Ludwig (Hessen-Homburg)

Coffin of Landgrave Ludwig in the crypt of the Homburg Landgrave Castle

Ludwig Wilhelm (born August 29, 1770 in Homburg vor der Höhe , † January 19, 1839 in Luxembourg ) was Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg and Prussian officer from 1829 until his death , most recently General of the Infantry and Governor of the Federal Fortress of Luxembourg .

Life

Ludwig was the second son of Landgrave Friedrich V and his wife Karoline von Hessen-Darmstadt , a daughter of Landgrave Ludwig IX. von Hessen-Darmstadt and Henriette Karoline von Pfalz-Zweibrücken , the Great Landgrave .

He was raised together with his older brother Friedrich ; they studied together in Geneva , then on November 18, 1788 Ludwig was hired as a captain in the Prussian army . As such, he became company commander in the "von Wendessen" infantry regiment No. 29 on May 12, 1790 . On January 9, 1793, he was placed on the field budget and ordered to Frankfurt am Main, from there he came to the 10th Infantry Regiment on January 22, 1793 as a company commander .

In the First Coalition War he fought in the skirmishes near Altstadt, Eschweiler, Herzogshand, Zweibrücken, Meckenheim, Fenningen Edinghofen and also in the battle of Kaiserslautern . At that time he became major on April 7, 1794.

On January 18, 1800 he received the Order of the Red Eagle and on May 20, 1803 he was made a lieutenant colonel (with a patent on June 18, 1803). As a newly promoted lieutenant colonel , he married Princess Augusta Amalia von Nassau-Usingen in 1804 . This "dynastic marriage" with the daughter of a neighboring prince did not go well, Augusta was in love with Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck . The marriage ended in divorce in 1805 and Ludwig never remarried. Ricarda Huch processed the facts of this matter in 1925 in “ Count Mark and the Princess of Nassau-Usingen . A tragic biography ”.

On January 3, 1804, the king appointed him commander of the 10th Infantry Regiment and on June 18, 1805, a colonel. During the Fourth Coalition War he fell into French captivity when Erfurt surrendered and was made inactive in 1807.

During the reorganization of the army on July 25, 1809, he was also appointed major general with garrison in Königsberg . and became brigadier of the infantry of the East Prussian troop brigade. For this he received a salary of 2,600 thalers and 8 rations. On February 16, 1810, he was transferred to Berlin as a brigadier of the Brandenburg infantry.

During the Wars of Liberation , he fought his “Brigade Hessen-Homburg” in the battle near Sackau and in the battles near Großbeeren , Dennewitz and Leipzig . In Leipzig he stormed the Grimmasche Tor at the head of his troops and was wounded in the process. He also stood at the siege of Luxemburg, Thionville and Mezieres. For Mezieres he received the Iron Cross 2nd class . During this time he was on October 21, 1813 chief of the 3rd Brigade in the III. Army corps and also lieutenant general. On December 27, 1813 he was appointed commander of the Landwehr between the Elbe and the Rhine, and on January 29, 1814, he was appointed commander of the siege troops off Wesel. For Leipzig he was also awarded the Maria Theresa Order on December 18, 1814 . After the Second Peace of Paris he was appointed governor of Luxembourg on April 15, 1815 . In the summer campaign of 1815 he fought again as part of the Prussian army, so he commanded the artillery attack on the Longwy fortress on July 2, 1815 and then besieged the fortress from August 11 until the armistice on September 8, 1815.

On December 10, 1816, he received the Russian Order of St. Vladimir , and on November 20, 1817, an allowance of 300 thalers a month to his salary as governor of Luxembourg. Then on January 21, 1818 he received the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Ludwig and on April 25, 1821 the Grand Cross of the Hanoverian Guelph Order . He was also promoted militarily, on September 25, 1823 he became chief of the 16th Infantry Regiment and on June 18, 1825 General of the Infantry . On April 2, 1829 he entered the government of Hesse-Homburg, but remained governor of the Luxembourg fortress. On his 50th anniversary in service, he received the Order of the Black Eagle with diamonds from the King .

The business of government in Homburg was carried out by Karl von Ibell and Ludwig was only present sporadically. As a wealthy man who liked to travel, he preferred to travel to European countries, but was always interested in what was going on in his “Little Fatherland” ( Fried Lübbecke ). He promoted Ibell's school reforms, which envisaged a joint school for Protestant and Catholic (from 1837 also Jewish) students. The school building for co-educational lessons was inaugurated in 1831 and is now called the "Landgraf Ludwig School".

The promotion of the still modest spa business was also his focus, he had a small Kursälchen built (in which the Bad Homburg casino is today) and the fountain redesigned; for this the Ludwigsbrunnen was named after him.

During the reign of Ludwig, first the Meisenheimer (1829), then the Homburg region (1835) joined the German Customs Union .

The spark of the July Revolution jumped over to Hessen-Homburg, the military mutinied and several young Homburgers supported the Frankfurt Wachensturm .

In 1838 Ludwig celebrated his 50th anniversary in the Prussian military service and was in recognition of his services by Friedrich Wilhelm III. with the Black Eagle diamonds excellent. He visited Homburg again for two weeks and returned to Luxembourg, where he died on January 19, 1839.

Ludwig is buried in the crypt of Bad Homburg Castle .

literature

• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , pp. 323-326, no. 1148.
• Karl Schwartz, Landgrave Friedrich V of Hessen-Homburg and his family. From archival documents and family papers, Rudolstadt 1878
• Wilhelm von Gebler, Memories from the life of Field Marshal Landgrave Philipp zu Hessen-Homburg, p.86f

Web links

• Hessen-Homburg, Ludwig Wilhelm Landgrave of. Hessian biography. (As of January 21, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich VI.	Landgrave of Hessen-Homburg 1829–1839	Philip