Karl Georg Albrecht Ernst von Hake

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Albrecht Georg Ernst Carl von Hake (born August 8, 1769 on Gut Flatow ; † May 19, 1835 in Castellammare di Stabia near Naples ) was a Prussian infantry general and minister of war under King Friedrich Wilhelm III.

Life

origin

Karl came from the the nobility counted Gender Hake . He was the son of Karl Friedrich von Hake (1729-1799) and his wife Johanna Beate Charlotte, born von Fuchs († 1799). His father was a Prussian Premier Lieutenant a. D. and manor owners on Cremmen and Flatow.

Military career

Hake became a page with King Frederick the Great in 1780 . On April 10, 1785 he was then employed as an ensign in the "Guard" regiment of the Prussian Army and in April 1788 promoted to second lieutenant. As such, during the campaign against France in 1792/95 , Hake participated in the battles at Fontoy and Longwy , the siege of Mainz and the cannonade of Valmy . For his work in the battle of Pirmasens he received the order Pour le Mérite . As early as mid-February 1793, Hake had been transferred to the General Staff as an assistant to Colonel Julius von Grawert . Here he was lieutenant quartermaster in 1795 and promoted to captain in May 1797 on the recommendation of his superior lieutenant general Levin von Geusau . Further assignments were in 1799 as an adjutant to the Berlin Infantry General Inspection of General Field Marshal Wichard von Möllendorff and from March 1804 as an adjutant to Prince Heinrich of Prussia . On May 1, 1809 he became director of the 1st Division of the General War Department in the War Ministry.

In February 1810 Hake took place the previous exercise the management of the Military Economy Department, Secret was State Councilor and also from June ad interim Chief of General War Department of General Gerhard von Scharnhorst and head of the Corps of Engineers and the forts. Thus, Hake was the first minister to head both departments of the War Department. Later these areas were always taken over by one and the same person and named only as the office of the Minister of War. Karl von Hake is therefore considered to be the very first Prussian war minister .

Hake held the office of Minister of War twice (June 1810 to August 1813 and November 1819 to October 1833). With at least 17 years in office in this position, he has held the position of Minister of War for the longest time.

In the first term of office, Hake's hands were tied. Scharnhorst had resigned under pressure from the French, but still the actual head of the General War Department. So the cast with Hake was just a diversion at first. In addition, Hake also had a difficult time because Friedrich Wilhelm III trusted him for higher tasks. as well as the "puller" Scharnhorst was not given.

On May 9, 1812, Hake was promoted to major general with a patent dated March 28, 1813 , after he had actually submitted his resignation. The request was rejected. In 1813, after Scharnhorst devoted himself fully to the beginning war, Hake was responsible for mobilization and further preparations.

After Austria joined the alliance against France, Hake was appointed Prussian plenipotentiary in the Great Headquarters of Commander-in-Chief Prince Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg . In the Wars of Liberation against France he took part in several scenes, including the Battle of Leipzig and the sieges of Mézières and Sedan . For the blockade of Landrecies he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and on April 3, 1814 received the oak leaves for the Pour le Mérite. At the Battle of Waterloo he commanded the 13th Brigade in the Bülow Corps. After Napoleon's defeat , Hake was appointed chief of the federal troops in France on June 28, 1815. At the end of the year he returned to Prussia, was chief of the brigade in Danzig for half a year and briefly chief of the brigade in Glogau in May 1816, and then on May 20, 1816, he became the commanding general on the Rhine.

In his second term as Minister of War, which he took up on December 26, 1819 after Boyen's resignation , there were several priorities for him. The consolidation of the new military relations after the liberation wars, creation of the Landwehr cavalry , construction of barracks . Thus, under difficult circumstances, he created appropriate organizations for the remounting system and the general offices . In this second phase, as Minister of War, he did not have a person like Scharnhorst next to him, but instead other adversities that he had to deal with. The state was still very financially restricted, and general conscription had to be enforced against opposition from various directions. Another problem was the Landwehr, which was becoming increasingly independent, and Hake had to be careful that it continued to obey fully.

Due to increasing illness, Hake was released from his position on October 20, 1833 and put up for disposal with an annual salary of 6000 thalers . He travels to Italy, where he died in Castellammare di Stabia near Naples in 1835.

Awards

In recognition of his many years of service, Hake was appointed chief of the 10th Infantry Regiment on September 15, 1817 . From January 22nd, 1825 he was a Knight of the Black Eagle Order as well as the holder of the Order of the Red Eagle 1st Class and the Order of Saint Anne 1st Class.

Conclusion

Albrecht Georg Ernst Carl von Hake is almost unknown today. There were other people who “made history” in Hake's time. In addition to the personalities of Scharnhorst, Hardenberg and von Stein, Prussia's first war minister pales. Probably for this reason too, there is seldom a contribution or mention of Hake in the standard manuals on German history and encyclopedias.

The Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie wrote in 1879 as a conclusion about Hake “[…] not a statesman of the first rank or a general, not even an organizational genius, but a righteous man and a restless worker who rendered his fatherland loyal and useful service. "

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ But he remained dependent on Scharnhorst, who had only apparently resigned
  2. ↑ "ostensible Cabinet Order" von Hardenberg at Scharnhorst on June 6, 1810. In: Scheel, Schmidt: From Stone to Hardenberg . S. 780. f .
  3. ^ "Geheime Cabinetsordre" from Hardenberg to Scharnhorst from June 6, 1810. In: Scheel, Schmidt: Von Stein zu Hardenberg . S. 781. f .
personal data
SURNAME Hake, Karl Georg Albrecht Ernst von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hake, Albrecht Georg Ernst Carl von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry and minister of war
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1769
PLACE OF BIRTH Gut Flatow near Gremmen in the Osthavelland district
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1835
Place of death Naples , Italy