Jean-Baptiste Kléber
Jean-Baptiste Kléber (born March 9, 1753 in Strasbourg , † June 14, 1800 in Cairo ) was a general of the French revolutionary armies . He served in the suppression of the Vendée uprising , in the first coalition war against Austria and Prussia and the Bonaparte expedition to Egypt and Syria .
Life
Kléber was described by contemporaries as a remarkably good-looking man: "[...] d'une haute stature, d'une figure martiale, d'une bravoure brillante, donnait l'idée du dieu de la guerre [...]" ("from high He looked like the god of war himself with stature, distinctive face, outstanding bravery ”). His distinctive Alsatian accent with often used “Germanisms” (“des phrases souvent imprégnées de Germanismes”) “gave his language a particularly energetic expression”. (Marshal Marmont 1774-1852) . His character is judged differently: erratic and rebellious towards authorities at a young age, often haughty and vain, “loving the good life” - for all his military genius - admired by his troops for his Republican conviction and fearlessness. “Simple et modeste, il méprisa les richesses et les dignités et eut l'honneur de mourir pauvre après avoir manié des trésors.” (“Simple and humble, he valued wealth and dignity little and had the honor of dying poor after being possessed whole treasures. ")
His service of several years in an Austrian regiment from 1776, with which he was stationed in the War of the Bavarian Succession in the Habsburg Netherlands on the northern border of France, is rarely mentioned .
Kléber was assassinated in Cairo in 1800. His remains have been resting in a crypt under his monument on Place Kléber in Strasbourg since 1838 . If you follow his biographies, he left no wife or direct descendants.
What is striking about his military career is the frequently changing use in almost all revolutionary armies from 1792 to 1800. He only had a high command of an entire army a few times, some of which he even rejected. He presumably saw his strength in military action and not in administration or the execution of government orders and coordination with the war commissioners and people's representatives. The British military historian Chandler describes Kléber as a brilliant but surprisingly often self-doubting commander of the revolution.
Youth and work as an architect
Jean-Baptiste Kléber was born in Strasbourg as the son of the stonemason Jean-Nicolas Kléber and his wife Reine Bogart. According to one source, his father was in the service of Cardinal Rohan , Archbishop of Strasbourg. When Jean-Baptiste was three years old, his father died. His mother then married the wealthy Strasbourg building contractor Jean-Martin Burger, with whom Kléber is said not to have had a good relationship. He was given to a pastor for education. At the age of 16 he signed up to serve in a hussar regiment, but was brought back by his mother to do an apprenticeship at the Strasbourg École de dessin pour les arts et métiers . It is possible that Kléber took a liking to architecture through the work of his stepfather and began training in Paris in 1772 under the direction of the famous architect Jean-François Chalgrin . In 1774, at the request of his parents, he returned to Strasbourg and to work in the stepfather's company - allegedly also because of a too relaxed lifestyle in Paris.
Another opportunity for change came in 1777, when he sided with the latter in a "pub dispute" between local Alsatians and two Bavarians, who in return got him a scholarship as a cadet at the Bavarian Military Academy in Munich. After eight months, he joined the Austrian Kaunitz regiment on the recommendation of his instructors . Most recently he served as a lieutenant in the Habsburg Netherlands in the garrisons of Luxemburg , Mechelen and Mons from 1779 to 1783 . He is said to have quit his service with the Austrians because, as a commoner, he saw no opportunities for advancement in this royal army. Elsewhere he is said to have gambling debts and the company of dubious friends.
Back in Alsace, he worked as an architect and inspector for public buildings in Upper Alsace. He lived in Belfort for six years and, as the city's architect, was responsible for a hospital and town hall in Thann ( department Haut-Rhin ), the canon house ( le chapitre ) of the monastery of Lure ( department Haute-Saône ) and the Grandvillars castle .
