at the court of Christian I of Saxony from the age of eleven . Between 1592 and 1596 he served first under his father and then in another unit in the long Turkish war against the Ottomans in Hungary. In 1597 he accompanied the Polish King Sigismund III. Wasa to Sweden. There he entered the service of the nobility as a page. In 1598 he returned to Germany. He entered 1599 as an ensign in the personal company of Count Friedrich von Hollach in the Netherlands. Since there was no military deployment, von Kracht went to Austria. There he received a flag in 1601 in the personal company of the Altheim regiment recruited for the Turkish war. He distinguished himself during the siege of Stuhl-Weissenburg . He was then promoted to captain and commander of a 300-man company. He took part in the conquest of Pest and the storming of Ofen . He was discharged with the whole regiment in 1602. When Colonel Altheim was besieged in Gran Fortress in 1603 , Kracht got into the fortress and stayed there until the surrender. In the campaign of 1605 he again commanded a company as a captain.
In 1606 he switched to the regiment of Colonel von Biesenberg. There he became sergeant-major and company commander. He kept the post until the dismissal of the regiment in 1607. In the fraternal dispute in the House of Habsburg between Emperor Rudolf II and Archduke Matthias , he served as a sergeant in the regiment of Maximilian von Liechtenstein . He was now in Matthias's warehouse. After the dispute was settled and the regiment was dismissed, von Kracht returned to Brandenburg.
He also entered the service of Elector Johann Sigismund . This appointed him to the council of war. Kracht served in 1609 when taking the Duchy of Cleves . He became a colonel and commissioned a regiment of a thousand men. He subsequently commanded this. In 1611 he accompanied the elector to Prussia, where he fell seriously ill and returned to Brandenburg. After his recovery he became captain of the Küstrin fortress in 1612 .
He kept the post in Küstrin under Elector Georg Wilhelm . At that time he was the elector's most important military man. This also commissioned him to recruit a regiment of 600 musketeers and 400 pikemen to protect against incursions by Cossacks . He became a war commissioner that same year. In 1623 the Upper Saxon Imperial Circle assigned him the post of Quartermaster General of a national defense force. In 1626 von Kracht received the order for national defense to recruit a regiment of 3,000 men. Initially stationed in Brandenburg, he accompanied the elector with his regiment to Prussia. Since the situation in Brandenburg had become threatening in the meantime, the Elector Kracht ordered the return and the formation of another regiment made up of twelve companies that were recruited in the Mark. In 1838 8 of these companies were sent against the Turks.
literature
- Anton Balthasar König : Hildebrand von Kracht . In: Biographical lexicon of all heroes and military figures who made themselves famous in the Prussian service . tape 2 . Arnold Wever, Berlin 1789, p. 325 ( Hildebrand von Kracht at Wikisource [PDF]).
Web links
- Short biography of the Berlin State Library
- Entry in The Thirty Years' War in testimonials, chronicles and reports
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kracht, Hildebrand von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Brandenburg military |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 20, 1573 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gut Lindenberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 19, 1638 |
| Place of death | Küstrin |