Leopold of Bavaria
Leopold Maximilian Joseph Maria Arnulf Prince of Bavaria (born February 9, 1846 in Munich ; † September 28, 1930 ibid) was a German field marshal .
Life
family
Leopold was born on February 9, 1846 as the grandson of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and the son of Prince Luitpold of Bavaria and his wife Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria , making him the younger brother of King Ludwig III. of Bavaria . From 1852 to 1863, the artillery officer Ferdinand von Malaisé acted as tutor and private tutor for the two brothers, and from 1855 Heinrich von Vallade also supported the training of the princes.
Military career
Leopold joined the Bavarian Army on November 28, 1861 as a 16-year-old cadet in the 6th Jäger Battalion . On December 20, 1862, he moved to the 2nd Infantry Regiment "Crown Prince" and on October 18, 1864 he joined the 3rd Artillery Regiment . In July 1866 he fought as a hunter lieutenant in the war against Prussia . He was the leader of the 3rd and 4th gun its battery at Kissingen the baptism of fire and also took part in the Battle of Uettingen in part, on 28 April 1867 he was captain .
In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 he was awarded the Iron Cross II class as battery boss at Sedan and then proved himself so well in the battle at Villepion that he received the Military Max Joseph Order , the highest Bavarian award for bravery the enemy. For his participation in the loss-making battles at Beauvert on December 8-10, 1870, Leopold was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class as a major . On December 11, 1870, he took over the leadership of the 3rd Artillery Regiment. Together with his father Luitpold, who represented Bavaria, he took part in the imperial proclamation in Versailles on January 18, 1871. On March 27, 1871, Leopold was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
After the peace he expanded his circle of knowledge by traveling to England and Iceland, followed by a trip to Egypt, Constantinople and the Sinai Peninsula. On February 18, 1873 he became a colonel and at the same time commander of the 1st Royal Bavarian Heavy Rider Regiment "Prince Karl of Bavaria" .
On November 1, 1875, Leopold was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade . On June 16, 1881 he was promoted to Lieutenant General, at the same time he was given command of the 1st Division in Munich. On March 2, 1887, he reached the rank of general of the cavalry and took over the leadership of the 1st Army Corps the following day . On June 27, 1892 he was appointed inspector of the IV Army Inspection , on October 28, 1893 he changed this position and was appointed inspector general of the Bavarian Army. In connection with his 50th birthday, he was promoted to Colonel General of the Cavalry on February 9, 1896 . On January 1st, 1905, he received the Bavarian Marshal's Staff from the hands of the Bavarian Prince Regent and became Bavarian Field Marshal General. On March 27, 1913, two years after his 50th anniversary in the military, the prince retired into private life.
First World War
On 16 April 1915 reactivated for the war, Leopold took over at the eastern front the supreme command over the 9th Army . He took the place of August von Mackensen and was subordinate to Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg . Its operations were aimed at Warsaw . On August 5th, Warsaw was taken without a fight. On February 9, 1916, Leopold celebrated his 70th birthday in Slonim , his new headquarters . In the summer of 1916, Hindenburg was recalled from the East and charged with leading the entire German field army. On August 29, Leopold took his place as Commander in Chief East . On August 1, 1916, he received the rank of Prussian field marshal. His authority had to be gradually expanded to the south. It finally reached from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains. During the Kerensky offensive in July 1917 he was also in command of the hard-pressed Austro-Hungarian army group "Böhm-Ermolli" , which included the Austro-Hungarian 2nd and 3rd Army as well as the German Southern Army . After the outbreak of the revolution in Russia , peace negotiations began with the Soviets on November 26, 1917, and after the renewed German advance they were forced to sign the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty by March 3, 1918 . Leopold, along with Hindenburg and Mackensen, was awarded the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross .
post war period
After the armistice at Compiegne in November 1918, his occupation troops, which were deep in the Baltic States and Ukraine, began the difficult retreat as a result of the Russian civil war .
In January 1919 Leopold returned home to Munich, but had to flee abroad with his family before the revolution in February. Also in Ischl, where they arrived with forged passports, they were attacked by the workers 'and soldiers' council and, as aristocratic parasites, they were denied the necessary food. He was only able to return to Munich four months later and died there at the age of 84 on September 28, 1930.
Marriage and offspring
In the early 1870s, a marriage between Leopold and Princess Amalie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1848-1894) was planned. But it was precisely with this that Empress Elisabeth's youngest brother, Maximilian Emanuel Herzog in Bavaria , fell in love and wanted to marry her. In order to clear up the somewhat confused situation and to satisfy everyone, the empress intervened. She invited Leopold to Gödöllö Castle , where Archduchess Gisela (1856–1932) was. The Bavarian prince could not refuse the hand of the emperor's daughter because it was too tempting to become the son-in-law of the emperor of Austria. Leopold was a little embarrassed about the deal with his almost fiancé Amalie, but he soon ignored it. For him, the connection with the Archduchess was a major hit, not only as an image gain, but also in material terms. Archduchess Gisela received half a million florins from her Habsburg grandparents alone, not to mention the bride's father, Emperor Franz Joseph I himself. On April 20, 1873, Leopold married Archduchess Gisela of Austria in Vienna. Empress Elisabeth did not appear for the wedding, but she did for the baptism of Gisela's first daughter, for whom she was the godmother and namesake.
Four children emerged from the mutual connection:
- Elisabeth (1874–1957) ⚭ Otto von Seefried
- Auguste (1875–1964) ⚭ Joseph August of Austria
- Georg (1880–1943)
- Konrad (1883–1969) ⚭ Bona Margherita of Savoy-Genoa
ancestors
Honors
Munich's Leopoldstrasse has been named after him since 1891.
literature
- Stefan März : The Wittelsbach House in the First World War: Chance and collapse of monarchical rule. Blow. Regensburg 2013. ISBN 978-3-79172-497-3 .
- Hans-Michael Körner , Ingrid Körner (ed.): From the memoirs of Leopold Prince of Bavaria (1846–1930). Blow. Regensburg 1983. ISBN 3-7917-0872-4 .
- Eugen Wolbe: Prince Leopold of Bavaria. Koehler Publishing House. Leipzig 1920.
- Jürgen Hahn-Butry (ed.): Prussian-German field marshals and grand admirals. Safari. Berlin 1938.
- Hans-Michael Körner: Leopold. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , pp. 271 f. ( Digitized version ).
Web links
- Literature by and about Leopold von Bayern in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Leopold von Bayern in the German Digital Library
- Newspaper article about Leopold von Bayern in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
- Entry to Bavaria, Leopold von in Kalliope
- Entry about Bavaria, Leopold Prince von in the central database of bequests
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dr. Theodor Toeche-Mittler: The imperial proclamation in Versailles on January 18, 1871 with a list of the festival participants . Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1896.
- ↑ Heinrich Schnaebeli: photographs of the imperial proclamation in Versailles . Berlin 1871.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bavaria, Leopold von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bavaria, Leopold Maximilian Joseph Maria Arnulf von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Field Marshal General, Prince of Bavaria |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 9, 1846 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Munich |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 28, 1930 |
| Place of death | Munich |