Konrad von Schäffer

Konrad Rudolf von Schäffer

Konrad Rudolf Schäffer , since 1820 Freiherr von Schäffer (born October 14, 1770 in Hagen-Ohsen ; † January 15, 1838 in Baden (Baden) ) was a Baden lieutenant general and minister of war .

Life

The son of the dragoon officer Johann Friedrich Schaeffer from the Electorate of Hanover belonged to the Protestant Church. He joined the cavalry of his homeland in 1784 and took part in the campaigns against the young French Republic in the Netherlands from 1792 to 1795 . He joined Hanover in 1792 as a lieutenant , served in the 10th "Prince of Wales" Dragoon Regiment and in 1795 became first lieutenant . In 1800 he joined the volunteer Scheithersche Jägerkorps as a captain , which was in the service of the Kurmainzer Erzstifts. After the campaigns of 1800 and 1801, he was promoted to major and commander of the Jäger Corps in 1802 . Because of the secularization of Kurmainz, Schäffer got the future Duke of Nassau as the new employer .

Schäffer was commander of the 3rd Nassau battalion and in 1804 was promoted by the Prince of Nassau to lieutenant colonel and vice president of the war council, and later appointed president. In 1806 he was made a colonel in the brigade staff and on January 1, 1808 promoted to the Nassau general. In 1807, Schäffer and commander of all Nassau troops led the Nassau contingent in Napoleon's campaigns against Prussia and Sweden . He fought in the sieges of Kolberg and Stralsund. In October 1808 Schäffer was deployed as a brigadier general in the wars on the Iberian Peninsula , his Nassauer were in the army corps of Marshal Lefebvre near Bilbao , fought near Durango and advanced on Madrid. In the following year 1809 he fought under Marshal Victor at Mesa de Ibor (March 17), Medellin (March 28), Talavera (July 27-28 ) and at Almonacid (August 11). Because of an illness he returned to Germany in 1810 and was appointed to reorganize the Nassau troops in the Rhine Confederation .

On May 4, 1813, he entered the service of the Grand Duchy of Baden as Major General and went to Napoleon's headquarters in Dresden. He was briefly imprisoned by the Allied powers, where in October he became military officer at the headquarters and later helped transfer Baden to the camp of the coalition against Napoleon. For this he received the Commander's Cross of the Military Karl Friedrich Order of Merit . During the campaign against France in 1814 , Schäffer had already risen to lieutenant general of the cavalry and president of the Baden War Ministry. In 1815 Schäffer came to fight the rule of the Hundred Days with 18,350 troops from Baden to reinforce the II. Austrian Army Corps under General Karl Prince zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg along the Rhine border and in Alsace to siege the city of Strasbourg. He was able to fend off a counterattack by General Rapp on the positions near Oberschesselsheim. For this he received the Military Maria Theresa Order , with which the elevation to the baron status was connected, and the Grand Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion . During the coalition wars , Schäffer took part in a total of 15 battles, 106 skirmishes and four sieges. In 1817 he went on a diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg and on his return he was appointed to the State Council. It was not until 1833 that he resigned from his position as President of the War Ministry. On his departure he received the Grand Cross for the House Order of Loyalty .

Baden Minister of War

During his time as Baden's Minister of War from August 16, 1814 to December 4, 1833, the Baden army was initially involved in the military structures of the German Confederation . According to the Federal War Constitution, which came into force in April 1821, Baden had to bring a contingent of 10,000 men into the VIII Army Corps . The 1820s in Baden were marked by an ongoing conflict between the Second Chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly and the Berstett government over the question of the budget. After the immense military expenditures from 1805 to 1815, the Chamber wanted to limit further armaments expenditures as far as possible. Grand Duke Ludwig resolutely opposed efforts to reduce military spending . The Conscription Act, passed in 1825 and valid until 1867, provided for the obligation to do military service by drawing lots . A substitute regulation made it possible for wealthy citizens to buy themselves out of the drawing of lots.

From 1819 to 1828 Schäffer was a member of the First Chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly appointed by the Grand Duke.

family

He married Rosalie Clement, née Lagrenois, in the summer of 1818. She was the widow of the French captain Clement, who remained in the battle of Talavera de la Reyna. The couple had the following children:

• Leopoldine Caroline Marie Luise († 1882) ⚭ Alfred Geniol, pensioner in Karlsruhe
• August, Prussian Colonel

literature

• L. Löhlein: Konrad Rudolf Freiherr von Schäffer. In: Friedrich von Weech (Ed.): Badische Biographien . Volume II. Friedrich Bassermann publishing house, Heidelberg 1875, pp. 244–249 ( digitized version )
• Georg Muhl: Memories from the life of Baron CR von Schäffer. Pforzheim 1840 ( digitized version )
• Bernhard von Poten :  Schäffer, Konrad Rudolf Freiherr v. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, pp. 534-536.
• Peter Wacker: The ducal-Nassau military 1813–1866. Volume 2, 1998, ISBN 3-922027-85-7 , p. 465.

Web links

• Schaeffer, Konrad Rudolf Freiherr von. Hessian biography. (As of February 26, 2013). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

predecessor	Office	successor
Karl Friedrich Fischer	Minister of War of the Grand Duchy of Baden 1814–1833	Karl Wilhelm Eugen von Freydorf