Hugo von Winterfeld

Hugo Hans Karl von Winterfeld (born October 8, 1836 in Landsberg an der Warthe , † September 4, 1898 in Schreiberhau ) was a Prussian infantry general .

Life

origin

Hugo came from the Brandenburg aristocratic family Winterfeld . He was the son of the Prussian forester Ernst von Winterfeld (1793–1869) and his wife Luise, born von Waldow (1804–1863). His father was Herr auf Klein-Rinnersdorff until 1859.

Military career

Winterfeld visited the Berlin cadet house and was then transferred in 1856 as a second lieutenant to the Kaiser Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 of the Prussian Army . During the war against Austria , Winterfeld was deployed in the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866 . After he was transferred to the topographic office of the Great General Staff in 1867 , he was promoted to captain in 1868 . He served in the war against France in 1870/71 , in which he was Emperor Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan on September 2, 1870 . captured. He was then transferred to the General Staff of the Great Headquarters and in 1872 he became a wing adjutant to Kaiser Wilhelm I and major . In 1871 he received the Knight's Cross 1st Class with Swords of the Order of the Württemberg Crown , in 1875 he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class.

After his promotion to lieutenant colonel in 1877, he was awarded the Order of the Crown, 2nd class , in 1878 . In 1880 Winterfeld became the commander of the Emperor Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 and as such was promoted to colonel in 1881 . Later he was State Councilor for Alsace-Lorraine and also commanded the expansion of the Metz fortress . In 1882 he was awarded the Order of the Crown, First Class. In 1887 he received his promotion to major general . Having 1887-1888 Governor of the Fortress Mainz was, he was in the so-called Year of Three Emperors in 1888 Adjutant General of the three German Kaiser Wilhelm I, Friedrich III. and Wilhelm II. The wife of Kaiser Friedrich, Victoria , stressed Winterfeld heavily in her letters to her mother Victoria of Great Britain with regard to her problematic relationship with the German imperial government.

After Wilhelm's accession to the throne in the summer of 1888, the new emperor sent him together with Albano von Jacobi as emissary to London to give Queen Victoria the official notification of his accession to power. In 1889 Winterfeld represented the emperor at the funeral of Teresa Maria Cristina of Naples-Sicily , the last empress of Brazil .

Between 1890 and 1891 he was commander of the 20th division in Hanover after being promoted to lieutenant general . Most recently he was commanding general of the Guard Corps from 1893 to 1897 and was promoted to General of the Infantry in 1895 and from May 20, 1896 to Commander-in-Chief in the Marche .

Winterfeld, who was one of the most decorated generals of his time, is said to be the model of the novel character of the same name "Count von Winterfeld" in the novel The War in the Air by HG Wells .

After his death he was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Berlin .

family

He married Pauline Elisa Schmidt (1839-1904) from New York on February 11, 1868. The marriage resulted in the son Hans Karl (* 1872) and the daughter Ilse Charlotte (* 1876), who married the later Prussian general of the infantry Richard von Süßkind-Schwendi (1854-1946) in 1901 .

literature

• Winterfeld, Hugo von. in: Military weekly paper . No. 75 of June 17, 1909. pp. 1717-1718.
• Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Uradelige houses. 1908. Justus Perthes , Gotha 1907, p. 809.

Web links

• Personalities of the von Winterfeld (t) family association
• Official press of Prussia (Berlin State Library)
• Document group of the wing adjutant General Hugo von Winterfeld

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Kingdom of Württemberg 1886. p. 48.
2. ↑ Redesign of the hospice garden (2016/17). Accessed December 31, 2019 .