French Revolution, Vendée Uprising and War of the First Coalition
Kléber's Habsburg military training certainly helped him to become a grenadier in the Belfort National Guard. After the war broke out in 1792, he joined a volunteer battalion in the Haut-Rhin département and rose there in a short time - at 39, he was a senior among the mostly young revolutionaries - to the position of "adjutant major". In 1793, Kléber belonged to the Armée de Mayence under Général de brigade d'Oyré and the Représentant en mission Merlin de Thionville to the defenders of the Mainz fortress . In the event of failures, he is credited with conquering a Prussian, extensive transport of food supplies and "almost imprisoning" King Friedrich Wilhelm II . With his experience as an architect, he was able to improve the condition of the outdated fortifications, but this could not prevent the surrender.
The occupation of Mainz was starved three months later, without ammunition and had to give up on July 22, 1793. Général de brigade Kléber led his troops back to France - in accordance with the surrender agreement "with their weapons and decorations and an obligation not to serve the coalition troops within a year". There they were ridiculed as the "cowards of Mainz" (les lâches de Mayence) and the officers had to answer to the National Convention.
With the defense by the Representative en mission Merlin de Thionville, the "provisional army of Mainz" was rehabilitated and fought the royalist-Catholic uprising of the Vendée in western France against the Catholic and royal armies of the Vendée . In autumn and winter 1793 she was involved in the battles at Cholet , the Battle of Le Mans and the Battle of Savenay , which weakened the royalists for a long time and temporarily put down the uprising. These successes were attributed to Kléber's commitment. During this time, a close friendship developed with the younger Général de division Marceau , who had received high command of the armies of the West at Kléber's suggestion. Kléber's plan to divide the uprising area into quarters and occupy it exclusively with disciplined line troops was not accepted. The command of the Armée de l'Ouest (combined armies of La Rochelle, Brest and Mainz) was returned to General Turreau, from whose terrorist warfare against the rebels and the civilian population Kléber and Marceau are said to have distanced themselves.
In April 1794 the National Convention ordered Kléber to go to war in the Austrian Netherlands to the Armée du Nord under General Pichegru , which was formed in July with the Armée du Rhin to the Armée de Sambre-et-Meuse under General Jourdan . Kléber was used in the siege and conquest of the Charleroi fortress , at Nivelles and Fleurus on June 16 and 26, 1794. He commanded the left wing with three divisions and the reserve. Kléber played an important part in the victory of the second day over the troops of Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld through the tactically clever use of his artillery and the reserve division .
By the end of autumn, Kléber's divisions had won the crossings of the Maas and Rur rivers , the towns and fortresses of Aldenhoven, Aachen, Jülich and many others against the fleeing imperial associations. At the beginning of October he reached the Rhine across from Düsseldorf , the then capital of the Electoral Palatinate Duchy of Berg . He had his artillery bombard and fire them for one night. On November 4, 1794, he was back on the Meuse to end the blockade of Maastricht Fortress . The commandant, Prince Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel , capitulated with a crew of 8,000. Kléber is said to have captured 300 cannons, 20,000 rifles, an immense amount of supplies and 16 regimental flags.
In December of the same year, the convention ordered the reconquest of the fortress of Mainz and gave Kléber command over several divisions of General Michaud's Armée du Rhin . The desperate supply situation, lack of artillery ammunition and winter weather conditions made a conquest impossible. The sick Kléber recovered in his native Strasbourg.
In March 1795 he returned to the Sambre Maas Army, took over the divisions of the center with commanders Bernadotte , Championnet , Grenier and Tilly. In September Kléber crossed the Rhine near Uerdingen and advanced over the Lahn to the Untermain. The aim was to block the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress in Koblenz and Mainz on the right bank of the Rhine. The company failed because of the resistance of the Austrian troops under Generalfeldzeugmeister Clerfait on the lower Main (Prussia had meanwhile removed its troops from the coalition). A corps under General Championnet was defeated at Kostheim in front of Mainz and Kléber was ordered to retreat to the left bank of the Rhine.
