Karl Thomas von Othegraven

Karl Thomas von Othegraven (born July 4, 1769 in Aachen , † March 22, 1844 in Cologne ) was a Prussian lieutenant general .

Karl Thomas von Othegraven

Life

origin

Karl Thomas came from the noble family Othegraven . He was the youngest son of Johannes von Othegraven (1723-1821), captain of the Aachen district company, and his wife Katharina, née Juchens (1736-1802).

Military career

Othegraven joined the Prussian Army "von Eichmann" infantry regiment on April 12, 1786, as a private corporal , of which he was a member for the next twenty years. As Portepeefähnrich he took part in the blockade of Naarden , the battle near Meuden and the capture of Nivesluis during the campaign in Holland in 1787 . Othegraven then fought against revolutionary France in 1792/95 at Famars , Kaiserslautern , St. Imbert, Trippstadt and St. Amand and was promoted to second lieutenant on January 24, 1793 . Within the regiment Othegraven was from 1804 in the grenadier battalion "von Krafft," became Prime Lieutenant on February 16, 1805 and took part in the 1806 battle of Jena and Auerstedt . With the subsequent surrender of Erfurt , Othegraven fell briefly into French captivity . He then lived in Paderborn for two years on half his salary .

At the end of 1808 he was employed again as a staff captain and assigned to the 1st East Prussian Infantry Regiment . At the end of February 1811 Othegraven rose to captain and company commander and was promoted to major in February and assigned with the formation of the 2nd Reserve Battalion of the Leib-Infantry Regiment . On July 1, 1813, he joined the 2nd Brandenburg Infantry Regiment with the battalion . On August 1, 1813, Othegraven was commissioned to lead the 12th Infantry Regiment, with which he fought during the Wars of Liberation, initially in the Battle of the Katzbach . There he succeeded in counterattacking the French troops, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class. For his achievements in the Battle of Leipzig he received the Iron Cross 1st Class and the Order of St. George IV Class. As the war continued, Othegraven and his regiment took part in the battles of Laon , Paris , Ligny and Belle Alliance . For his work in the Battle of Paris, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Othegraven on May 31, 1815 with the oak leaves to the order Pour le Mérite . He was also promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed regimental commander.

Grave (Melaten cemetery)

After the defeat of Napoleon Othegraven was on June 30, 1815 initially acting brigade commander at III. Army Corps and in this position was promoted to colonel on October 3, 1815 . He then joined the Mobile Army Corps in France in June 1817 and became commander of the 15th Infantry Brigade the following year. In this position he was promoted to major general on March 30, 1823 and on September 13, 1825 he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle III. Class. Due to his poor health, Othegraven gave up the brigade in 1831 and was appointed commander of Jülich at the end of March 1831 . After three years he was transferred to Düsseldorf , where he was commander of the 14th Landwehr Brigade.

For health reasons Othegraven asked for his resignation, which he on March 9, 1836 presentation of the character as a Lieutenant General with the statutory pension was granted. The king refused his request to grant him the pension of a division commander, but granted him a gift of 300 thalers .

Othegraven died in 1844 at the age of 74 and was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (HWG, between lit. B + C).

family

Othegraven had married Jeanette von Tschirschky (1772-1817) on May 6, 1798 in Wesel . She was the daughter of the Prussian major general Friedrich August Albrecht von Tschirschky . The following children were born from the marriage:

• Albert (1798–1866), Prussian major general ⚭ Auguste von Kessel (1800–1872)
• Auguste Mathilde (* 1799), canoness in Lippstadt
• Gustav Adolf (* 1801)
• Friedrich August (1802–1878), Prussian lieutenant general
• Eveline (* 1806)
• Friedrich Wilhelm (1809–1869), Prussian major a. D. , last in the 8th Uhlan Regiment

Othegraven in fiction

As commander of the 2nd Brandenburg Infantry Regiment, Othegraven initiated the victory over Napoleon in the Battle of the Katzbach with a personally led bayonet attack by the 2nd Battalion. Theodor Fontane noted in the walks through the Mark Brandenburg :

“The decision was made on the plateau on which York and Sacken were standing ... The Othegraven battalion threw itself with hurray on the individual battalion already on the plateau and hit it with the butt. In ten minutes everything was dead on the floor. ... So the battle was opened brilliantly by the Hünerbein brigade and especially by the battalions of Othegraven, von Laurens and von Zepelin. "

