Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Böhmer

Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Böhmer (born May 6, 1783 in Niedersiegersdorf , † March 31, 1814 in Paris ) was a Prussian captain , company commander in the "Kaiser Franz" grenadier regiment and knight of the Pour le Mérite order .

Life

The youngest son of Georg Friedrich von Böhmer and Johanna Rosina Kleinert (1756–1821), daughter of the manor owner Caspar Gottfried Kleinert (1702–1759), decided after his training in the cadet institute as did his two brothers, the first lieutenant Johann Philipp Friedrich von Böhmer (1775–1841) and the brigade major and adjutant general Johann Karl Friedrich von Böhmer (1773–1807), on a career in the Prussian army .

In 1798 von Böhmer joined the fusilier battalion "von Rühle" of the Lower Silesian fusilier brigade and was promoted to secondary lieutenant in 1801 . From the very beginning, Böhmer showed himself to be an energetic and assertive soldier, who was therefore chosen by his superiors for higher tasks and who was predicted to have a brilliant career. Probably the greatest success in his short life was during the siege of Danzig during the Fourth Coalition War in 1806/07, when his association was also deployed. At that time Danzig was blocked from the sea side by the Swedes and from the land side it was enclosed and besieged by the French army under General François-Joseph Lefebvre . Despite the oppressive superiority of the French, the Prussian army defended itself valiantly under its Danzig commander and field marshal Friedrich Adolf Graf von Kalckreuth and tried to hold strategic bases in advance or to fight gaps in the siege ring in order to blow it up and ensure the supply of the city . In one of these apron battles, the assault on the "Kalkschanze" on the Vistula on April 3 and 4, 1807, the still young Böhmer, who had meanwhile been promoted to Prime Lieutenant, led a raid with forty fusiliers. It was possible to retake the "Kalkschanze" for a few days and to break a breach in the siege ring. This opened up the possibility for the Russian allies included, to break through this corridor with company strength and attack the French from the flank. This outpost was later wrested from the Prussians, but before they withdrew they made the defenses on the "Kalkschanze" unusable. On May 24, 1807, Danzig was forced to surrender, and two months later, with the Peace of Tilsit, the fighting finally ceased. Von Böhmer was awarded for his courageous work in Danzig by the Russian allies with the Order of St. Vladimir and in 1807 by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. awarded the order Pour le Mérite by Prussia.

As part of the following wars of liberation , he and his association were posted to Wartenburg in 1813 , where, under General Field Marshal Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, the Prussian troops crossed the Elbe to pursue the retreating French. For this commitment he was honored with the Iron Cross, 2nd class.

Subsequently, Böhmer was promoted to captain and appointed company commander in a regular battalion of the grenadier regiment "Kaiser Franz", which was called "Franzer" and "Bloodhound" in soldiers' jargon. With this he pursued the French as far as Paris, where he was seriously wounded in the battle of Paris . Böhmer died on March 31, 1814 at the age of only 30 from the consequences of this injury. In Erich v. Puttkamer's story of the Royal Prussian Emperor Franz Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 2 was honored in a special way for Böhmer for his courage and commitment. It is unclear whether Böhmer was buried near Paris. His sister Louise Karoline Konstanze von Böhmer (* 1773), married to the dike captain Friedrich Christoph von Saldern auf Plattenburg (1771–1835), had a memorial and an inscription placed on him in the park of the Schloss von Plattenburg. Böhmer himself remained unmarried and had no children.

Literature and Sources

• Hugo Erich von Boehmer : Genealogy of the families descended from Justus Henning Böhmer as well as some of the families related by marriage to them. Knorr & Hirth, Munich 1892, ( digitized version )
• Hans-Thorald Michaelis : History of the Boehmer family. In continuation of the genealogy, written by Hugo Erich von Boehmer in 1892, of the families Boehmer and von Boehmer descended from Justus Henning Boehmer as well as some of the families related by marriage to them. Rheinische Verlagsanstalt, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1978; Private archive; in Library of Congress [1]
• E. v. Puttkamer: History of the Royal Prussian Emperor Franz Garde Grenadier Regiment No. 2. (Antiquarian bookshop) Paul Parey Publishing House , Berlin 1895, p. 13.

Web links

• Alphabetic list of the Knights of the Order Pour le Mérite 1740-1807