At the end of October, the Austrian occupation of Mainz blew up the siege bar, which the French had entrenched for a year, and pushed the right wing of the Sambre-Maas Army back into the Hunsrück and the upper near region . At the end of November, his friend and division general Marceau agreed on his own to a five-month armistice with General Kray because of the heavy winter fighting that was to be expected for both sides . Kléber is said to have had his headquarters in Koblenz during these winter months, from where he directed work on the defenses of Düsseldorf, Trier and Koblenz. In January 1796 he took over the high command of the Sambre-Maas-Army, on behalf of Jourdan, who came back from Paris at the end of February with new orders: In order to finally secure the Rhine border, the Austrians were to be pushed back from the right bank of the Rhine and southern Germany to their own countries. Because of the poor supply possibilities for the troops on the left bank of the Rhine, the order to invade had also become mandatory for the maintenance of the armies. At the end of the armistice, following the plan of director Carnot , large parts of the Sambre-Maas Army under Jourdan near Neuwied and the Rhine-Moselle Army under Moreau near Kehl crossed the Rhine. Together with the Armée d'Italie General Bonapartes advancing from the south , who had already defeated the Austrians in northern Italy and in the Alpine region, Emperor Franz II was to be forced into peace negotiations.
Kléber commanded two left wing divisions. The theater of war was the front Westerwald between the rivers Sieg and Lahn . The place names Uckerath and Altenkirchen (June 4, 1796) were associated with military successes over the imperial imperial troops. His report to the Representative en mission described e.g. E.g. for Altenkirchen the Austrian losses with three thousand prisoners, four regimental flags, twelve cannons and lots of supplies and ammunition within a battle that lasted only two hours. The French complained of only 20 dead and 100 wounded. Just a few days later the advance at Wetzlar was turned into retreat, and Kléber had to retreat to Düsseldorf - again at Uckerath (June 19, 1796) - after a severe defeat by General Kray .
But the successful campaign of the Rhine-Moselle Army under Moreau through Württemberg and Bavaria allowed Jourdan to cross the Rhine again with the Sambre-Maas Army and penetrate in a south-easterly direction as far as Upper Franconia. Kléber's troops had crossed the Lahn in early July. On July 16, 1796, he had Frankfurt am Main occupied, Würzburg on July 25 and Bamberg on August 4 . For three weeks during this time he was in command of the army for the sick Jourdan and, seconded by later famous corps commanders like Bernadotte, Championnet, Grenier, Mortier , Ney and Richepanse, was able to almost reach the Danube to meet Moreau and the Rhine Army to march on Vienna .
On August 9th Jourdan took command again, but initiated a series of defeats and a retreat to the left bank of the Rhine that was chaotic for some troops due to strategic errors and a fatally poor coordination with Moreau. Kléber is said to have been bitterly disappointed by Jourdan's campaign and submitted his resignation to the Directory. Differences with the government in Paris, health problems and the loss of his friend Marceau (fatally wounded on September 19, 1796 while retreating) are also conceivable reasons for retiring from active military service. A lack of an official honor and reward for his part in the conquest of the Rhineland had certainly offended him. In November he described his economically difficult future as an architect in Alsace to the Minister of War […] j'établirai avec très peu de biens, j'y vivrai de mes talents et de mon industrie (“I will set up myself there with few resources and benefit from mine My talents and my diligence ”). The government later granted him a severance payment, as was customary for a retired general (traitement d'offizier général réformé).
His officers and General Beurnonville tried to keep him in the army, the war commissariat made promises, but they were not kept. For a few weeks he successfully monitored the defense of the Rhine border with troops from the right wing of the army, the Sambre-Maas Army, demoralized by defeat, desertions and insufficient supplies. On October 5, 1796, he had to state in a proclamation to his soldiers and the population that members of the French army were gangs, especially in the Hunsrück , who plundered the population with requisitions. He authorized the population to arrest anyone who requisitioned in a national uniform without permission and to hand them over to the next general. At the end of October 1796, Kléber was about to leave. The British Observer reported that the General refused to lead the Northern Army and that General Hoche would “presumably” take over.
When Hoche, who was 10 years his junior, became commander-in-chief, Kléber left army service at the end of January 1797, lived in seclusion and without any known political activities in Paris-Chaillot, and wrote a description of his campaigns. He accepted a mandate for Alsace on the condition that it only exercise it for a short time; a soldier should stay out of politics, was his maxim. He also refrained from taking part in the anti-royalist coup d'état of September 4, 1797 (18th Fructidor V of the French Revolutionary Calendar ). The fact that he was no longer heeded by the triumvirate of the board of directors , especially by Barras , is said to have offended him.
