Gustav von Griesheim

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Karl Gustav Julius von Griesheim (born July 16, 1798 in Berlin , † January 1, 1854 in Koblenz ) was a Prussian major general and an influential conservative military politician.

Life

origin

Gustav comes from a noble family von Griesheim named after the place Griesheim in the Ilm valley . He was the son of Karl Ferdinand von Griesheim (1765–1838) and his wife Johanna Amalie Auguste, born von Sartorius (1770–1858). His father was a Prussian major and head of the 8th Division garrison company.

Military career

Griesheim attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Berlin. In 1813 he joined the Prussian Army . Due to physical weakness, however, he was only employed on August 7, 1814 as a grenadier in the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot . The following campaigns in 1814-15 he made only in the stage with. On July 3, 1815, Griesheim was promoted to second lieutenant and entered Paris with the Allied troops . In 1819 he was appointed regimental adjutant. He also studied at the University of Berlin, among other things, he heard from Alexander von Humboldt and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel . His transcripts of Hegel's lectures later served as the basis for their edition. He was also a contributor to the Yearbooks for Scientific Critique .

On November 20, 1831, Griesheim became captain and chief of the 7th Company in the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot. He published a military manual and became a lecturer at the General War School . He also worked in the War Ministry from 1839 . There he played an important role under several war ministers. Among other things, he was responsible for the district division of the Landwehr from 1842 and for the mobilization plan of 1844. He was also involved in the drill regulations of 1847 and the creation of the Central Gymnasium. He became its director in 1847. In the same year he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

From May 1848 he was head of the Army Department of the War Ministry. He took up one of the most important posts in the Ministry, which had previously been reserved mostly for older generals. He was responsible for personnel issues, internal management, military training and the control of the fortress. His duties did not include supply and financial issues. Behind the changing ministers of war he was actually the strong man in the ministry.

As such he became the main spokesman for the extremely conservative Prussian military party, which was able to prevail against the reform forces in the army in the Vormärz . During the Revolution, he anonymously published various pamphlets that met with sharp criticism from the left. The German Central Authority and the Prussian Army, written on July 23, 1848 , of which a free edition was distributed to the troop corps, spoke out sharply against the efforts of the Frankfurt National Assembly to subordinate the Prussian army to the central authority of a German Reich and to subordinate it to the To let the imperial head and the imperial constitution rise up sworn imperial army. The word of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on March 25, 1848, that Prussia would henceforth be absorbed in Germany, was referred to as a "haste" and the German cockade given to the army by the king was called "an honor imposed on the Prussian army against its will". The ministry then relieved Griesheim from his position as representative of the minister, but without taking any further action against him.

Griesheim is also considered to be the author of the pamphlet, which was published anonymously at the end of November 1848, against democrats, only soldiers help . The title takes up the end of the “Democrats' Song ” by Wilhelm von Merckel , the last stanza of which is given at the end without naming the author.

Griesheim was heavily involved in the conclusion of various Prussian military conventions with various German small and medium-sized states. In the background he was largely responsible for the anti-revolutionary coup of December 1848 in Prussia. From February 1849 to 1850 he was a member of the second chamber of the Prussian state parliament . During the revolutionary period, he advocated a close relationship with Russia.

As a colonel , Griesheim was appointed commander of Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein on May 14, 1850 . At the end of the year he was chief of staff in an army corps. After the demobilization he returned to Koblenz. On March 22, 1853, Griesheim was promoted to major general. After his death he was buried in the main cemetery in Koblenz .

family

Griesheim married Elisabeth Freiin von Korff (1809-1885) on October 18, 1830 in Berlin . The marriage resulted in two daughters:

  • Hedwig Marie Elisabeth (1832–1908) ⚭ September 11, 1861 Friedrich von Wißmann (1828–1909), Prussian infantry general
  • Klara Auguste Antonie (1838–1860) ⚭ July 16, 1859 Friedrich von Wißmann (1828–1909), Prussian infantry general

Fonts

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adolf Wilhelm Theodor Stahr : The Prussian Revolution. Volume 1, Oldenburg 1850, p. 382ff. books.google.de ; Johann Sporschil: History of the Germans from the oldest times to our days. Volume 5. 2nd edition, Regensburg 1859, p. 673. books.google.de
personal data
SURNAME Griesheim, Gustav von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griesheim, Karl Gustav Julius von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian major general
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1854
Place of death Koblenz