Julius of Verdy du Vernois

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Julius of Verdy du Vernois

Adrian Friedrich Wilhelm Julius Ludwig von Verdy du Vernois (born July 19, 1832 in Freystadt , † September 30, 1910 in Stockholm , Sweden ) was a Prussian officer , most recently General of the Infantry and Minister of War (1889–1890). He gained importance primarily through his strategic studies and publications, which also received great attention abroad.

Family background

His grandfather Adrian Maria Francois Chevalier de Verdy du Vernoy (1738–1814) had come from France via the court of the Landgrave of Hesse to the Prussian court, where from 1780 he served as chamberlain to Prince Ferdinand of Prussia , brother of Frederick the Great . He had written several genealogical works and belonged to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences as early as 1790 . Also in 1790 he married Freiin Charlotte von Keller (1760–1807), whose father Johann Georg Wilhelm von Keller was only raised to the baron status for merit after the Seven Years' War . The following year, Adrian Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Louis (1791–1855) was the only child . The close connection between the family and the Hohenzollern family is evident from the fact that King Friedrich Wilhelm II , Prince Ferdinand and his wife attended the christening of the child as godparents . In 1813 Louis joined the Guard Volontair Squadron as a volunteer hunter and acquired the Iron Cross in the Wars of Liberation . He then served as an officer in the 8th Uhlan Regiment and later as a teacher at the school of the 16th Division in Koblenz, where he met his future wife Gertrud Münzel (1795-1870). The Münzel family had been in the service of the electoral Trier for several generations as foresters, hunters and farmers . The marriage, if it wasn't viewed as a mesalliance , might have caused quite a stir. In 1837 Louis took leave of the 3rd Uhlan Regiment as a characterized major and lived in very poor conditions. It was not until 1845 that he received a higher pension from the Prussian king. After saying goodbye, he wrote numerous military works.

Life

Perhaps because of the tense financial situation, the only child from this marriage, Julius, was sent to the cadet houses in Potsdam , later Berlin , for school education in 1844 . After graduation, he joined the 14th Infantry Regiment in Berlin on April 27, 1850 as a second lieutenant , with whom he went to Thorn in the course of the transfer . There he met his future wife Luise Karoline Natalie Zimmermann (born February 7, 1837 in Thorn; October 17, 1909 in Berlin), the daughter of the district doctor and later honorary citizen of Thorn, Carl Zimmermann. They married on September 27, 1855, just before Verdy was sent to the General War School in Berlin.

After completing his studies, he stayed at the academy, where he was initially employed in the war history department from 1858 to 1860. This usage shaped him. He made war history the basis of his own research and used it as a teacher at the war academy to explain strategic and tactical relationships to his students. In 1860/61 he was used in the topographical department of the Great General Staff before he was transferred to the General Staff of the IV Army Corps in Magdeburg . From there he was commanded from February 2, 1863 to October 26, 1865 to the headquarters of the Russian troops in Warsaw, about which he later published his memoirs in book form. Because of his apparently good performance, the Russian tsar invited him and his wife to Saint Petersburg and Moscow .

After his return to Prussia, he was sent on a trip through southern Germany in order to gather information about the state of war preparation and military capabilities in these areas. This trip was obviously related to the war of 1866 that broke out shortly afterwards . His reports are said to have been so excellent that he was ordered to speak to the king . Already at this time he was noticed by Moltke , who in future stood up for him and promoted him. He participated in the war against Austria (1866) as a major in the staff of the 2nd Army under the leadership of the Crown Prince . During this time he gained the trust and friendship of the later 99-day emperor.

After the war he was commissioned to write the general staff work on this war. In the war of 1870 , meanwhile promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was the youngest department head in the headquarters . After this war he was first chief of the general staff at the I. Army Corps in Königsberg and then devoted himself again to work as a teacher at the war academy and in the general staff. Among other things, his writings on troop leadership and war games fall during this time . The birth of his only child, Adrian Karl Friedrich von Verdy du Vernois (1873–1952), also took place at this time. He also embarked on a career as an officer, was last lieutenant and finally became envoy and minister extraordinary.

In order to gain experience in the practical service, he was in 1877 as major general commander of the 62nd Infantry Brigade in Strasbourg in Alsace. From 1879 to 1883 he was director of the General War Department in the War Ministry and was in the meantime promoted to Lieutenant General on November 15, 1881 . Then he took over the 1st Division in Königsberg. There the future General Field Marshal and Reich President Paul von Hindenburg served as General Staff officer under him. In 1887 he returned to Strasbourg as governor, where, among other things, he took care of the further expansion of the fortifications until 1889 and was promoted to general of the infantry on April 23, 1888.

On April 8, 1889, at the instigation of his comrade from his cadet times, Count Alfred von Waldersee , he was appointed Prussian Minister of State and War. Although he only held this position for a year and a half, the reorganizations of the XVI fell during this time . and XVII. Army Corps , as well as the Infantry Regiments No. 140 to No. 145, the Field Artillery Regiments No. 33 to No. 36 and the Railway Brigade. At the same time, from April 13, 1889, he also acted as an authorized representative to the Federal Council , chairman of the committee for the armed forces and the fortresses and as head of the management of the Great Military Orphanage . On October 4, 1890, at his own request, he was only 58 years old, but 40 years of service, put on disposition by Wilhelm II with a pension and appointed chief of the infantry regiment "Graf Schwerin" (3rd Pomeranian) No. 14.