With Napoléon in Egypt and Syria
After more than a year without military service, Kléber received the news on April 12, 1798, that he would take part in the Egyptian expedition of Bonaparte as Général de division . Against the reservations of the Directory (… un général frondeur et difficile à reduire) (“a rebellious and difficult to restrain general”) he became at Bonaparte's request, together with other commanders known from the Italian army such as Desaix , Lannes , Murat , in one Involved in companies that were critically regarded by many of his contemporaries, which he soon assessed as "superficially prepared" (légèrement calculée) and which, for himself, would end tragically. Nevertheless, he prepared "with zeal" (avec empressement) for the task that offered him the chance of returning to active service.
After the landing in early July and the conquest of Alexandria , where he was wounded in the head by a grazing shot, he was initially not involved in the subsequent conquest of Cairo and Upper Egypt. Bonaparte had placed his division of the center under another general and gave him the command of the city of Alexandria and the province of Baheirieh (name in French maps of that time).
As is well known, administrative tasks were not Kléber's forte. After several correspondence with mutual accusations about finances, supplying the troops and setting up a civil administration, he felt that his much younger Général en chef treated him disrespectfully and wanted to be relieved of his post. Bonaparte did not accept Kléber's request and changed his mind again to come to the headquarters in Cairo with compliments and an invitation.
Bonaparte, however, did not forget the spirit of contradiction and the sensitivities of his oldest general:
“Kléber loved the comforts of life too much and behaved dishonorably when he wanted to leave Egypt. I was told I feared him. "
"My God! I would have made him a duke, given him a lot of money and he would have kissed my hand for it. "
At the end of February 1799 the campaign against the advancing Turks in Palestine and Syria begins. With his 3,000-strong division, Kléber was the vanguard of an army of almost 13,000 men. He presumably rehabilitated himself with Bonaparte during the five-month expedition, which was completely useless in terms of military results, and which resulted in losses. In the battles of El Arish , Jaffa , Gaza (where he was wounded again), Nazareth, Acre and especially in the battle of Mount Tabor , he is said to have often been found in the forefront. Bonaparte is said to have said "Rien n'était beau comme Kléber un jour de combat". Heat, epidemics and impregnable cities and fortresses forced the French to retreat from May 1799. Kléber led the rear guard to cover the retreat. He came too late for the last battle and Bonaparte's brilliant victory at Abukir against the numerically far superior Turks and could only enthusiastically congratulate his commander in chief: “Permettez, général, que je vous embrasse! Vous êtes grand comme le monde. "
Supreme command in Egypt
General Bonaparte left his oriental army on board the Muiron on the evening of August 23, 1799. Immediately before his departure he had given Kléber in writing the command of the highest command on the grounds that the government had “appointed him to their side” because the second coalition was almost all European powers and Turkey threatened France.
Kléber was the oldest and most experienced general in the French expeditionary corps, so his new role was not unusual. Historians, who see Bonaparte's return to France as a maneuver planned in advance with Foreign Minister Talleyrand to take over government in Paris, consider it likely that Kléber's stay in Egypt should be made politically harmless. He and General Desaix, both with great reservations about Bonaparte's strategy and aware of the dire state of the army, could have given the lie to his version of a successful Egyptian expedition.
