Ludwig Moritz von Lucadou

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludwig Moritz von Lucadou (born March 23, 1741 in Geneva , † June 21, 1812 in Köslin ) was a Prussian officer , most recently major general . He became known for his role in the siege of Kolberg in 1807 .

Life

Ludwig Moritz came from a noble family from Languedoc , his mother tongue was French. He was the son of the Sardinian colonel and brigadier Benoit von Lucadou (1683-1772) and his wife Madeleine Luise Charlotte, née de Chauvet.

Lucadou was initially in Sardinian service from 1756. During the Seven Years' War he joined the Grenadier Battalion “von Unruh” No. 2 of the Prussian Army in 1760 as an ensign . He took part in the battle of Reichenbach and and was wounded in a battle near Ratibor . During the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1779 he was noticeable to King Friedrich II for his particular bravery. Awarded a saber of honor by him, he also became personally known to the heir to the throne, Friedrich Wilhelm II . As king, Friedrich Wilhelm ordered Major Lucadou to be used in the campaign against France in his court camp in 1792 and appointed him as city commander of Frankfurt am Main . After the conquest of Mainz , Lucadou was first commandant on August 1, 1793 and then governor of Mainz from January 1794 . After leaving the city, he again took over the command in Frankfurt until the Peace of Basel . Then he resigned in the troop service, was commander of the grenadier battalion 5/20 and in 1801 promoted to colonel .

In 1803, King Friedrich Wilhelm III appointed. Lucadou as commandant of the Kolberg Fortress. Such a position was generally accepted as a retirement post for deserving officers in order to save pension money. