Karl Ludwig from Le Coq

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Map of Wanger Oge (Wangerooge) , then still with 3 sub-islands, by Karl Ludwig von Le Coq 1805
High resolution map of part of Ostwestfalen-Lippe , Le Coq, 1805

Karl Ludwig Jakob Edler von Le Coq , also Ludwig von Lecoq (born September 23, 1757 in Eilenburg , † February 14, 1829 in Berlin ), was a Prussian major general and cartographer .

Life

origin

Karl Ludwig was the youngest son of the Saxon Lieutenant General Jean Louis von Le Coq (1719–1789) and his wife Susanne Charlotte, née Bitaube (* 1731). His brother was the Saxon major general Karl Christian Erdmann from Le Coq .

Military career

Le Coq entered the Saxon service in 1760 and began his officer career in 1770 as a sous-lieutenant in the "von Riedesel" regiment , where in 1779 he became captain and company commander . In April 1787 dimittierte it from the Saxon army and resigned in May as a Major at the head of Füsilierbataillons "legacy" of the Prussian army in Magdeburg . Assigned to the General Staff in December , he took part in the First Coalition War on the staff of the commanding Duke of Braunschweig in 1792 . During the siege of Mainz he earned the order Pour le Mérite .

After the Treaty of Basel in 1795, the duke was chief of the Prussian observation army in northwest Germany to monitor the demarcation line with France. Le Coq rose as a colonel to his lieutenant general quartermaster . In this capacity he began to map Westphalia. During the campaign of 1792/95, Le Coq had earned the trust of King Friedrich Wilhelm II and the heir to the throne Friedrich Wilhelm . Both kings used it for difficult missions that took Le Coq to Saint Petersburg in 1801 . Around 1800 Le Coq brokered the takeover of the military theorist Scharnhorst into the Prussian service and in 1802 was one of the first members of his military society in Berlin .

Le Coq achieved a high reputation as a cartographer. Inspired by the map series "Géométrique de la France" by Jean Dominique Comte de Cassini , the topographical map series " Great Map of Westphalia " was created under his direction in the years 1795 to 1805 in the area of ​​the then Duchy of Westphalia and the left Lower Rhine in 20 sections. This includes maps of the East Frisian Islands , which at that time had different land areas than today. Lieutenant von Steinmetz , who drew up the maps of the counties of Rietberg and Steinfurt and the principalities of Paderborn and Waldeck , also worked under his direction .

Friedrich Wilhelm III. honored Le Coq in 1801 with the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Potsdam Grenadier Guard Battalion No. 6 . It had emerged from the bodyguard regiment of the "Tall Guys" and was now called "Le Coq" until its demise after the battle of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806. In Potsdam, Le Coq was appointed to the examination committee for future general staff officers, continued to work on his map series, was promoted to major general in May 1803 and founded a junior school in 1804 .

When the war against France was imminent in 1806, Le Coq was given command of the observation troops on the Ems in September . After receiving the news of the defeats at Jena and Auerstädt, he appeared in front of the Prussian fortress of Hameln on October 24 after an unsuccessful attempt to advance towards the Elbe . At the end of October 1806, together with his troops, there were about 9,000 men under his command and the command of Generals von Schoeler and von Hagken. After skirmishes and outpost battles with the advancing French, they withdrew to the Hameln Fortress and its fortifications on the Klüt . On November 20, 1806, Le Coq handed over the fortress, which was fully equipped with food and ammunition and fully ready for defense, to General Savary, who was deployed with 6,000 soldiers without artillery. After the surrender conditions , the officers were to be released on the word of honor not to fight against France in the further campaign, and all other soldiers were taken into captivity in France. This caused a riot of soldiers who roamed the streets drunk, looting and shooting. Le Coq returned to Potsdam and applied for a change in Danish services. The king forbade him to leave Prussia.

Le Coq was collected in December 1809 after the assessment of his behavior by the Immediatkommision to investigate the capitulations of the fortresses , sentenced to life imprisonment and imprisoned in the fortress Spandau . From January 1810 he was allowed to serve his arrest in the city of Spandau and from 1812 to visit his estate in Pichelsdorf . However, the king refused a petition for clemency. When Prussia began to rise up in April 1813, he was allowed to take up residence in Oranienburg . After the peace he was pardoned in 1814 and settled in Berlin. Lonely and slowly going blind, Le Coq continued to work on his maps and published them. Widowed and completely blind, he died on February 14, 1829 in Berlin and was buried in the French cemetery . General Karl von Müffling added and continued his map of Westphalia .

family

Le Coq was married to Marie Charlotte Lautier (1760-1826). The couple had four children, two of whom reached adulthood:

  • Pauline Amalie (1787–1863) ⚭ 1809 Ludwig von Below (1779–1859), Prussian lieutenant general
  • Ulrike (1792–1882) ⚭ 1818 August von Winterfeldt (1789–1864), Prussian judge of the chamber of judges, councilor of knights

Works

  • Topographical map in 22 sheets containing the largest part of Westphalia, as well as the Duchy of Westphalia and a part of the Hanover, Braunschweig, and other cities. hot countries; according to astronomical and trigonometric location determinations / ed. by the Major General of LeCoq in 1805. Gest. by Carl Jäck (among others). - Berlin, approx. 1805. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Ludwig von Le Coq  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ According to ADB: 1753, according to Priesdorf: 1754
  2. ^ Georg Krauss: 150 years of Prussian measuring table sheets. In: Journal of Surveying . 94th year 1969, issue 4, p. 125 ff., Konrad Wittwer Verlag, Stuttgart.
  3. ↑ Historical maps from the Land Survey Office of North Rhine-Westphalia
  4. ↑ Großer Generalstab (Ed.): 1806. The Prussian officer corps and the investigation of the war events. Berlin 1906, pp. 40-50
personal data
SURNAME Le Coq, Karl Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lecoq, Ludwig von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian major general and cartographer
DATE OF BIRTH 1753 or 1754 or September 23, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Eilenburg
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1829
Place of death Berlin