Karl Friedrich von Hirschfeld

Plate at the old Hagelberg monument from 1849

Karl Friedrich Hirschfeld , from 1787 von Hirschfeld (* 1747 in Münsterberg , Lower Silesia , † October 11, 1818 in Brandenburg an der Havel ) was a Prussian infantry general .

Life

Karl Friedrich came from an old Meißner family and was the son of Johann Friedrich Hirschfeld (1711–1757) and his wife Elisabeth, born von Hoffmann (1728–1805).

Hirschfeld joined the Prussian Army in 1762 and joined Infantry Regiment No. 36 . He later became an adjutant to Friedrich Eugen von Württemberg . He also took part in the War of the Bavarian Succession . On 16 February 1787 he was in the rank of a Prussian captain in the Prussian nobility raised . During the fighting in Holland in 1787, he received the Pour le Mérite for conquering Ober Toomschanze on September 23, 1787 . As early as 1784 he had become an inspection adjutant to the Duke of Braunschweig. In the first coalition war, Hirschfeld took part in the attack on the Bitsch mountain fortress and was seriously injured in the process, which made him unfit for service for some time. In 1795 he became adjutant to the Duke of Braunschweig. In 1798 he became a colonel and commander of the 1st Battalion of the Guard, and in 1801 he was appointed major general and commander of Potsdam .

In the Battle of Auerstedt in 1806 he led the Guard Infantry Battalions. After the defeat, he was captured when the Magdeburg Fortress surrendered , from which he was released in 1807. Hirschfeld settled at Kurstraße 7 in the city of Brandenburg, where he was city ​​commander between 1809 and 1813 before he commanded the Kurmärkische Landwehr in the wars of liberation .

In the spring of 1813 he was at the head of a division he had formed, which first took part in the blockade of Magdeburg. Hirschfeld went down in history as the commander of the Prussian troops in the battle of Hagelberg . In this battle known as the "Kolbenschlacht" on August 27, 1813, around five weeks before the decisive Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , line troops, together with the newly created Landwehr and Russian Cossacks, destroyed a Napoleonic corps of 10,000 men. Only 3,000 French were able to flee. The older of the two monuments on the Hagelberg , which King Friedrich Wilhelm IV inaugurated in 1849, shows the portrait of Hirschfeld on its central plate .

Mocked by Napoleon I as " Kanaille " and also initially ridiculed by the Prussian line troops, the Landwehr made a decisive contribution to the outcome of the Hagelberg battle. After the war, Hirschfeld was the military governor of Magdeburg Fortress. After retiring from active military service in 1815, Hirschfeld moved again to Brandenburg, this time to Domkuria II . Here Hirschfeld suffered a fatal stroke in 1818 and was buried in the Schlabrendorf crypt in Brandenburg Cathedral.

family

Hirschfeld was married several times. On May 27, 1782, he married Karoline Friederike Philippine, born von Faggyas (1761–1795) in Falkenhagen . After her death he married on December 27, 1795 in Halberstadt with Henriette Frederike Charlotte Ehrengard, born von der Schulenburg , widowed von Fuchs (1765–1800). After her death, he married Ernestine Karoline Amalie Wilhelmine Elisabeth, née von Zanthier , widowed von Gillern (1766–1847) in Potsdam on August 30, 1801 .

The three marriages resulted in a total of fifteen children:

• Karoline (born March 13, 1783; † January 30, 1849) ⚭ Johann Friedrich Karl II. Von Alvensleben , lieutenant general and commander of the 1st and 2nd Guards Division
• Karl Dietrich Eugen (1784–1811), died in Spain as a colonel in the Alcantara regiment
• Wilhelmine Philippine August (* 1785)
• Karl Alexander Adolf (1787–1858), Prussian general of the cavalry
• Karoline Philippine Luise (1788–1859) ⚭ Alexander von Ruville (1780–1841), Lieutenant Colonel ret. D. Parents of Amand von Ruville
• Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ulrich Moritz (1790–1859), Prussian general of the infantry ∞ Ida von Kamptz (1801–1875)
• Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand (1792–1863), Prussian infantry general
• Karoline Auguste Anna (1795–1876)
• Friederike Elise Bertha Emilie (1796–1871)
• Karl Eugen Christian (1798–1798)
• Karl Friedrich Hermann (1800–1878), Prussian major general

⚭ 1829 Bertha Freytag (* October 14, 1803; † March 30, 1838)

⚭ 1849 Philippine Amalie von Ruville (* January 20, 1818 - January 4, 1862)

• Karl Albert (1802-1807)
• Wilhelm Ludwig Heinrich Karl (1803–1843)
• Karl Ernst Caesar (1805-1808)
• Bernhard Karl Wilhelm (1807-1886)

Awards

• Pour le Mérite on September 23, 1787
• Order of the Red Eagle 1st Class on November 4, 1815

literature

• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , pp. 103-107, no. 1018.
• Walter von Hirschfeld: The von Hirschfeld family , Hanover 1922
• Richard von Meerheimb :  Hirschfeld, Karl Friedrich von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, p. 472 f.

Web links

• Hagelberg 1813: Girard vs Hirschfeld

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume V, Volume 84 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1984, ISSN  0435-2408 , p. 236.
2. ↑ ^{a b} A Prussian walk through Brandenburg , Brandenburg pages , information section online ( memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.