Kuno von Moltke

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following important information is missing from this article or section:
The military career is completely absent
Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

Maximilian Harden (left), journalist who triggered the Harden-Eulenburg affair through his publications on the homosexual relationships between Philipp zu Eulenburg (center) and Kuno von Moltke (right) .

Kuno Augustus Friedrich Karl Detlev Graf von Moltke (born December 13, 1847 in Neustrelitz ; † March 19, 1923 in Breslau ) was a Prussian lieutenant general , wing adjutant of Kaiser Wilhelm II and city ​​commander of Berlin .

origin

Kuno von Moltke came from the Württemberg line of the old noble family Moltke . His parents were the Schleswig-Holstein politician in the Danish service Karl von Moltke (1798–1866) and his wife Marie Eugenie, née von Roeder (1810–1875).

Life

In 1896 - he was city commander of Berlin at the time - he married the widow Athalie (Lily) von Kruse-Neetzow (née von Heyden ); The marriage was divorced on November 15, 1899, as the wife had discovered that her husband had had an affair with the Prussian ambassador in Vienna, Philipp zu Eulenburg , for years. Lily von Moltke then married Harry von Elbe.

Moltke composed The Great Elector's Riding March in 1892 .

Eulenburg-Harden Trial

Moltke belonged to the entourage of Wilhelm II, which went down in history as the Liebenberger Kreis and exerted a great influence on the emperor. For the journalist Maximilian Harden , the fact that Wilhelm II, under the influence of the district, was not ready to risk a war with France in the First Morocco Crisis , was the reason to repeatedly attack the district sharply. The reason for this was Harden's knowledge of the homosexuality of some members of the circle, among other things due to letters Moltke's to Eulenburg, which Moltke's ex-wife had leaked to him in 1906. In the subsequent Eulenburg crisis, Moltke was one of those who were accused of offenses under Section 175 StGB (homosexual acts).

In the course of the process, Moltke Harden, who had openly called him homosexual, challenged a duel . Harden refused, whereupon it came to a defamation trial in June 1907 , which ended with Harden's acquittal . Moltke appealed against this judgment; In the appeal proceedings before the Berlin Regional Court, Harden was sentenced to four months in prison and to pay the costs of both proceedings.

Harden appealed against this judgment. In the appeal proceedings in May 1908, the judgment of the regional court was overturned because of a formal error (a witness who had already been dismissed had been summoned and interrogated again, but was not sworn in again) and referred back to the regional court.

At the subsequent hearing on April 20, 1909, both parties agreed that Harden had no intention of defamation towards Moltke and, in particular, had not accused him of homosexuality; that both parties therefore have no interest in further prosecuting Hardens. The court refused to drop the proceedings, however, found Harden guilty of all charges and sentenced him to a fine of 600 marks and to pay the costs of the three previous proceedings.

Against this judgment, Harden initially filed a revision, which he after an exchange of letters with v. Moltke, however, withdrew, whereby the judgment of the regional court became final.

literature

  • Isabel Hull : The entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Cambridge 1982.
  • John Röhl : The emperor's best friend. in: Kaiser, Hof und Staat. Wilhelm II and German politics. Munich 1988, pp. 35-77, v. a. 64 ff.
  • Nicolaus Sombart : Wilhelm II. Scapegoat and master of the middle. Berlin 1996.
  • Olaf Jessen: The Moltkes. Family biography. CH Beck , Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60499-7 .

Web links

Commons : Kuno von Moltke  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zeno: Volltext Kulturgeschichte: The insult process of the city commandant von Moltke against Maximilian ... Retrieved on October 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Remove gays like nettles . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1984, pp. 25 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Moltke, Kuno von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moltke, Kuno Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general, wing adjutant of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustrelitz
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1923
Place of death Wroclaw