Johan August Meijerfeldt the Younger

Johann August Meyerfeldt the Elder J., painting by Peter Krafft the Elder. Ä.

Johan August Meijerfeldt the Younger (also Johann August Meyerfeldt ; * May 4, 1725 in Stralsund , † April 21, 1800 in Klara near Stockholm ) was a Swedish field marshal .

Life

Johann August Meyerfeldt was a son of the Governor General of Swedish Pomerania Johann August Meyerfeldt and his wife Brigitta Barnekow (1700–1771). At the age of twelve he joined the Stralsund regiment of Colonel Dohna and in 1741 became an ensign. From 1739 he also studied at Uppsala University . In 1744 Meyerfeldt became company commander in the Queen's body regiment .

In 1745 Meyerfeldt entered foreign services. He fought on the Austrian side with Soor , Kesselsdorf , Raucoux and Lauffeldt . Here he was taken prisoner by the French, from which he was released in 1748 with the Peace of Aachen . In 1751 Meyerfeldt was promoted to major in the Stralsund garrison regiment of Colonel Cronhiort.

Meyerfeldt belonged to the court party and was involved in the attempts of Queen Lovisa Ulrika to strengthen the power of the royal family. When the Swedish Imperial Council took action against these efforts, Meyerfeldt left Sweden, entered the service of Charles I of Braunschweig and took part in the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757 . After Sweden entered the Seven Years War , Meyerfeldt returned to Swedish Pomerania and set up a grenadier battalion made up of teams from three German regiments in Stralsund, with which he took part in the fighting in Pomerania. In 1759 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1766 he was transferred to the Queen's body regiment and appointed adjutant general. In 1770 he became head of the Västerbotten regiment , was promoted to lieutenant general and in 1779 changed to head of the Närke-Värmland regiment .

Meyerfeldt played an important role during the Swedish-Russian War . In December 1788 King Gustav III transferred him . command of all Swedish land forces in Finland . After the town of Högfors was retaken in July 1789, Meyerfeldt was promoted to general. After the Peace of Värälä (1790) he was appointed field marshal, but already resigned in March 1791. On November 1, 1797 he was awarded the Order of Seraphine .

family

Meyerfeldt was married to Louvisa Augusta Sparre (1745-1817) since 1763. They had the sons Johann August (1766–1791) and Axel Fredrik (1769–1795).

literature

• Meijerfeldt . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 17 : Lux-Mekanik . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1912, Sp. 1480 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
• Robert Oldach: Meyerfeldt, Johann August von d. J. (1725-1800) . In: Dirk Alvermann , Nils Jörn (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Pommern . Volume 2 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Pomerania. Series V, Volume 48.2). Böhlau Verlag, Cologne Weimar Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-22541-4 , pp. 172-174.

Web links

Commons : Johan August Meijerfeldt the Younger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files