Verdy du Vernois tomb (1925)
Grave of Julius and Luise von Verdy du Vernois (state 2013)
Grave of Julius and Luise von Verdy du Vernois with restored angel on February 29, 2016

In retirement, he wrote his writings on strategy and tactics, which were also widely recognized abroad, and various memories of the stages in his life. During a visit to his son, who was serving as legation counselor at the German embassy in Stockholm, he died of pneumonia on September 30, 1910, just a year after the death of his wife. The internationally recognized great importance was also made clear by the funeral conduct through Stockholm. Accompanied by a Swedish guards regiment, his coffin, carried by officers and carrying his medal pillows, was followed by a large number of Swedish dignitaries. He found his final resting place next to his wife in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin. His grave site was restored in 2012.

Awards

On August 1, 1891, he was awarded the order Pour le mérite for science and the arts . After Moltke, Verdy was the second officer to receive this high distinction in both the military and civil classes.

In 1894 the Albertina in Königsberg awarded him an honorary doctorate from its philosophical faculty.

Verdy was also the holder of numerous highest medals. So he was u. a. the Grand Cross of the Order of Frederick (December 4, 1879), the Order of Albrecht (October 7, 1882), the Order of the Red Eagle with Oak Leaves and Swords on the Ring (March 23, 1890), the Bavarian Order of Military Merit (November 10, 1890) and of the Order of the Wendish Crown (December 20, 1897). On the occasion of the centenary of the War Ministry on March 1, 1909, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Prussian Crown .

rating

Verdy was known for his engaging and interesting way of giving lectures and classes. In addition to the military writings, through which he gained his outstanding importance, he also wrote historical stories and plays. But he gained his real importance through his strategic and tactical studies, which Gustav Freytag was deeply impressed by. Marshal Ferdinand Foch , the commander in chief of the French armed forces in World War I , attributed his “objective method of strategy” and his successes in World War I to the study of Verdy's writings. The German military writer General Wilhelm von Blume posthumously considered him to be Moltke's most prominent successor based on his intellectual disposition.

Verdy du Vernois is still effective today through his war games and his theoretical reflections on this training method. There is hardly a publication on this topic in which it is not mentioned.

Works

  • Studies on Troop Leadership. Berlin 1873-1875.
  • War history studies using the applicational method. Book I, Tactical Details from the Battle of Custoza on June 24, 1866. Berlin 1876.
  • Contribution to the cavalry training trips. Berlin 1876.
  • Contribution to the war game. Berlin 1876.
  • About practical field service tasks. Berlin 1889.
  • Studies on War. Based on the Franco-German War of 1870/71. Berlin 1891.
  • In the main headquarters in 1870/71. Personal memories. Berlin 1894, 3rd edition. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1896.
  • Studies on field service. Newly edited based on the field service regulations of July 20, 1894. Berlin 1895.
  • At the headquarters of the Second Army in 1866 under the command of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm v. Prussia. Berlin 1900.
  • At the headquarters of the Russian Army in Poland 1863–1865. Berlin 1905.
  • Border Detachments. Berlin 1908.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, all of the following information is based on the article by Klaus Schlegel: General der Infanterie Dr.phil.hc Julius v. Verdy du Vernois. In: German Soldier Yearbook 1982. P. 71ff. - DSJB
  2. ↑ As mentioned in the State Handbook (DSJB 1982, p. 72)
  3. ↑ z. B. Histoire genealogique et chronologique de la Serenissime Maison de Hesse-Hombourg. Pour servir de suite al'histoire de Hesse par M. Mallet. Composee d'apres les titres et les manuscrits des Archives de cette Maison , Berlin 1791
  4. ^ Verdy du Vernois, Adrien-Marie-François de . In: Werner Hartkopf: The Berlin Academy of Sciences. Its members and award winners 1700–1990. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-05-002153-5 , p. 373.
  5. ↑ Among other things, a list of rankings, tribes and quarters of the 3rd Uhlan Regiment. 1839.
  6. ↑ The Great Headquarters was the central command post, where the Chief of the General Staff and the Prussian King stayed.
  7. ↑ Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871 - 1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , p. 120 f.
  8. ↑ Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann : The Order of Merit of the Prussian Crown. Message from the Institute for Scientific Order Studies. Der Herold - Volume 12, Volume 32, 1989, Issue 9, p. 247.
  9. ↑ z. B. Alaric, King of the Visigoths was a great stage success in Berlin and Strasbourg in the 1890s.
  10. ↑ z. B. Tim Lenoir, Henry Lowood: Theaters of War, the military entertainment complex. Stanford / Berlin 2003.
personal data
SURNAME Verdy du Vernois, Julius of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Verdy du Vernois, Adrian Friedrich Wilhelm Julius Ludwig von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry and minister of war
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Freystadt
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1910
Place of death Stockholm