Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg
Johann David Ludwig von Yorck , from 1814 Count Yorck von Wartenburg (born September 26, 1759 in Potsdam , † October 4, 1830 in Klein Öls near Breslau ) was a Prussian field marshal who led the Prussian auxiliary corps in Napoleon's Russian campaign in 1812 . Without the authorization of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. he signed on 30 December 1812 the Russian Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitch the Convention of Tauroggen . On February 5, 1813, he called on the assembled estates in Königsberg to take part in a popular uprising against Napoleon and thus initiated the wars of liberation . Ludwig van Beethoven's Yorckscher March was named in his honor in 1813. His most famous descendant was the resistance fighter against National Socialism, Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg .
family
Yorck von Wartenburg was born in 1759 as the illegitimate child of the captain and owner of a grenadier company of the Prussian Army David Jonathan von Yorck and the Potsdam craftsman's daughter Maria Sophia Pflug; his parents married in 1763 when Yorck was four years old. His paternal grandfather, Jan Jarka (also: Johann Jarken ), lived on the Groß Gustkow estate ( Polish Gostkowo , hence the surname Gostkowski) and was a pastor in Rowe. The roots of the Protestant family go back to the Kashubians . His father changed the name from Jark (a) to Yorck, with the (controversial) addition "von", and therefore dispensed with the name component "von Gostkowski", whereby the - ski was considered a designation of noble origin.
Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg married Johanna Henriette Seidel (1768-1827) from Namslau on July 6, 1792 in Namslau, with whom he had three children.
Life
At the age of 13, Yorck joined a Prussian infantry regiment as a private corporal (Junker) , where he became second lieutenant in 1777 . In January 1780 he had to leave the army as a result of a one-year prison sentence for insubordination . He had publicly shown contempt for his superior, Staff Captain Raurath, who was suspected of being enriched during the previous War of the Bavarian Succession . During a parade Raurath had spoken of an altar cover which he had brought back from the looting of the war; Yorck described them as stolen. The fortress detention took place in the fortress Groß Friedrichsburg (Königsberg) . After his release from prison, King Frederick the Great refused to reinstate him in the army.
In July 1781 Yorck received a captaincy in a Swiss regiment in the Dutch service. The troops went to Cape Town and took part on the French side in the East India campaign against the English in 1783/84. On his return to Potsdam in January 1786, Friedrich turned down another application for the Prussian army service. Only his successor, King Friedrich Wilhelm II , granted Yorck a patent as a captain and company owner in May 1787. In 1792 he was appointed major and after the Polish campaign of 1794/95 he was appointed battalion commander, in 1799 he was appointed commander of the Feldjäger regiment , of which he became chief in 1805 , now with the rank of colonel . The rapid career corresponded to his great merits in modernizing the rifle service for contemporary warfare.
Franco-Prussian War
As commander of the 1st light brigade, Yorck commanded the duke of Weimar's vanguard during the war against France in 1806 . After hearing about the catastrophes near Jena and Auerstedt , he had to retreat through the Harz Mountains to unite with Blücher's corps .
Covering Blücher's withdrawal to the north across the Elbe , Yorck succeeded in Altenzaun's successful battle against the pursuing French on October 26th . He led the rearguard of Blucher, u. a. in the battles near Waren and Silz -Nossentin on November 1, 1806. In Lübeck he was wounded in a street fight and taken prisoner. In June 1807 against a French adjutant-general replaced , Yorck was in Konigsberg to major general and appointed to the Order le Mérite Pour decorated. He was now in command of Memel and commander in chief of the troops there.
The defeat against France also represented the downfall of the old Prussian state. Prussia lost about half of its territory in the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 and had to make large contributions to France. However, these harsh peace conditions also brought about a renewal of the state. The state was modernized with the reforms led by Freiherr vom Stein , Scharnhorst and Hardenberg . 1807 was serfdom of the peasants lifted in 1808 the self-government of cities and 1810, the economic freedom introduced. The envoy Wilhelm von Humboldt , who was recalled from Rome, redesigned the educational system and founded the first Berlin university in 1809 , which today bears his name.
When the Prussian army was reorganized, Yorck received the West Prussian brigade and, in 1810, the general inspection of the light troops , whose training he successfully directed. In 1811 he became Governor General, first in West Prussia and then also in East Prussia . The army reform that had begun was completed in 1813 with the introduction of general conscription .
Prussia on Napoleon's side in the Russian campaign
“When Friedrich Wilhelm III. An auxiliary corps of 21,000 men had to stand by Napoleon's side, hopelessness spread and the fighting spirit of the army sank. Three hundred Prussian officers went to Spain or Russia to fight Napoleon. The Prussian unit headed by Lieutenant General Yorck and General Grawert marched on June 28, 1812 via Labiau and Memel to Courland. In principle, the area of activity of the Prussians was limited to the area between Mitau and Riga . Yorck called on his soldiers to protect the country and its inhabitants as much as possible. "
The Prussian Auxiliary Corps, which had to take part in Napoleon's Russian campaign as part of the 10th Army Corps under Macdonald , “gained in importance in the autumn of 1812 for the main forces of the French army, which was about to accelerate the retreat from wintry Russia. Napoleon tried to influence Yorck in October and November with awards, grants and financial commitments in the form of a lifelong pension. But nothing could bribe the general. "
Yorck, who clearly recognized the opportunity to initiate a solution from Napoleonic domination by an agreement with the Russian troops opposing him under Prussian commanders, was also urged by his officers to at least neutralize the troops. Several requests by Yorck for the consent of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. remained unanswered.