Bonaparte was well aware that he was leaving the Army of the Orient, which was contrary to all military law and justified with untrue arguments. In order not to offer Kléber any opportunity to act, he scheduled the handover of the high command by letter at a time (August 24, 1799) when he was already on the high seas. He left Kléber with extensive instructions, which gave the impression of a well-ordered situation and a well-planned, further course of action and even contained instructions in the event of the expedition's failure:
"[...] If, due to unforeseen events, all attempts should fail [that is, to get supplies of weapons and ammunition as well as troop reinforcements] and if you received neither help nor news from France by May, and if further this year, despite of all precautions, the plague is raging again in Egypt and you cost more than 1500 lives, which is a significant loss, which is probably higher than the losses you will experience every day due to armed conflicts, in this case, I think, You are no longer allowed to venture into a renewed campaign, but in that case you are authorized to make peace with the Ottoman Port , even on the assumption that the main condition for this is the complete evacuation of Egypt. "
General Kléber probably could not have overlooked the situation in which Bonaparte had put him: Due to his wounding at the beginning of the expedition and his transfer to the command post in peripheral Alexandria, he lacked important information about the internal political situation in Egypt and the army administration of Cairo. So he informed his officer corps of Bonaparte's departure and loyally and obviously unsuspectingly used the same reason given by Bonaparte.
It was not until General Dugua, commandant of Cairo, general manager Poussièlgue and army paymaster Estève informed him about the plight of the armée d'Orient, which led to Kléber's famous report (“ Bonaparte n'aurait pas laissé un sol en caisse ”) against his predecessor from September 26, 1799 led to the Directory. A publication of Kléber's statements could have had unpleasant consequences for Bonaparte in Paris; the Directory, however, no longer existed. Bonaparte was now the government and his close confidante Berthier had already described the Egypt adventure as a great success for the public - General Kléber, on the other hand, as a nagging pessimist, too easy to take on responsibility, « […] il avait une disposition singulière à se laisser conduire . »
It seemed to Kléber hopeless to continue the occupation of Egypt - the meaning of which he had been suspicious from the beginning - without further losses: the combat-capable troops had been decimated by almost half due to disease, the climate and the fighting, contributions could not be collected and therefore suppliers for Uniforms, weapons and food are not paid for. The expedition was practically cut off from the motherland as the English controlled the Mediterranean and blocked communications. There was no own fleet with which one could have transported the remaining army. 60,000 Ottomans under Grand Vizier Koer Yusuf Ziyaüddin Pascha, supported by a strong English fleet under Commodore Sidney Smith , were ready to bring Egypt back under the control of the Sublime Porte and to drive out the "infidels". After landing at Damiette, however, the French defeated the Turkish avant-garde, a Janissary corps of 8,000 men under Sayd-Ali-Bey, with only two battalions and 150 dragoons . Immediately a Mameluke army of the Mourad-Bey was defeated upstream.
The Ottomans were probably surprised by the still existing military clout of the French and wanted, with the help of Smith, to negotiate with the new commander-in-chief about his withdrawal from Egypt, the modalities of which had already been negotiated by Bonaparte with the Grand Vizier at the beginning of January 1799. On January 28, 1800, Kléber agreed to a "Convention of El Arish", which included a deduction with all weapons and equipment and in which the Grand Vizier had committed himself to paying "3000 bourses" (approx. Three million francs) . The withdrawal was to proceed from the ports in the Nile Delta, both on French ships and on those which the Turks had to deliver, which until then would remain under the control of the French.
The British government did not ratify the convention, but insisted on March 17, 1800, that the troops should surrender, lay down all arms and prisoner of war status for the troops. Kléber's listing of the miserable state of the Orient Army after Bonaparte's departure is seen as one reason for the British turning away from the original agreements. The English had intercepted a duplicate of this document addressed to the Directory in the "waters off Toulon" and were then certain that the French would have to accept an unconditional surrender.
Kléber reacted to this in a now famous message to his troops, which ended with the appeal “ Soldats, on ne répond à de telles insolences que par des victoires: préparez-vous à combattre ” . The news that their former General Bonaparte had taken over government power in Paris reinforced the soldiers' willingness to fight. Kléber himself absolutely had to achieve a military success, as he could divert attention from his documented, bad opinion about Bonaparte's "desertion" and the disastrous expedition leadership.
On March 20, 1800, he fought one of his most famous battles: Heliopolis was the victory of four battle lines arranged in a disciplined manner in squares , with light artillery and the cavalry on the outside of the wings against the Ottoman troops, in which neither a marching order nor tactics can be recognized war ”(military literature of the 19th century). Divisional Generals Friant , right wing, and Reynier , left wing, were the decisive commanders of this battle, which began at three o'clock in the night and spread during the day with street and house fights into the outskirts of Cairo and with panicked escape of the Grand Vizier to Syria ended. Around 10,000 French are said to have faced 60,000 Ottomans and captured large amounts of supplies and equipment from this huge army.
