Leopold Gondrecourt
Count Leopold Gondrecourt (* 1816 in Nancy ; † May 22, 1888 in Salzburg ) was a general in the Austrian Empire , later in Austria-Hungary , of French origin.
Life
After attending the Saint-Cyr military school in Saint-Cyr-l'École , Count Gondrecourt entered the service of the Austrian army. At the end of 1863 he was appointed as a brigadier in command of a 4800-strong brigade that was sent to Schleswig-Holstein . On 17./18. In December 1863 he set out from Prague for Schleswig-Holstein, initially as an Austrian contingent of the German federal troops in the federal execution against the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg in 1863 and then continued to take part in the German-Danish War of 1864 with the Prussian Army . Together with the Prussian Canstein Brigade , Gondrecourt's association stormed the area in front of the Danewerk during the battle for the Königshügel near Selk on February 3, 1864 . For the successful capture of the Königshügel he was awarded the Military Maria Theresa Order . For his further military service in the German-Danish war, the Prussian commander, Count v. Wrangel proposed to the Prussian King Wilhelm I to award Gondrecourt the order Pour le Mérite '... for his praiseworthy behavior in the battle near Oberselk and in the storming of the Königsberg, as mentioned in my earlier proposal, but also for his excellent bravura in Veile on the 8th of the month ... '. King Wilhelm I then awarded him this medal on March 31, 1864.
In 1864 Gondrecourt was still chief steward and tutor to the six-year-old Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf . The boy, who was appointed colonel at birth, was to be raised to be a soldier. For this purpose, Gondrecourt used military educational methods, such as B. water treatment, waking up with pistol shots, nocturnal exposure in the zoo, as well as hours of exercise . After one of his subordinates, Josef Latour , had the courage to inform the mother Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (Sisi) , who was abroad, about the negative effects of these upbringing methods on her son, she issued an ultimatum. As a result, Emperor Franz Joseph I dismissed Gondrecourt in 1866.
He then became the commandant of the Theresienstadt fortress . In 1866 he became adjutant to General Eduard Clam-Gallas in the 1st Army Corps, later commanding general with the rank of major general of the same. In 1888 Gondrecourt was released into retirement.
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Gondrecourt, Leopold Graf . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 11th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1864, p. 417 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Gondrecourt, Leopold Graf. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 32.
- Brigitte Hamann . Crown Prince Rudolf. One life. Piper Publishing House. Munich 2006. ISBN 978-3-492-24572-2 . Pages 28-32.
Individual evidence
- ^ Theodor Fontane: The Schleswig-Holstein War in 1864, page 398, note 66, Baltica-Verlag, Flensburg, 1999.
- ^ Gustav Lehmann: The Knights of the Order pour le merite, Volume 2, Page 457, No. 47, Mittler, Berlin, 1913.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gondrecourt, Leopold |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian major general, educator Archduke Rudolf |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1816 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nancy |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 22, 1888 |
| Place of death | Salzburg |