Johann Baptista Joseph Hirsch

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Uniform of the Saxon artillery
Hauptmann-Hirsch monument around 1900
Dresden: Inauguration of the Hauptmann Hirsch monument, handover of the deed of gift to the city of Dresden

Johann Baptista Joseph Hirsch (* 1770 in Dresden , † October 7, 1822 in Dresden) was a German officer and captain of the artillery of the Saxon Army . The Hauptmann Hirsch monument on the Dresden Heller commemorates him .

Life

Johann Baptista Joseph Hirsch began his career in the Saxon Army as a teenager. He advanced to the rank of captain of the riding departments of the field artillery and subsequently to the captain of the artillery and held the rank of captain of the artillery . He gained his first combat experience in the successful battle of Kaiserslautern in 1792. After phases of barracks service there followed in 1806 the winless battles against Napoleon's army in Jena and Erfurt . After the Peace of Posen on December 11th, 1806, the Saxon king subordinated his army to the Rhine Confederation . Thus, Hirsch participated with the French in 1807 in the siege of Linz , the successful battle near Dornach and the victorious battle of Wagram on July 5 and 6, 1809 against Austria . The command of the Saxon Artillery Corps had the major and commander of the mounted brigades and knights of the French Legion of Honor Friedrich Gottlieb Probsthain (* December 13, 1778, † November 9, 1839).

In March 1812 the Saxons marched eastwards as part of the Federation of the Rhine. The victorious Battle of Podobna (Battle of Gorodeczno) on July 31, 1812 was part of Napoleon's Russian campaign and brought Hirsch to the rank of first lieutenant. During the further advance to Moscow , from August 26th to September 7th there was a bitter, successful and costly battle near Borodino , on September 14th the remnants of the Saxon army marched into Moscow. The retreat of the armies of the Rhine Confederation from Moscow began on December 14, 1812. The losses of the Russian campaign were very high for the Saxons, of the 28,000-strong army only a small fraction survived. During the Wars of Liberation , Hirsch participated with the Rhine Confederation Army in the successful battle of Großgörschen . This was followed by the lost battle at Dennewitz on September 6, 1813 . There, Prussian, Russian and Swedish troops defeated the French army and the Saxons allied with it. The Battle of the Nations near Leipzig from October 16-19, 1813 was also the decisive battle for the Saxon Army.

On the third day of the Battle of Nations, in the afternoon, the Bohemian Army under Levin August von Bennigsen conquered Zuckelhausen , Holzhausen and Paunsdorf , whereupon 3,000 to 4,000 Saxons under Captain Hirsch and 500 Württemberg riders under General Karl von Normann-Ehrenfels switched to the Allied side. Hirsch distinguished himself repeatedly in the wars of liberation that took place until 1815 and was awarded the military Order of St. Heinrich and promoted to captain. In all these campaigns he fought knightly as a courageous soldier and brave officer. “With unshakable courage and great prudence, he led his mounted artillery into the battles and was always a model of camaraderie and bravery. As a superior, he was always a loyal, just officer ”and played a key role in the reform of the Saxon army that took place in 1819.

On October 7, 1822, the royal Saxon captain of the artillery corps, most recently commander of the 1st Riding Battery, stayed at the Royal Stud in Moritzburg . On the way back, his horse shied away from the Heller and threw it off. He got caught in the stirrup and was dragged several meters above the Hellerboden. The seriously injured man was taken to the hospital in Dresden , where he died of his wounds on the late evening of October 7, 1822. He was buried in the old Neustädter Friedhof on October 10, 1822; his grave has not been preserved. On the same day, the following obituary by the Königl officer corps was published in the Dresden daily newspaper. Saxon. Artillery released:

On the 7th of this month the king suffered. Saxon. Artillery Corps suffered a deeply painful loss due to the sudden death of the captain 1st class and knight of the Order of St. Heinrich, Mr. Joh. Baptista Joseph Hirsch. While riding on the road from Radeburg to Dresden, the unfortunate fell in the evening hours near the inn to the last Heller against a tree, on which his forehead was smashed. Neither the assistance that was given to him at the moment nor the restless efforts of the doctors could scare away the death that overtook him after a few hours in the 45th year of his life, which he had barely entered. The artillery corps loses in him not only one of the most distinguished officers, but also a friend whom his rare merits ennobled in mind and heart with the pure stamp of an excellent comrade. Dresden, October 10th 1822 Colonel Raabe on behalf of the Royal Officiers Corps. Saxon. Artillery.

Captain Hirsch memorial

In 1823 his comrades in the artillery corps erected a memorial to him at the site of the accident. Created by the sculptor Franz Pettrich , it is a granite block crowned by a helmet with an inscription, which rests on a pedestal within a fenced-in square. The memorial, one of the two cultural monuments in Hellerberge , was repositioned and damaged several times. Since a comprehensive restoration in 2018/19, it has been at its current location on the west side of Radeburger Strasse, just north of the intersection of Hellerhofstrasse and Stauffenbergallee . The cuboid has the following inscription:

THE
KOEN. SAECHS. HEAD
OF THE ARTILLERY CORPS
AND KNIGHT OF THE SANCT
HEINRICH ORDER
JBJ HIRSCH
OF HIS GRUDENT
ARMS BROTHERS
D. 7 OCTOBER 1822

literature

  • Jürg Nagel: Saxon soldiers 1810 to 1815: Brief illustrated history of the Royal Saxon Army and its regiments in the Wars of Liberation. Engelsdorfer Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-95744-727-2 .
  • German book of soldiers, hiking and drinking songs. Publishing house “Der Kamerad”, Berlin-Wannsee 1913, No. 3.
  • Manfried Rauchsteiner: The battle near Deutsch-Wagram. (= Military History Series. Issue 36). East Bundesverlag, Vienna 1984, p. 17.
  • Text on the board on the last black pine of the Dresdner Heller, a "specially protected tree".
  • The northern district of the city of Dresden, from the history of its districts. Dresden 1982.
  • Jörg Tietze: The Saxon Artillery Corps: the history of mounted artillery 1810–1813. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-0615-5 .
  • Konrad Probsthain, Jörg Titze: Friedrich Gottlieb Probsthayn - Diary from May 14, 1813 to March 29, 1814. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2016, p. 34ff.
  • Wolfgang Müller, Sächsische Zeitung , ed. 4th / 5th July and 11./12. July 1981.
  • Dieter Miedtank, Rolf Rehe, Manfred Beyer: Disappeared monuments - destroyed - forgotten. (= Military writings of the working group Saxon military history e.V., issue 7). Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-9809520-1-0 , p. 29.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner: The battle near Deutsch-Wagram. (= Military History Series. Issue 36).
  2. ↑ Probsthain was given a memorial in the Radeberg churchyard in 1839, see the list of monuments, sculptures and plaques in Radeberg .
  3. ↑ German soldiers, hiking and drinking songs. Publishing house "Der Kamerad", Berlin-Wannsee 1913.
personal data
SURNAME Hirsch, Johann Baptista Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and captain of the artillery of the Saxon Army
DATE OF BIRTH 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1822
Place of death Dresden