Johann Baptist Schels

Johann Baptist Schels (born November 9, 1780 in Brno , † October 8, 1847 in Vienna ) was an Austrian officer and writer .

Life

Schels was born the son of a civil servant. After studying philosophy, he first became a concept intern at the Bankal management. However, he then turned to the military career as he wished. In 1800 he joined as a cadet , in 1801 he became an ensign . In 1804 he was promoted to lieutenant and the following year he was accepted into the general quartermaster staff. In the same year he took part in the coalition war campaign of 1805 . In the following years he was employed at various points in Austria to describe the country.

In 1809 Schels was transferred to the pioneer corps. He was a participant in the campaign in Galicia during the Fifth Coalition War , but was so badly wounded that he was declared unfit for war in the same year. This was the starting point for his writing activity, which was to develop in the period that followed. He was transferred to the literary office of the Quartermaster General, where his task was now to draft reports and statutes. In 1813 he moved to the secret customer service office and was now also responsible for creating bulletins for the army newspaper. In 1815 he was a member of the Adjutantur of Field Marshal von Schwarzenberg and took part in the campaign of 1815 in the Sixth Coalition War .

In 1816 Schels was assigned to the war history department of the still relatively young Imperial and Royal War Archives in Vienna. From 1818 he published the new military magazine with Field Marshal Leonhard von Rothkirch , for which he was already active as an editor from 1811 to 1813 . In 1831 he was promoted to major and appointed director of the library of the war archive. Among other things, he carried out a reorganization of the holdings and the creation of an alphabetical catalog . In 1842 he was finally promoted to lieutenant colonel. In addition to general historical publications, he was particularly active as a writer in the field of war history.

Works (selection)

• History of the Lands of the Austrian Imperial State , 9 volumes, Heubner, Vienna 1819–1828.
• The field service , 4 volumes, Vienna 1824.
• History of southeastern Europe under the rule of the Romans and Turks , 2 volumes, Vienna 1827–1828.
• The Austrian campaigns in Italy 1733–1735 , Vienna 1834.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Schels, Johann Baptist . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 29th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1875, pp. 191–195 ( digitized version ).
• Bernhard von Poten :  Schels, Johann Baptist . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 28 f.
• P. Broucek:  Schels, Johann Bapt .. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815-1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 73 f. (Direct links on p. 73 , p. 74 ).

Web links

• Works by and about Johann Baptist Schels  in the German Digital Library