Konstantin von Billerbeck

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Konstantin von Billerbeck (1713–1785)
Address by Frederick the Great to his officers before the Battle of Leuthen (detail), unfinished oil painting (1859–61) by Adolph Menzel.
The king (right, only the hat painted) looks at Billerbeck (in the group not painted in the middle)

Konstantin von Billerbeck (born November 19, 1713 in Janikow in Pomerania ; † November 27, 1785 in Köslin ) was a Prussian lieutenant general , chief of infantry regiment No. 17 and knight of the Black Eagle Order and bearer of the Pour le Mérite .

Life

origin

Konstantin was a member of the Pomeranian noble family von Billerbeck . His parents were the Prussian captain in the “Barfus” regiment and heir to Hohenwalde Gottfried von Billerbeck († before 1759) and Beate Johanne, née von Schmeling from the Streitz family (1690–1759). Major Carl Gottfried von Billerbeck was his brother.

Career

Billerbeck joined the cadet corps in Berlin in 1727 . In the Prince Leopold Regiment he served from July 1731 as a private corporal , from February 5, 1735 as an ensign and from January 26, 1737 as a second lieutenant. Since October 15, 1740 in the Prince Heinrich Regiment and promoted to Premier-Lieutenant on January 16, 1742, Billerbeck fought in the First and Second Silesian Wars , where he took part in the siege of Prague and the Battle of Hohenfriedberg in December 1744 . In 1749 he rose to staff captain and in 1751 to captain and company commander .

During the Seven Years' War , Billerbeck, major from February 1757, fought in the battles near Prague and Kolin , where he was wounded. Before that, in June 1757 Billerbeck had protected a bread convoy with 350 infantrymen and 150 hussars when it was attacked by 6000 Austrians near Nimburg . For this, King Friedrich II decorated it with the Pour le Mérite. In September 1757 Billerbeck took over command of the Prince Heinrich regiment . He led the regiment in the battle of Leuthen . In the years 1758/59 he was the commandant of Torgau . Billerbeck suffered a serious wound in the battle of Kunersdorf . Promoted to lieutenant colonel in April 1762, he took part in the battle near Reichenbach . On January 8, 1763, Friedrich granted Billerbeck's resignation because of his severe wound and retired.

Immediately after Billerbeck applied for re-employment in September 1766, Friedrich appointed him commander of the Fusilier Regiment von Zieten . In July 1767 he promoted him to colonel, appointed him major general in May 1771 and made him chief of the infantry regiment von Rosen in January 1772 . Billerbeck led his regiment in the War of the Bavarian Succession , but was often ill afterwards. Friedrich appointed him lieutenant general on May 20, 1784 and awarded him the Order of the Black Eagle on June 3, 1784, the highest distinction in Prussia.

Billerbeck became a historical figure through an interjection, with which he interrupted the dramatic speech of his king on the eve of the Battle of Leuthen . After Friedrich had demanded "blood and life" from his officers for the next day, he announced that he would not refuse to "leave without reproach" to any officer who no longer wanted to follow him. Thereupon Billerbeck shouted: “That would have to be an infamous bastard.” The event inspired Adolph von Menzel to write his largest, but unfinished painting, Speech of Frederick the Great to his officers before the Battle of Leuthen .

family

He was married to Katharina Dorothea Charlotte Pöpping, with whom he had seven children:

  • Karl Konstantin (1749–1820), Rittmeister, lord of Carwitz near Schlawe
⚭ Barbara Maria Morgenroth
⚭ Albertine von Wahlen-Jürgass
  • Gottfried Heinrich (1757–1778), lieutenant
  • Leopold Ludwig (* 1764 - † July 25, 1821), captain, lord of Gittelde
⚭ Juliane Sophie von Utteroth (born October 1, 1764)
⚭ Marianne Luise Schramm
  • Friederike Charlotte Luise (born June 15, 1759) ⚭ 1777 Johann Ludwig Albrecht von Schaper (born January 24, 1734 - † March 3, 1808), Prussian colonel and commandant of the Weichselmünde fortress , parents of Heinrich Johann von Schaper
  • Karoline Agnese (* 1761; † December 2, 1805) ⚭ Adam Joachim Friedrich Wilhelm von Boehm († 1815), Lord of Grumbkow
  • Albertine Beate (* 1762)
  • Juliane Wilhelmine (* 1766)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhold Koser : History of Frederick the Great. Fourth and fifth increased edition, Volume 2, Cotta, Stuttgart and Berlin 1913, p. 551
  2. ↑ On this Jürgen Kloosterhuis : Menzel militaris. His "Army Works" and the "Leuthen" picture in the context of military history. Secret State Archive of Prussian Cultural Heritage (self-published), Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-923579-21-1 , Billerbeck's exclamation p. 141
personal data
SURNAME Billerbeck, Konstantin von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Billerbeck, Constantin von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1713
PLACE OF BIRTH Janikow in Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1785
Place of death Koslin