Karl von Müffling called white

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Karl von Müffling
Signature Karl von Müffling called Weiß.PNG

Philipp Friedrich Carl Ferdinand Freiherr von Müffling called white (born June 12, 1775 in Halle (Saale) , † January 16, 1851 in Erfurt ) was a Prussian field marshal , military writer and geodesist .

Life

origin

Karl came from the aristocratic family Müffling and was the first child of the later Prussian major general Friedrich Wilhelm von Müffling (1742-1808) and his wife Charlotte, née von Borschitten (1743-1796).

Military career

In 1787, Müffling joined a fusilier battalion as a Junker , with whom he went to Silesia in 1790 and took part in the campaign against France in 1792/94 . From 1797 to 1802 he was employed in the trigonometric survey of Westphalia for the Lecoq map , then in 1803 as a prime lieutenant in the degree measurement in Thuringia. Supported by the influential General Ernst von Rüchel , he joined the General Staff as captain in 1805 . He also became a member of the military society founded by Gerhard von Scharnhorst .

In 1806 he was with the corps of the Duke of Weimar, joined Blücher after the Jena disaster and, after the meeting near Lübeck, was commissioned to complete the surrender of Ratekau . In 1808 he entered the service of Weimar as a member of the so-called "Secret Council", but in 1813 he returned to the Prussian Army and was assigned to the General Staff of Blucher as a lieutenant colonel .

Müffling is said to be the namesake of the “Battle of Nations” near Leipzig, as he wrote about it on October 19, 1813 and used this metaphor. By “Battle of Nations” he meant the sheer mass of “army peoples” who were involved and not “the” peoples in a national sense, as is often understood today.

After the battle at Haynau in Silesia, for which he had drafted the disposition, he became colonel . After the end of the armistice he became Quartermaster General in the Silesian Army, after the Battle of Leipzig major general and after the conclusion of the first Paris Peace Chief of the General Staff of the army that remained on the Rhine.

In the campaign against Napoleon in 1815, Müffling acted as a Prussian liaison officer at the headquarters of the British Army and, in this role, handled communications between Wellington and Blücher in the battle of Ligny . After the second capture of Paris, he was appointed military governor of the city. He ensured the consistent return of the cultural assets stolen by Napoleon, such as the Quadriga from the Brandenburg Gate and the Lion of Marcus from Venice . Until 1816, Müffling remained at the headquarters of the Duke of Wellington as an agent for Prussia. Here he joined forces with French officers and scholars to measure the degree between Dunkirk and the Seeberg. In 1816, the Prussian king gave him the Ringofen manor near Mühlberg in Thuringia , Mühlberg and the neighboring Freudental for his services . In 1817 he also bought Gleichen Castle for 800 thalers. Ringofen remained in family ownership until 1926.

After the Congress of Vienna , a uniform map of the Kingdom of Prussia was created under the direction of Karl von Müffling . Until then, only Jean Joseph Tranchot's cards from the time of Napoleon were available. The cards of the Prussian premiere were taken under his direction by young officers. Work began in 1836 for the Province of Westphalia and in 1842 for the Province of Rhineland .

In 1818 Müffling took part in the Aachen Congress . In 1820 he became Chief of the General Staff of the Prussian Army. As Lieutenant General he received in 1829 a mission to Constantinople Opel to the Sublime Porte to make inclined to peace with Russia, and has been in the March 1832 general of the VII. Corps and in 1837 governor of Berlin . From 1838 to 1844 he was also President of the Prussian State Council . In 1847 he received the requested release with the title of General Field Marshal and the Wandersleben domain as a gift. He then settled in Erfurt, where he died on January 16, 1851.

Karl von Müffling was buried in the Brühler Friedhof (now the Brühler Garten ) in Erfurt. In 1853, Friedrich August Stüler erected a classicist monument on his grave with a bust created by the Berlin sculptor Hermann Wittig (1819-1891). The monument, which had run down during the GDR era and whose bust was removed in 1951, was restored in 2000, desecrated a year later and restored again. Since then, the bust has been secured by a three meter high steel grating.

Karl von Müffling was a knight of the Black Eagle Order with diamonds .

Tomb in the Brühler Garten in Erfurt

  • Tomb for Karl von Müffling in Erfurt, by Stüler in 1853, renovated in 2000

  • Bust of Karl von Müffling in Erfurt, by Wittig 1853

  • Bust of Karl von Müffling behind a steel grating (2013)

  • History of Müffling's tomb in the Brühler Garten in Erfurt

family

Karl von Müffling married Wilhelmine von Schele-Scheelenburg (1775–1836) in 1799. The couple had the following children:

  • Eduard (1801–1887), Lord of Ringhofen, Privy Councilor and Knight of Honor of the Order of St. John
⚭ July 18, 1829 Emma von Müffling (1809–1830) daughter of Wilhelm von Müffling
⚭ August 3, 1832 Luise von Schwartz (1805–1834)
⚭ September 9, 1838 Hedwig von Bernstorff (1805–1883)
  • Ottilie (1802–1862) ⚭ May 23, 1831 Hermann von Estorf (1806–1878), Prussian captain
  • Pauline (1803–1886) ⚭ June 23, 1822 Adolf Graf von Westarp (1796–1850), Prussian lieutenant colonel

Publications

Müffling published his works under the code “C. by W. “.

  • Operation plan of the Prussian-Saxon Army 1806. Weimar 1806.
  • Marginalia on the principles of the higher art of war for the Austrian generals. Weimar 1808, 2nd edition, 1810.
  • The Prussian-Russian campaign in 1813. Breslau 1813, 2nd edition, Leipzig 1815.
  • History of the campaign of the Anglo-Hanover-Dutch and Brunswick armies under the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian armies under Prince Blücher in 1815. Stuttgart 1815.
  • Contributions to the history of war in 1813 and 1814; the campaigns of the Silesian army. Berlin 1824, 2 volumes.
  • Reflections on the great operations and battles, etc. Berlin 1825.
  • Napoleon's strategy in 1813. Berlin 1827.
  • Via the Roman roads on the right bank of the Lower Rhine. Starting from the winter camp Vetera, to Veste Aliso, over the pontes longi to the Marsen and to the lower Weser. Mittler, Berlin 1834. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf . Google digitization

The posthumous writing From my life Berlin 1851, 2nd edition 1855 ( digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.de%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DriE6AAAAcAAJ~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided%3D~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D )) was published by his son. It contains descriptions of what happened in Blücherer's headquarters in 1813-14. Müffling's memoirs were heavily criticized by Theodor von Bernhardi ( Memoirs from the Life of General von Toll. Volume 4.) because of Müffling's alleged vanity and prejudice against Gneisenau .

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl von Müffling called white  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Barons von Müffling were awarded royal prussia. Permission from April 5, 1878 approved the continuation of the baron title.
  2. ^ Karl Kiefer: On the history of the barons von Müffling, otherwise known as Weiss. Reprint from: Frankfurter Blätter für Familiengeschichte. Frankfurt am Main 1913.
  3. ^ Hans-Ulrich Thamer : The Battle of the Nations of Leipzig. Europe's fight against Napoleon. Munich 2013, p. 9.
  4. ^ Steffen Raßloff : Officer and cartographer. To the Müffling tomb in Erfurt . In: Thüringer Allgemeine from July 14, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Müffling called Weiss, Karl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müffling called Weiß, Philipp Friedrich Carl Ferdinand Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian field marshal, military writer and geodesist
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1775
PLACE OF BIRTH Hall
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1851
Place of death Erfurt