Johann Ludwig von Hordt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Ludwig von Hordt

Johann Ludwig Graf von Hordt (* 1719 in Stockholm ; † August 21, 1798 in Berlin ) (Hård according to the Swedish knighthood register) was a Prussian lieutenant general of Swedish origin and governor of the Spandau Citadel .

Life

origin

Johann Ludwig came from the Swedish noble family Hård af Segerstad . He was the son of the Swedish Lieutenant General and Councilor Carl-Gustaf Hårdh. Father and son spelled their names differently. With good manners and military experience, Hordt soon got into the highest circles of society at the time.

Military career

In the Russo-Swedish War from 1741 to 1742 he was a lieutenant in the Dal regiment and was later promoted to regimental quartermaster. He then went abroad. In 1747 he was promoted to colonel in Holland and in 1748 in Sweden. He was one of the leaders of the Swedish court party , which planned an overthrow in 1756. He therefore had to leave the country and fled via Denmark to Holland and from there via Switzerland to Brandenburg.

In 1758 he joined the Prussian Army as a colonel under Friedrich II and was in command of Free Regiment No. 9 during the Seven Years' War . But on September 15, 1759 he got caught in a swamp while exploring near Trebatsch . He was captured there by the Russian hussars and taken to Saint Petersburg . The accession of the Prussian-friendly Tsar Peter III. enabled his release in 1762. On August 16, 1762, he was able to lead his regiment into the battle of Langenbielau , where he was seriously injured by a shot in the left arm. After the war the regiment was disbanded and Hordt was appointed major general in 1763 .

In 1765 he was pardoned in Sweden, and although he mediated between Sweden and Prussia several times, he never went back to Sweden. As early as 1764 he bought the southern tip of the Sacrow peninsula in Potsdam and had a manor house with a large garden built there. Sacrow Castle was built in 1773 .

In 1775 he was promoted to lieutenant general. From 1776 to 1780 he was governor of the Spandau Citadel. During the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778, he again set up a free regiment in Oranienburg, which was placed under Prince Heinrich's army . With the end of the war in 1779 it was dissolved again.

Grave of the Hordt family in Groß Leuthen (2014)

In 1780 he sold the castle to Heinrich de la Motte Fouqué, the father of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué . After his death in 1798 he was buried in Groß Leuthen in Niederlausitz.

Hordt was the owner of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword and, since December 14, 1786, a knight of the Order of Seraphines .

family

Hordt was married twice. On January 2, 1748, he married Countess Ulrike Juliane Henriette von Wachtmeister-Johannishus (1722–1777), daughter of the Swedish admiral Carl Hans Wachtmeister . The couple had two sons and three daughters. His younger son Adolf Friedrich (1753-1805) became a Prussian major and was last in the fusilier battalion “von Stutterheim”. He was married to Marie Sophie Karoline von Lengefeld, daughter of Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Lengefeld . Since he died childless, the Prussian branch of the family died out.

After her death he married on February 5, 1781 in Berlin in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche Sophia Christiane Dorothea (1734-1802), daughter of the former war minister Heinrich Graf von Podewils . She was divorced from Marschall and the widow of Johann August von Haeseler (1724–1763) and Lieutenant Colonel Emanuel Friedrich von Bredow (1732–1780). The couple had no children. She brought the Groß Leuthen Castle into the marriage. It is near the place where he was captured earlier. He liked to stay there now.

Works

  • Mémoires d'un gentilhomme suédois. 1784.
    • German: Memories or life story of a Swedish nobleman. Pitra, Berlin 1788, digitized
  • Advice on Finska kriget som fördes åren 1741, 1742 and 1743; jämte de Nästföregående och Nästpåföljande Handel i Sverige. Stockholm 1789 ("History of the Finnish War, the years 1741, 1742 and 1743, plus the next and the next later events in Sweden.")

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hordt, Johann Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johan Ludvig Hård; Johann Ludwig von Hard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general and governor of the Spandau Citadel
DATE OF BIRTH 1719
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1798
Place of death Berlin