Karl Ludwig von Phull

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Karl Ludwig von Phull

Karl Ludwig August Friedrich von Phull (Pfuel) (born November 6, 1757 in Ludwigsburg , † April 25, 1826 in Stuttgart ) was Chief of Staff of Friedrich Wilhelm III. in the Battle of Auerstedt in 1806 and was then in Russian service, most recently as Lieutenant General . It is best known for its controversial importance for the successful strategy of retreat of the Russians in the defensive battle against Napoleon in 1812 .

Life

origin

Karl Ludwig von Phull belongs to the Württemberg line (2nd branch, 1st branch, 1st house) of the old Brandenburg noble family von Pfuel (also Pfuhl or Phull). He was the son of the Württemberg lieutenant general and Swabian district commander Carl (also Karl) Ludwig Wilhelm August von Phull (1723-1793) and his wife Auguste Wilhelmine, born von Keßlau (* 1734; † September 29, 1768 in Stuttgart).

Military career

From February 13, 1774 Phull was initially a lieutenant in the life guards in Württemberg service . After four years he resigned, entered Prussian service over and was on 1 April 1778 second lieutenant in free Regiment Graf Hordt hired. After the War of the Bavarian Succession , Phull came to Potsdam in 1779 as captain to Friedrich II and in 1781 joined his general staff. In 1793 he took part in the Rhine campaign and was awarded the order Pour le Mérite for the battle on the Karlsberg on April 18, 1793 . In 1796 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, in 1798 to colonel and in 1805 to major general . In 1803 he acted as director of the military society in Berlin. Since 1804 head of department in the general staff, he took as chief of staff Friedrich Wilhelm III. participated in the battle of Auerstedt . Following the catastrophic defeat, he was commissioned by the king to send a mission to the Russian Tsar Alexander .

Phull stayed at the tsar's court, won the tsar's trust and entered Russian service on December 20, 1806 as major general à la suite to instruct the tsar in the art of war . Of course, after the Peace of Tilsit in 1807, the possibility of another Russo-French war had to be considered. On September 19, 1809 Phull was appointed lieutenant general and quartermaster general.

It is controversial to what extent Phull was the originator of the Russian strategy of withdrawal in 1812 and also how consistently he actually applied this strategy . However, there is evidence of a letter from the Tsar to Phull dated December 12, 1813: "C'est Vous qui avez conçu le plan qui, avec l'aide de la providence, a eu pour suite le salut de la Russie et celui de l ' Europe. ” ( It was they who drew up the plan which, with the help of Providence, was to save Russia and Europe. ) However, he was attacked by Russian officers for various reasons, so that in October 1812 he had to flee to England via Sweden. (Napoleon left Moscow on October 19, 1812.) Allegedly the Tsar is said to have hidden in his cabinet for eight days before his confidante escaped.

In 1813 he gave the Prince of Orange military science lessons in The Hague . In June 1814, after the victory at Waterloo , he was appointed Russian ambassador to the Hague and Brussels. The tsar was always in favor of him and was generous towards him.

After his wife's mental illness, Phull resigned in 1821 and, still in the favor of the tsar, went back to Stuttgart, where he died in 1826. His widow had recovered and in 1827 acquired the Pomeranian manor in Schwerin , where she grew up and where she lived as a landlady until her death in 1840. Among other things, she laid the Elmershagen Vorwerk on her property in 1838 .

Carl Ludwig August von Phull was buried in the Hoppenlaufriedhof in Stuttgart . His grave monument has the shape of a tumba with a large grave slab that is inscribed in Russian and German. The German text reads: “We don't belong to us, we belong to the universe! Here is buried Carl Ludwig August Freiherr von Phull, Imperial Russian Lieutenant General, Grand Cross of the Russian Order of St. Alexander Newsky, St. Vladimir First Class, St. Anna First Class, Grand Cross of the Dutch Great Order of Lions, Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite , née . November 6, 1757. April 25, 1826. "

family

Phull was married three times:

  • I. in Potsdam on May 2, 1790 Henriette Luise Charlotte von Beguelin (* December 25, 1763; † 1810), daughter of Nikolaus von Béguelin . The marriage was divorced in 1800.
  • II. On September 18, 1801 in Warsaw with Charlotte Poths (1766–1808). The marriage was divorced in 1803.
  • III. in Berlin on October 4, 1810 with Sabine Friederike Henriette von Wedel (after 1773; † February 19, 1840 in Schwerin).

