Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld

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Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld
Signature Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld.PNG

Karl Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld (born September 4, 1796 in Großwerther , † September 2, 1884 in Bonn ) was a Prussian field marshal .

Life

origin

Eberhard came from the old Augsburg city ​​noble family Herwarth von Bittenfeld , which was first mentioned in 1246. He was the son of the Prussian Major General Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld (1753-1833) and his wife Johanna Friedericke Auguste, née von Arnstedt (1765-1851). Two of his brothers also rose to become generals in the Prussian Army : Hans Paulus Herwarth von Bittenfeld (1800–1881) and Friedrich Herwarth von Bittenfeld (1802–1884). His school education initially took place in his parents' house, then up to the age of 15 at the grammar school in Brandenburg an der Havel .

Military career

Herwarth von Bittenfeld joined the then normal infantry battalion of the Prussian Army in Berlin as a musketeer on October 15, 1811 , where he also attended the war school. In 1813/14 he took part as a second lieutenant during the Wars of Liberation in the battles near Großgörschen , Dresden , Leipzig , Arcis-sur-Aube and Paris . In 1815 he became adjutant of the 1st Battalion in the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot . In this capacity, on March 30, 1816, he was promoted to prime lieutenant and on March 30, 1821, Herwarth was promoted to captain and company commander .

On March 30, 1835, he was transferred as a major to the Guard Reserve Regiment at the time , and in the same year he was appointed commander of the 2nd Battalion. On March 30, 1839, he was transferred to the 1st Guard Regiment on foot as commander of the 1st Battalion . On March 22, 1845 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and on March 31, 1846 was entrusted with the leadership of the Kaiser Franz Garde Grenadier Regiment . This was followed by a job as commander of the 1st Guards Regiment on foot from March 27, 1847. In this capacity he became a colonel on May 10, 1848 . He commanded this regiment in 1848 during the March Revolution in Berlin. On the night of March 18-19, Herwarth acted as commandant of the royal palace . In 1850 he received command of the 16th Infantry Brigade . In 1852 he was appointed major general and brigade commander and, in 1854, commander of the Mainz fortress .

"General Herwarth von Bittenfeld, highest commander of the Prussian Elbarmee"

In 1856 he became lieutenant general and commander of the 7th division . In 1860 he was promoted to general of the infantry and was given command of the VII Army Corps . In 1864 he took over command of the army corps of Prince Friedrich Karl Nikolaus of Prussia , after he had followed General Wrangel in command on May 18th.

When the hostilities were reopened after the failure of the negotiations in London , Herwarth broke the resistance of the Danes by moving to Alsen on June 29 and thus practically ended the campaign . For his services during the campaign, he received the Order Pour le Mérite on August 21, 1864 and the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order . After the conclusion of the peace negotiations in Vienna , Herwarth was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Elbe Duchies based in Kiel . On June 29, 1865 he received the general command of the VIII Army Corps , which together with the 14th Division formed the Elbar Army in the campaign of 1866 ( German War ) . Herwarth occupied Dresden with the Elbarmee , threw the enemy back to the main army in the battles near Hühnerwasser and Münchengrätz on June 27 and 28 and defeated the left wing of the Austrians and Saxons by storming in the Battle of Königgrätz on July 3 of the villages of Problus and Prim . For this he received the Order of the Black Eagle and - like the other generals of the infantry Albrecht von Roon , Helmuth von Moltke , Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz and Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein - a considerable amount of money ; in contemporary journalism he was celebrated as one of the heroes of the Bohemian [= German] War of 1866 .

Following the German War, he again took command of the VIII. "Rhenish" Army Corps with General Command in Koblenz , which made him one of the most powerful and influential representatives of Prussian rule in the region . When the war against France broke out in 1870, Herwarth was appointed governor general in the area of ​​the VII, VIII and XI. Army Corps . After the end of the war, Herwarth von Bittenfeld was released from all positions on April 8, 1871, transferred to the army officers with the character of General Field Marshal and finally put up for disposition on July 20, 1875 .

On November 30, 1872 he was appointed to the Prussian manor house . He was also commander of the Order of St. John .