Friedrich Wilhelm von Chappuis (1793–1869), Prussian major general and poet, who himself fought in battle under Othegraven, wrote the heroic poem on it:

Othegraven, the bold There Brandenburger, there the enemy brags! Closed in a mighty column; Come on, you fellows, whoever thinks it honestly, turn the butt into a club, And break into the ranks with the force of the storm, Because today is the great French battle ! The Fiihrer speaks it, the Othegrav, And trembling heard the Franks; The fires storm so faithfully and well, To break the enemy's barriers; But without giving way, the Welschen stand. - A Sempacher deed must be done here! The avenging sword in loyal hand calls Othegraven, the bold: “Today it's the king and fatherland! Up, brothers, to the bloody atonement! Let everyone follow who means it honestly! ” He shouts it and throws himself into the enemy.

And with him Meja, the brave hero, Of noble Silesian blood, And whether pierced he falls down, Yet he fights with iron courage - And when she broke the bloody path, The Prussian battle was done. Because tightly enclosed, in the ring 'pressed, the Welsh despair of life, The Prussians celebrate the feast of vengeance , No quarters are given, And the German courage joyfully atoned for the angry sky with Welsh blood'. The Katzbach rushes more proudly towards the Oder, with bloody waves, And the green meadows are freshly refreshed At those sacred places where the savior of the fatherland in the men's quarrel frees the land from foreign spoilers.

Another poet named Reimnitz wrote a poem which - among other things - honored Othegraven in battle. In the soldier's song The Battle of the Katzbach it was said:

A quarré stood like walls, and we screamed on it! The quarre soon turned into a heap of corpses.

The editors added that the "French battalion was ... slain with the butts that it was in a heap. Powder was not needed." This in turn prompted Fontane to counter such kind of pathos and to transform the military Othegraven in his first novel Before the Storm into a clergyman, Vice-Principal Othegraven, who in the end dies under the bullets of a French fusilier squad.

literature

• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 4, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632799 , pp. 443-444, no. 1380.
• Friedrich August Schmidt (Hrgb): New Nekrolog der Deutschen . 22nd year, 1st part, Bernhard Friedrich Voigt , Weimar 1846, pp. 299–303.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christian Zweng: The Knight of the Order Pour le Mérite 1740-1918. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1998, ISBN 3-7648-2473-5 , p. 17.
2. ^ Hermann Friedrich Macco: Aachen coat of arms and genealogies. Volume 2, Aachen 1907, p. 53.
3. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff: Soldatisches Führertum. Volume 6, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1938], DNB 367632810 , p. 415, no. 2037.
4. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff: Soldatisches Führertum. Volume 6, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1938], DNB 367632810 }, p. 484, no. 2102.
5. ↑ Hans Heinrich Fritz Cäcil von Förster: History of the Royal Prussian Uhlan Regiment Graf zu Dohna Ostpreussisches No. 8 from 1815 to 1890. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the regiment. Appendix p. 103.
6. ↑ Katzbach (Battle of the). In: Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Wagener: State and Society Lexicon. Volume 11, 1862, p. 192.
7. ^ I. The County of Ruppin The Ruppiner Garrison Regiment Mecklenburg-Schwerin No. 24, The Battle of the Katzbach
8. ↑ after Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Wagener: Staats- und Gesellschaft-Lexikon , Volume 11, 1862: Othegraven lost 3 officers and 188 soldiers, the French survived and were captured by the Colonel and 165 soldiers (with a battalion strength of 25 officers and 1000 Man).
9. ↑ Prussia Book. 1850, No. 93, pp. 88f.
10. ↑ Cf. Der Prussische Winkelried In: Frankfurter Ober-Post-Amts-Zeitung , supplement to Nro. 240, Friday, August 31, 1838. ( Google-book )
11. ↑ Prussia Book. 1850. No. 83, p. 79.
12. ^ Friedrich Leonard von Soltau, Rudolf Hildebrand (ed.): German historical folk songs: from Soltau's and Leyser's estate and other sources. Second Hundred , Volume 2, 1856, p. 461
13. ↑ Hubertus Fischer: "Prussian candidate and vice-principal natures". Othegraven or the end of the imagination - Fontane's apology of the prosaic hero. In: Religion as a relic. Christian traditions in Fontane's work. Würzburg 2006. Fontaneana 5. ISBN 978-3-8260-3545-6 . Pp. 91-120. ( Google-book )