Joseph of Colloredo

Joseph Maria Graf Colloredo-Mels and Wallsee . (Born September 11, 1735 in Regensburg ; † November 26, 1818 in Vienna ) was an Austrian minister and general .

Joseph Maria was a son of the first Prince of Colloredo -Mels and Wallsee, Rudolf Joseph . He distinguished himself several times during the Seven Years' War , notably near Prague and the Battle of Moys , and was briefly captured in Wroclaw . Promoted to major general in 1763 , he received his own infantry regiment (No. 57) in 1769 and quickly rose to field marshal lieutenant and court war councilor , accompanied Emperor Joseph II to France in 1777 and then received the general management of the artillery . Although he was proposed for the Maria Theresa Order in 1784 , he turned it down on the grounds that he was a Knight of Malta .

Grand Prior

Count Colloredo was the Grand Prior of Bohemia from 1791 until his death. During this difficult time for the Order of Malta , Colloredo fought to keep the order. Although he did not succeed in making Vienna the seat of the now homeless government of the order, he was appointed as the order's envoy to the imperial court. Nor could he prevent the seizure of the seven soldiers from Silesia by the Prussian king . However, his successor, Count Vinzenz Kolowrat , finally saved the order.

Merits

Because of his services to the weapon, Joseph II appointed him Feldzeugmeister . In the 8th Austrian Turkish War (1787–1792) he attended the attack on the fortress Schabatz and led the assault on Belgrade in the next campaign . As field marshal he then commanded the observation army on the Prussian border until the peace negotiations at the Reichenbacher Congress (1790) . After the war, Colloredo was appointed Minister of State and Conference to manage the affairs of the Court War Council. Still active in 1813 and 1814, he died on November 26, 1818.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Colloredo-Melz and Wallsee, Joseph Maria Graf von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 2nd part. Publishing house of the typographic-literary-artistic establishment (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1857, pp. 427-429 ( digitized version ).
• Wilhelm Edler von Janko :  Colloredo-Waldsee, Joseph Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 419 f.
• Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck :  Colloredo-Waldsee, Joseph Graf von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 328 ( digitized version ).
• Colloredo-Mels and Wallsee Joseph Graf. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1957, p. 151.