Johann Rudolf Victor von Pretlack

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Johann Rudolf Victor von Pretlack (1668–1737), painting on Gut Häuserhof near Echzell .

Johann Rudolf Victor Freiherr von Pretlack (born August 12, 1668 in Uchte , † November 7, 1737 in Rimhorn ) was a German cavalry general and field marshal lieutenant.

origin

His parents were the Swedish colonel Philipp Friedrich Christoph von Pretlack (1627-1697) and Margarethe Amalie von Fullen († 1686). The von Pretlack family did not originally come from Hesse, the eponymous headquarters was in the East Prussian district of Gerdauen . Which, after the end of the Thirty Years' War abdicated father offered the little rule Eystrup and Erbdrostenamt the Office lamp , which he had acquired through marriage, one befitting a living. However, the father's fortune was not large enough to provide for all of the sons, so that they, including Johann Rudolf as the seventh of nine sons, had to be cared for in the military.

Life

Johann Rudolf Victor Pretlack was initially a page with Prince Georg Friedrich von Waldeck . The service with one of the most respected generals of that time already indicated a military career. In the wake of the prince, he took part in the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna with the relieving army of the empire and the Great Turkish War in the army of Duke Charles of Lorraine .

In 1689 he entered the Dutch service as the cornet of the Buttlar regiment . The regiment was commanded by Prince Philipp of Hessen-Darmstadt . He fought in the Palatinate War of Succession on the Dutch side and was badly wounded in the face in the Battle of Fleurus . Further wounds followed in 1691 and 1692. In 1693 he resigned, possibly due to the death of Georg Friedrich the year before. On the mediation of the Hessian prince he entered the Hesse-Darmstadt service and became a cavalry master , in 1699 lieutenant colonel and chamberlain.

Landgrave Ernst Ludwig had been at war with France since 1689 and had relocated his court to Upper Hesse after repeated pillage of Darmstadt by the French . Pretlack was to play an important role as commander of the cavalry in the establishment of a standing army. In the service of the Landgrave, Johann Rudolf Victor von Pretlack rose to the highest military offices.

In the War of the Spanish Succession , he commanded an army division on the Upper Rhine under Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm ("Türkenlouis") from 1702 . In the lost battle on the Speyerbach , he and his regiment are said to have fought three times through the enemy Esquadrons and , in the event of a fall from his horse, even brought his troops back in good order despite a lost hat and perouque .

For his achievements in 1705 he was appointed colonel and commander of the Hereditary Prince Regiment on Horseback , and in 1707 major general, with which the supreme command of the entire Hessian cavalry was connected. In 1716 Pretlack became governor of the fortress of Gießen and Oberamtmann zu Battenberg and Itter . The income from the Itter mining rule increased Pretlack's fortune considerably, who had already acquired numerous Hessian goods in the previous years. In 1717 Pretlack, meanwhile close friends with the Landgrave, was entrusted with lieutenant general , outside of the military service but also with diplomatic missions.

In old age Pretlack was reactivated again due to the War of the Polish Succession . As in the War of the Spanish Succession, he organized the winter position on the Rhine front, became Imperial Field Marshal Lieutenant of the Cavalry in 1735 and received the Order of Hubert . He died in 1737 on his favorite estate in Rimhorn in the Odenwald . His correspondence is stored together with the Pretlack family archive in the Hessian State Archive in Darmstadt .

family

He was married twice. In September 1699 he married Baroness Maria Franziska Bock von Bläsheim (* October 10, 1680; † January 25, 1711) from Strasbourg, daughter of Christian Friedrich Bock von Bläsheim , councilor of knights, and Maria Helene von Weyler . The couple had the following children:

  • Sophia Helene (born October 10, 1701; † August 29, 1781) ⚭ 1718 Franz Reinhard von Gemmingen-Guttenberg Obervogt in Durlach
  • Ernst Friedrich Christian (1705–1729), Sardinian captain, killed before Croy
  • Magdalene Elisabeth Charlotte (1707–1734), canon in Obernkirchen
  • Johann Franz (1708–1767), Reichsfeldmarschall lieutenant
  • Albertine Friederica (1709–1789)

After the death of his first wife, he married Christiane Margarethe von Bernstorff on April 24, 1715 in Frankfurt am Main (* March 15, 1695, † October 25, 1725). The couple had the following children:

⚭ 1739 Karl Wilhelm von Gemmingen -Maienfels (1701–1763), lieutenant colonel in Baden, chamberlain
⚭ 1766 Jacques de la Roche († after 1779)
  • Johann Ernst Friedrich Ludwig (1722–1782), Rittmeister

possession

Pretlack's Palais in Rimhorn.

At the end of his life, Pretlack owned a considerable amount of real estate in Darmstadt , Upper Hesse and the Vorderen Odenwald , including numerous historical buildings that are still preserved today:

Accordingly he called himself Herr auf Rimhorn, Fränkisch-Crumbach, Echzell, Ulfa.

literature

  • Roland Dotzert in: Stadtlexikon Darmstadt. Published by the Historisches Verein für Hessen, Theiss, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-8062-1930-2 , pp. 723f.
  • Eckhart G. Franz : The Hessian general Johann Rudolf von Pretlack (1668–1737) Lord of Franconian Crumbach and Rimhorn in the Odenwald. In: Contributions to the exploration of the Odenwald and its peripheral landscapes 2 , Breuberg 1977, pp. 435–466.
  • Eckhart G. Franz: Friederike Countess von Eppstein, married. Freifrau von Pretlack (HD 40). In: Eckhart G. Franz (Ed.): House of Hesse. Biographical lexicon. Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-88443-411-6 (= work of the Hessian Historical Commission, New Volume 34 ), p. 307f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography in the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt, Dept. O 2 No. 10/2, quoted from Eckhart G. Franz: The Hessian General Johann Rudolf von Pretlack (1668–1737) Mr. zu Fränkisch-Crumbach and Rimhorn in the Odenwald. In: Contributions to the exploration of the Odenwald and its peripheral landscapes 2 , Breuberg 1977, p. 439.
  2. ↑ HStAD v. Urine (O 2)
  3. ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Former Pretlack'sches Palais (City Hall) In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse .
personal data
SURNAME Pretlack, Johann Rudolf Victor von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cavalry general and field marshal lieutenant
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1668
PLACE OF BIRTH Uchte
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1737
Place of death Rimhorn