“On Wednesday, December 30th, 1812, [he] signed the convention known as the Tauroggen Convention . On the Russian side it was signed by General Diebitsch , Clausewitz and Count Dohna. The king found out about it while walking in the orangery and was furious at first. On January 22nd, 1813, Yorck received a letter from General Bülow , who was Governor General of East Prussia, in which he commented on the political perspective of a league between Prussia, Austria and Russia. "
Yorck had risked his head with it; but he and his entourage, like the Russian side, had assessed the situation correctly. The news of the armistice between Prussia and Russia triggered, beginning in East Prussia, an open outbreak against French rule in northern Germany. In the house of the East Prussian General Landscape Directorate, Yorck himself enforced the independent establishment of the Landwehr in Königsberg by the East Prussian estates. As early as February the king could no longer avoid the development. A commission later examined the convention and acquitted Yorck of all accusations of arbitrary authority. The painter Otto Brausewetter recorded the appeal in his most famous painting Speech by Count Yorck in front of the East Prussian estates in Königsberg on February 5, 1813 .
On March 17, 1813, Yorck rode into Berlin at the head of his corps, rigidly looking ahead and not taking notice of the frenetic cheering of the population.
War of freedom against Napoleon
In the then beginning war of freedom against France, Yorck fought under Wittgenstein in the battles of Großgörschen and Bautzen . The Silesian army under Blucher, assigned, he decided the battle of katzbach and fought on October 3, 1813 against Bertrand in the Battle of Wartenburg the strategically crucial Elbe crossing Blucher. Yorck also remained victorious at Möckern in the subsequent Battle of the Nations near Leipzig . After the battle, he pushed the French over the Unstrut on October 20th . On January 1, 1814, Yorck crossed the Rhine as general of the infantry near Kaub and was able to save a Russian corps near Montmirail from destruction on February 11 . In Laon his attack led to victory on 9 March. His last battle was that of Paris on March 30th. On March 31, he received the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross .
In March 1814, the king raised Yorck with the addition of "von Wartenburg" to the count and endowed him with the former Maltese coming Klein Öls. After Napoleon's return from Elba , Yorck was given command of the 5th Corps, which was supposed to gather as a reserve on the Elbe. Since Yorck saw this as a resetting, he asked for his departure , which was only granted to him after the peace and after several repetitions in 1815.
On May 5, 1821 he was appointed Field Marshal General. On October 4, 1830, Yorck died on his Klein Öls estate, loaned by the king, in the district of Ohlau near Breslau . He was buried in the family crypt of the mausoleum designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the castle park of Klein Öls.
Yorck is portrayed as a strict and inaccessible character who pursued his goals with great tenacity. Contemporaries called him "a man made of chopped iron" or "old Isegrimm". He was popular with the team because of his concern for the well-being of the troops. He rejected the merciless warfare of Blucher and Gneisenau . He was considered an extremely headstrong troop leader and difficult recipient of orders.
Honors
After Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg are named among others
- the SMS Yorck , an armored cruiser of the German Imperial Navy
- the Yorck March
- the Yorckstraße in Berlin , in his native city Potsdam, in Kiel , Leipzig and other cities.
- the Graf-Yorck-Kaserne ( anti-aircraft missile group 21 ) in Prangendorf.
- the Yorck barracks in Stadtoldendorf / Weserbergland (including PzArtBtl 15)
literature
- Johann Gustav Droysen : The life of Field Marshal Count ( sic! ) Yorck von Wartenburg. Veit and Comp., Berlin 1851.
- Heinrich Berghaus : York. His birthplace and his home. His great achievement in the Poscheruner mill, along with genealogical news about his mother's family . Anklam 1863 ( full text )
- Otto Nasemann : York, Hans David Ludwig Count Y. von Wartenburg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 594-606.
- Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , pp. 248-263, no. 1120.
- Frank Bauer: Johann David Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg. Rebel out of honor and loyalty. (Small series History of the Wars of Liberation 1813-1815, special issue 6), Edition König und Vaterland, Potsdam 2009.
- Dr. Andrej Tchernodarov: “And brought peace to all the world”. Russian-Prussian Campaign 1813-1814 (publication accompanying the exhibition in the Embassy of the Russian Federation 2013, publisher Embassy of the Russian Federation in Berlin), KLAK Verlag, Berlin 2013 in cooperation with MK-Verlag, Moscow. ISBN 978-3-943767-19-3
- Hermann Wagener : State and Society Lexicon. Volume 22, Berlin 1866, pp. 562-569
Movie
UFA film (1931): Yorck . Director: Gustav Ucicky . Actors: Werner Krauss as General Yorck von Wartenberg, Rudolf Forster as King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Gustaf Gründgens as Prince Karl August von Hardenberg .
Web links
- Literature by and about Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.wissen.de/lexikon/yorck-von-wartenburg-ludwig-graf
- ↑ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility - Count's Houses Vol B3, Limburg / Lahn 1965
- ^ Andrej Tschernodarov: And brought peace to all the world , Russian-Prussian campaign 1813–1814, KLAK-Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 33.
- ↑ Tschernodarov: Peace, p. 35
- ↑ Russian State Military History Archive, quoted in: Tschernodarov: Frieden, p. 36
- ↑ From 1879 to 1945 and since 1950, source: http://www.leipzig-lexikon.de/STRASSEN/08101.htm , accessed on April 5, 2020
- ↑ http://www.imdb.de/title/tt0022585/
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Yorck von Wartenburg, Ludwig |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Yorck von Wartenburg, Johann David Ludwig Graf (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Prussian Field Marshal General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 26, 1759 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Potsdam |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 4, 1830 |
| Place of death | Gut Klein-Öls, district of Ohlau , Lower Silesia |