On the same day there was a riot in Cairo that broke out in Boulaq, the port of Cairo, was directed against all foreigners and the small French garrison of the headquarters and led to a massacre of Copts (Christians), Greeks and Syrians living in Cairo led. The uprising, probably instigated by Turks under Nassif-Pasha and several Egyptian Beys , was not suppressed until April 27th. A "standstill agreement" with the Upper Egyptian Mamluk leader Mourad-Bey, which Kléber had agreed shortly beforehand, was helpful. Upon the surrender, the leaders of the conspiracy were given free retreat. They were followed by 3,000–4,000 insurgent residents who “feared the victor's revenge”.
Kléber provided Cairo and other cities in the Nile Delta with a contribution of twelve million francs, which enabled him to purchase equipment, ammunition, pay out arrears of wages and other deprived amenities.
In May 1800, French rule was restored across Egypt. The army could be re-equipped and supplied with funds from the multi-million dollar contribution. Auxiliary troops were formed from Ethiopians, Greeks, Copts and deserted Mamelukes, thus increasing the strength of the army. Diplomacy tried the alliance of Tsar Paul II, Sultan Selim III. and to break the British government (St. James) in order to maintain France's presence in the Middle East.
General Kléber continued to be critical of the occupation of Egypt. English supremacy in the Mediterranean blocked communications and supplies. Bonaparte, now the “First Consul”, sent slogans to hold out. The French fleet, which had left Toulon for evacuation, was ordered to Brittany. New negotiations on a withdrawal even resulted in the British approving the "El Arish Convention", which they had rejected months earlier.
The murder of the general in command in June 1800 made the situation of the French more critical and eventually led to surrender and evacuation in August 1801.
death
The murder of Kléber was presented as the result of a manifesto by the Grand Vizier Youssuf Pasha, who after his defeat at Heliopolis and the renewed submission of Egypt, described Kléber as a "man without faith and a destroyer of religion". The Grand Vizier promised support and protection from prosecution to anyone who would “cut his throat”.
More recent scholarly adaptations of Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt doubt this religiously motivated call for the liquidation of Kléber: They consider a conspiracy by Talleyrand , who has since become foreign minister again, possible. He saw the general's return to France as a threat to Bonaparte's career as the new, sole ruler. Talleyrand could safely have initiated a fatwa , a death decree against the republican Kléber - with his diverse connections to the Ottoman leadership .
According to Abel Hugo's military lexical description of 1838, a young Muslim from Jerusalem wanted to carry out the death sentence. He received money, a riding dromedary and a recommendation to the clergy at the Azhar mosque in Cairo, where he is said to have spent a month preparing for the attack.
These days, Kléber lived in a mansion ("maison de plaisance") of Mourad Bey in Giza . On June 14th, 1800 he was in Cairo. After a meal with his chief of staff, Damas, he is said to have been stabbed nine times by the young Suleiman-al-Halabi on the way to his own house.
Kléber's environment immediately spoke of a plot. The assassination, a contract killing and not a loner act, is made possible by recorded testimony who had seen the assassin already present in the house of General Damas in the midst of society. Bonaparte is then said to have tried to obtain Kléber's compromising diaries, but General Damas prevented this. When asked about it in St. Helena , Napoleon remarked:
"If Kléber had returned to France, he might have given me trouble, but not after the Peace of Amiens , when I was already too big, I wouldn't have cared."
The remains were transferred to Marseille by General Belliard in 1801 and were forgotten in the Château d'If . King Louis XVIII in 1818 ordered her to be buried at the monument that the Strasbourgers erected for their great son. Under the local monument to Kléber there is a crypt in which his coffin has been standing since 1838. The monument was inaugurated in 1840.
Kléber's successor as Commander-in-Chief of the Troops and Governor of Egypt was General Jacques-François Menou .