The remains of the Field Marshal General, who had died on October 2, 1884 and had lived in Bonn since 1871, were transferred to Koblenz on October 6 by a special train and were buried there with considerable public attendance at the side of his second wife, who had died in 1868. The grave with a simple pillow stone is on field 16 of the Koblenz main cemetery (row E, grave 01-02).

family

Memorial column with statue of Pallas Athene for Field Marshal Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld on the 60th anniversary of service on October 15, 1871, with corresponding dedications on the column and the shield of Pallas Athene

Herwarth von Bittenfeld married Karoline Schulze (1795–1828), the daughter of pastor Heinrich Christian Schulze and Dorothea Louise Wilcke, on May 23, 1823 in Berlin . His second marriage was on June 22, 1831, also in Berlin, with Sophie von Scholten (1802–1868), the daughter of the future Prussian general Wilhelm von Scholten and Philippine Sieburg. The following children emerged from the marriages:

  • Karoline (1824–1889) ⚭ Franz Hugo Hesse (1804–1861), Privy Legation Councilor, member of the Prussian National Assembly, Consul General for Spain, Portugal and Central America
  • Johanna Ernestine Luise (* 1825) ⚭ Alfred Müller, government architect
  • Hertha Eberhardine Sophie (1827–1873)
  • Johann Karl Eberhard (1828–1870), killed as a Prussian major and battalion commander in the battle of Vionville
  • Hans Paulus (* 1832-1892), Prussian major
  • Sophie Philippine Johanna (* 1835) ⚭ Karl von Bolschwing, Prussian captain in the 6th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 68 (killed in the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866)
  • Hans Friedrich (1836–1875), Prussian major and adjutant of the General Command of the II Army Corps
  • Carl (1837–1870), killed as a Prussian captain and company commander in the battle of St. Privat
  • Anna (* 1839) ⚭ Alexander von Kameke (1825–1892), Prussian lieutenant general, gentleman on Misdow and Klein Reetz
  • Anton (1841–1923), Prussian general of the infantry ⚭ Alice von Roy (* 1852)

Honors

  • On June 18, 1869, Herwarth von Bittenfeld, then Commanding General of the VIII Army Corps, was granted honorary citizenship of the city of St. Wendel , as it is said, "because of his outstanding services to the king and fatherland and thus also to our city"; Specifically, he had campaigned for the establishment of a district command in the city.
  • One street in the Colonie Alsen still exists, another street of the same name is not named after him and another still exists in Cologne.

literature

Web links

Commons : Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Fontane : The German War of 1866. Vol. 1: The campaign in Bohemia and Moravia. Publishing house of the Royal Secret Upper Hofbuchdruckerei, Berlin 1870, p. 120 ( online at Google Books ).
  2. ↑ a b State and Society Lexicon. New conversation lexicon. Edited by Herrmann Wagener . Vol. 23. F. Heinicke, Berlin 1867, p. 431 ( online at Google Books).
  3. ^ After two years of Prussian-German politics, 1866–1867. Collection of official rallies and semi-official statements, from the Schleswig-Holstein crisis to the establishment of the customs parliament. Edited by Ludwig Hahn . Hertz, Berlin 1868, p. 295 ( online at Google Books), a total of one and a half million Thalers was distributed from the incoming war indemnities . Herwarth von Bittenfeld received 200,000 thalers from this: New foreign sheet. Vol. 2. No. 355 of December 28, 1866, p. (7) ( online at ANNO ).
  4. ^ Robert Koenig : The great war against France in the years 1870-1871. Told the German youth. Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld / Leipzig 1872, p. 39 ( online at Google Books).
  5. ↑ Florian Schönfuß: Mars in the high house. On the relationship between family policy and military careers among the Rhenish nobility 1770–1830. V&R Unipress, Göttingen 2016 ISBN 978-3-8470-0575-9 , p. 89.
  6. ↑ General gazette for Rhineland-Westphalia. Vol. 36. No. 210 of September 8, 1884, p. (3) under Miscellaneous ( online at zeitpunkt.nrw ).
  7. ↑ On genealogy cf. Hans-Wolfgang Herwarth von Bittenfeld: Herwarthisches. Compiled for the family members. (Printed as handwriting). G. Heinicke, Berlin 1899, pp. 13–15 ( online as PDF ).
  8. ^ A b Friedrich Wilhelm von Varchmin: Walhalla. Germany's victims from the campaigns of 1870 and 1871. Self-published, Erfurt 1872, p. 111 ( online at Google Books).
  9. ^ List of honorary citizens of St. Wendel .
  10. ↑ Raimund Fuchs: The honorary citizens of our city Wendel. St. Wendel 1984, pp. 9-12.
  11. ^ At the General Staff building in Berlin there was a street named after him ( Alsenviertel ) until the Second World War .
  12. ^ Herwarthstrasse in Berlin-Wannsee. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  13. ^ Herwarthstrasse in Berlin-Lichterfelde with Luise
personal data
SURNAME Bittenfeld, Eberhard Herwarth from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bittenfeld, Karl Eberhard Herwarth von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Field Marshal General
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Großwerther
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1884
Place of death Bonn