Charles of Villaume

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Karl Hermann Julius von Villaume (born March 8, 1840 , † June 3, 1900 in Berlin ) was a Prussian artillery general and military attaché.

Life

origin

The ancestor of the Daniel Villaume family fled to Prussia after the edict of Nantes was repealed . Karl was the son of Adolf Karl Alexander von Villaume (1807–1882) and his wife Karoline, née Lehnert (1809–1873). His father was Vice President of the Chamber of Accounts in Potsdam and had received the Prussian nobility on November 13, 1877. The Prussian Lieutenant General Hermann von Villaume (1846–1911) was his brother.

Military career

Villaume joined the Prussian Army around 1860 and was promoted to captain in the General Staff by 1877 at the latest . Shortly afterwards, he experienced the Russo-Turkish War as a German observer at the Russian headquarters . After the peace agreement, Villaume was sent to the German embassy in Rome as a military attaché , where he remained active until 1882. That year he was recalled from Rome and transferred to the German embassy in Paris in the same position . During his time in Paris, Villaume received documents from a French traitor detailing the operations of the French espionage system. The French's dissatisfaction with these events and their fears that Villaume might be the head of a full-blown spy ring formed the reason for his recall in 1886. In the German Empire, these events earned him all the more recognition. June 1886 was appointed wing adjutant of the future German Emperor Wilhelm II . In November 1886, Villaume was appointed military attaché in Saint Petersburg , which he took up in 1887. Until 1893, as the successor to General von Werder, he was responsible for maintaining the German Reich's military-political relations with the court of the tsars.

Villaume played a political role especially in the years 1887 to 1890, in which he played an indirect role in connection with the overthrow of the first Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck : As a political follower of the Chief of Staff Alfred von Waldersee , Villaume - like his fellow attaché in Paris , Vienna, London and Rome - Waldersee with reports that cast a bad light on the German ambassadors at their locations and thus on German foreign policy and its originator, Bismarck. Waldersee used this as ammunition against the Chancellor by passing these reports to the Crown Prince, or later to the young Kaiser Wilhelm II, and thus helped to take them against Bismarck.

After his return to the Reich in 1893, Villaume took over command of the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade in Stettin , which he commanded until March 21, 1895. In 1896 Villaume was appointed director of the War Academy in Berlin. In addition, he was a member of the Obermilitary Study Commission, department head in the military cabinet of the emperor and at times the deputy head of this body.

literature

  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the letter aristocratic houses. 1910. Fourth year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1909, p. 861.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Year of birth, date and place of death according to Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events , 1901, p. 542.
  2. ^ Isabel V. Hull : The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II. 1888-1918. 2004, p. 211.
  3. ^ Günter Wegmann (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Formation history and staffing of the German armed forces 1815-1990. Part 1: Occupation of the German armies 1815–1939. Volume 2: The staffing of active infantry regiments as well as Jäger and MG battalions, military district commandos and training managers from the foundation or list until 1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-1782-8 , p. 490.
  4. ^ Gerhard Ebel, Michael Behnen (eds.): Ambassador Paul Graf von Hatzfeldt. Recovered papers 1838-1901. 1976, p. 780.
personal data
SURNAME Villaume, Karl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Villaume, Karl Hermann Julius von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the artillery and military attaché
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1840
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1900
Place of death Berlin