Johann Maximilian von Streit

Johann Maximilian von Streit , Freiherr, (* 1752 in Creußen ; † May 9, 1833 in Weißenfels ) was in military service from 1769 to 1816, most recently as a colonel, and a Freemason for 52 years until his death .

Military career

Baron von Streit began his military career on April 1, 1769 in the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Bayreuth . In 1777 he joined the "von Seyboth'schen" regiment, which Margrave Karl Alexander von Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth rented to the British king for the fight against the independence of the American colonies. After initial success, he got under the command of General Cornwallis on October 19, 1781 together with his regiment during the Battle of Yorktown in captivity, from which he was only released in the summer of 1783. In the same year he returned to Bayreuth. In 1793 he was a colonel in the von Reitzenstein regiment , which took part in campaigns in Brabant and Flanders on behalf of the Netherlands. Before he returned to Ansbach in 1797, he took part in further campaigns on the Rhine in 1794 and 1795.

His home, the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth, had become Prussian in 1794 and fell to Bavaria in 1806. Baron von Streit joined the Prussian army. In 1813 he was stationed in Potsdam as a royal Prussian major. In the service of the 4th Prussian Army Corps under the Stoschfeld Division, he was involved in campaigns against France in 1813 and 1814. He took part in the battle of Hagelberg and in the blockade of Magdeburg.

Most recently he was lieutenant colonel and commander of the reserve battalion of the 5th Kurmark Landwehr Regiment. After the regiment disbanded in 1816, Freiherr von Streit was retired as a colonel in April 1816. He was awarded the war memorials from 1813 and 1814, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the Russian Order of St. Anne, 2nd class .

Activities as a Freemason

Baron von Streit became a member of Masonic Lodge No. 218 in New York on November 27, 1780 . Just a few months later, on May 1, 1781, he founded a field box in his regiment, in which he took over the office of master from the chair . As a result, on the basis of a charter from Grand Master Duke von Atholl of September 5, 1781, the Grand Lodge New York was founded on December 5, 1782 , but it was dissolved again at the end of 1783 after numerous members left America after the end of the War of Independence .

Back in his homeland, von Streit joined the Lodge Zur Sonne on March 10, 1784 in Bayreuth . There he was elected vice-master in 1786, a task that he performed until May 5, 1788. From 1797 to 1806 he headed the Alexander zu den drei Sternen Lodge in Ansbach , to which Margrave Karl Alexander belonged. The Nuremberg Lodge Joseph for Unity accepted him as an honorary member in 1802.

On May 1, 1821, he was involved in founding the Astraea Lodge in Wolmirstädt . He was considered the first master of the chair there and became an honorary member of the Great National Mother Lodge “To the Three Worlds” and the Lodge Von den Drei Felsen in Weißenfels. The latter celebrated his 50th Masonic anniversary with him and organized the funeral box for him after his death.

family

Freiherr Johann Maximilian von Streit comes from the baronial noble family of the von Streit family, was born in 1752 as the seventh and youngest child of forester Freiherr Johann Casimir von Streit (* 1714–1790) and Freiin Marie Sophie von Aufseß (* 1716– † 1791) in Born in Creußen. One of his brothers was Freiherr Johann Jakob von Streit (* 1740; † 1799), great-grandfather of Stefano's Streit .

On November 27, 1795 he married Baroness Louise von Wallbrunn. She came from the von Reitzenstein family and was born on June 24, 1755 in Weidenbach near Ansbach. Her first marriage was to the Prussian Lieutenant Colonel Eugen Reinhard von Wallbrunn (* 1751–1788), from whom her only son, the Prussian Colonel Louis von Wallbrunn (* 1783–1836) emerged. The marriage with Freiherr von Streit remained childless. He appointed Marie Schönfeld, the daughter of a citizen from Alsleben an der Saale, where he moved after the end of his military service, as his main heir. From 1820 to 1828 he lived in Wolmirstädt before moving to Weißenfels an der Saale, where he died on May 9, 1833. He was buried in the churchyard in Weißenfels, next to his wife, who had already died on February 28, 1832.

literature

• History of Creußen, Joachim Kröll, 2003, pages 298–299
• Messages from the Association of German Freemasons, 1862, pages 120–124

Web links

• Use of Frankish troops in America by Wolfgang Heger
• Use of Frankish troops in the American War of Independence by Jochen Seidel
• Great National Mother Lodge "To the three globes"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility , Volume 7, Freiherrlich Häuser BI, Starke Verlag 1954.
2. ↑ Johann Gottfried Biedermann : genealogical registers of the imperial free direct knighthood of the country to Franconia praiseworthy locality Gebürg , table XXVIII.
3. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of baronial houses , Volume 13, Justus Perthes , Gotha 1863, p. 1012.