Execution of the murderer
Kléber's killer Suleiman al-Halabi and some of the people behind them were caught soon afterwards. Three scholars ( ulema ) that shows Suleiman al-Halabi as instigators were decapitated and Suleiman al-Halabi itself was - contrary to European practice, because of the immense bitterness of the French soldiers - according to Oriental custom impaled . First you burned your murdered hand in a pan. Suleiman endured the torture with great steadfastness and with the cry: “ Allahu akbar! “He lived on the stake for three to four hours and desired to drink several times. The executioners refused his request, claiming that he would die immediately. But when the executioners were gone, a French soldier, out of pity, handed him water with a cup that he placed on the butt of the rifle. Suleiman drank and died.
Honors
- On September 23, 1800 the French government inaugurated a memorial to Kléber and Desaix (who died near Marengo (Italy) on June 14, 1800) on the Place des Victoires .
- His name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 23rd column (STICKER).
- One of the great Parisian boulevards leading to the Arc de Triomphe is Avenue Kléber .
- A station on line 6 of the Paris Métro bears his name.
- His bust was placed in the Battle Gallery of the Palace of Versailles , which opened in 1837 .
- In 1840 a bronze statue of Kléber was erected in his home town of Strasbourg. The square , one of the largest in the city, has borne his name since then.
- General Kleber's moss rose is named after him.
Kléber monument on the square named after him in Strasbourg, created by Philipp Graß
Kléber statue in front of a school named after him in Strasbourg
The locations of the expedition 1798–1800
Rose General Kleber
reception
Kléber is one of the main characters in the historical novel Die Nadel - historical novel from French history by Franz Isidor Proschko (Leipzig 1858).
literature
- Alain Pigeard: Les Étoiles de Napoléon. Édition Quatuor, Paris 1996.
- Jean-Baptiste Kléber: Mémoires politiques et militaires 1793–1794. Tallandier, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-235-01821-1 .
- Jean-Joël Brégeon: Kléber: Le dieu Mars en personne. Perrin, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-262-01674-7 .
- Jean Lucas-Dubreton: Kléber 1753-1800. Hartmann, Paris 1937.
- Paul Martin: Kleber, Johann Baptist. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 717 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Christopher Buchholz: French state cult 1792–1813 in Germany on the left bank of the Rhine (= European university writings, vol. 749). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-631-31904-5 .
- Johannes Willms : Napoléon: A biography. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52956-9 .
- Franz Herre : Napoléon Bonaparte. Trailblazer of the Century. Bertelsmann, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-570-07569-9 .
- David G. Chandler : Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars. London 1993, ISBN 1-85367-150-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Translator from A. Pigeard. Les étoiles ..., page 422 of.
- ↑ A. Pigeard quoted General MA de Go ye (1775-1836) in Les étoiles ..., S. 423rd
- ^ David G. Chandler: Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars . London 1979, p. 226.
- ↑ le-chapitre.com
- ^ Hippolyte Maze: Les généraux de la République. Kléber, Hoche, Marceau, Paris 1889, online digitalisat on Gallica , p. 16 ff.
- ^ Archives Nationales de la France: Biography J.-B. Glue. ( Memento of December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Les papiers du général J.-B. Kléber (PDF, French).
- ↑ H. Maze: Les Généraux ... p. 21.
- ↑ Siege of Mainz (1793)
- ↑ According to Ordre de la bataille de Fleurus in: Antoine de Jomini, Histoire critique et militaire des guerres de la révolution, Paris 1820.
- ↑ H. Maze: Les généraux ..., p. 34.
- ↑ H. Maze: Les Généraux ..., p. 45.
- ↑ Jourdan then handed over command of the defeated Sambre Maas Army to the commander-in-chief of the Northern Army in Beurnonville .
- ↑ Kléber did not have a good reputation with the Directory after Jourdan repeatedly accused him of violating agreements and unauthorized corps management. At B. v. Genuine (transl.) Jourdans quotes various letters of justification to the Directory in: Memoirs of the History of the 1796 Campaign . In: Google Books.