His third wife, described as a “prudent and witty wife” with whom he ran a “brilliant house” in Brussels in 1814, later became mentally ill and thus gave rise to his resignation.

His children are:

  • from first marriage: Marie Luise Emilie Henriette (born August 14, 1792 in Berlin; † 1864)
  • from second marriage: Eugen (1801–1857) ∞ Emilie von Boths (cousin)

The descendants of Karl Ludwig von Phull flourished in Poland. In family genealogy, the “Polish branch” is also used.

Aftermath

Military council of Tsar Alexander I in Drissa (held on July 1, 1812). Painting by Aleksandrs Apsītis (1912)

The dispute over its importance for the Russian strategy of withdrawal in 1812 is reflected in detail in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace (1868).

The claim to have recommended the retreat strategy to the Tsar is claimed by several military officers, including Bernadotte . This dispute is put into perspective by the fact that since the successful guerrilla tactics of the insurgents in the Spanish War of Liberation from 1808 every interested officer in Europe was aware of this defensive strategy through military newspapers .

According to Clausewitz , who spent the beginning of the Russian campaign in the vicinity of Phuhll, this should only have initiated the retreat as far as Drissa , where Phull wanted to battle Napoleon. His plan would have contributed so inadvertently to the Russian withdrawal to Moscow, since generals like Barclay de Tolly had already pushed for a battle on the border. However, Clausewitz expressly refuses to attribute the entire withdrawal strategy to Phull. Rather, it was a chain of coincidences and instantaneous decisions, of which Phull's retreat to Drissa was arguably the most important.

Caulaincourt , the French ambassador at the court of the tsars, reports, however, that even before June 1811, one year before the start of the campaign, Alexander was considering a strategy of retreat: “If the luck in arms should be against me,” Alexander said, “I would prefer to retreat all the way back to Kamchatka , when I gave up provinces and signed a treaty in my capital that would only be an armistice. The French are brave; but long hardship and a harsh climate discourage him. Our climate, our winter will fight for us. With you miracles only happen where the emperor stands. He cannot be everywhere, he cannot stay away from Paris for years! ” Alexander had said that he was only too aware of Napoleon's talent for winning battles and would therefore avoid fighting the French where they were under his command stand. Referring to the guerrillas in Spain, he said that the entire Russian nation would resist an invasion. "

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst: Private and official writings: teacher, artilleryman, trailblazer (Prussia 1801-1804). Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2005, ISBN 978-3-412-25005-8 , p. 26 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ Kay von Wedel-Schwerin: From the eventful life of a Pomeranian country woman: Henriette von Pfuel, née von Wedel, from Schwerin . In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 1/2011, ISSN  0032-4167 , pp. 19-25.
  3. ↑ Udo Dickenberger, Waltraud and Friedrich Pfäfflin, Der Stuttgarter Hoppenlau-Friedhof as a literary monument (= Marbacher Magazin ) 59/1991, ISBN 3-928882-34-1 , p. 202
  4. ^ Geschiedene Glasenapp , cf. Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of noble houses, 1901, first year, p.330
  5. ↑ Gothaisches aristocratic paperback A 1906 p.577
  6. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume XX, page 337, Volume 93 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1988.
  7. ↑ The campaign of 1812 in Russia, the campaign from 1813 to the armistice and the campaign of 1814 in France, left work of General Carl von Clausewitz, vol. 7, by Ferdinand Dümmler, Berlin 1835, (ed. By Marie von Clausewitz) .
  8. ↑ Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt: “In private with Napoleon. Memories of General Caulaincourt ” , ed. v. Friedrich Matthaesius, Bielefeld 1937, pp. 18–34, quoted from Adam Zamoyski: "1812. Napoleon's campaign in Russia" , Munich 2012, p. 94.
personal data
SURNAME Phull, Karl Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Phull, Karl Ludwig August Friedrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian officer and chief of staff
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1826
Place of death Stuttgart