- ↑ H. Maze: Les Généraux ..., p. 49.
- ↑ Bachoven von Echt: Memories of the History of the Campaign of 1796, Notes of General Jourdan, German translation from 1823, online at Google Books , p. 134 ff.
- ↑ Landeshauptarchiv Rhineland-Palatinate, Koblenz, Best. 241/2591, p. 3. Also in detail in: Helmut Kampmann, Koblenzer Press Chronicle from three centuries, p. 44–47, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-925180-01-X .
- ^ The Observer of November 13, 1796, p. 3: Foreign Intelligence [Exclusively for the Observers] The report is dated October 28.
- ^ Abel Hugo , France militaire. Histoire des armées de terre et de mer. 1792–1837, vol. 2, Delloye Paris 1838, online digitalisat on Gallica Tome 2, p. 236.
- ^ H. Maze: Les généraux ..., p. 59.
- ↑ D'Aubigné: Vie de Kléber, p. 108.
- ^ D'Aubigné: Vie de Kléber . P. 133. [...] là il exploit ses rares qualités d'administrateur [...] ("here he shows his few gifts as an administrator").
- ↑ content translation from French with Alain Pigeard: Les étoiles de Napoléon, p 423, citing Napoleon's biographers General Gourgaud.
- ^ David G. Chandler: Dictionary of the Napoleonic wars . P. 431. He writes that Kléber, surrounded by 6,000 Mamelukes, had to defend himself with 1,500 men for over 8 hours in "dogged fighting" before Bonaparte personally came to the rescue with 2,500 men from General Bon's division.
- ↑ H. Maze: Les généraux ..., p. 51.
- ^ Abel Hugo: France militaire. Histoire des armées de terre et de mer. 1792-1837 . Volume 2, Delloye Paris 1838, p. 313.
- ↑ Christopher Buchholz: French state cult 1792–1813 in Germany on the left bank of the Rhine (= European university publications , volume 749). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, leads a.o. a. to: Henry Laurens: L'expédition d'Egypte 1798–1801. Paris 1989.
- ↑ Desaix described in his diary entries Bonaparte as a "victim of his antiquity", quoted in: Jean Orieux: Talleyrand. The misunderstood Sphinx. Frankfurt 1974.
- ^ J. Willms: Napoléon, p. 183.
- ↑ Kléber was accused of disinterest out of convenience and a critical attitude towards the Egypt expedition, who is said to have enjoyed the quiet life in Alexandria too much. In addition: Abel Hugo: France militaire. Tome 3, p. 170.
- ^ H. Laurens: Kléber. Vol. 2, p. 515 ff.
- ^ A. Hugo: France militaire ... Tome 3, p. 170.
- ^ A. Hugo: France militaire ... Tome 3, p. 178.
- ^ A. Hugo: France militaire ... Tome 3, p. 178: " Kléber comprit: qu'il fallait vaincre ou mourir, et n'eut qu'à marcher. »
- ^ A. Hugo: France militaire ... , Tome 3, p. 182.
- ^ Henry Laurens: L'Expédition d'Egypte 1798-1801 . Paris 1989, quoted from Christopher Buchholz: French state cult 1792–1813 in Germany on the left bank of the Rhine (= European university writings, vol. 749). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 169.
- ^ Francois Rousseau, Kléber et Menou en Egypte depuis la départ de Bonaparte, Paris 1900, quoted from Christopher Buchholz: French state cult 1792–1813 in Germany on the left bank of the Rhine (= European university publications, vol. 749). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 173.
- ↑ Christopher Buchholz: French state cult 1792–1813 in Germany on the left bank of the Rhine (= European university writings, vol. 749). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 174.
- ↑ The description of the execution is very likely taken from the book France militaire Volume 3, p. 182, published in Paris in 1838 , edited by Abel Hugo .
- ↑ Christopher Buchholz: French state cult 1792–1813 in Germany on the left bank of the Rhine (= European university writings, vol. 749). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 174.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kléber, Jean-Baptiste |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 9, 1753 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Strasbourg |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 14, 1800 |
| Place of death | Cairo |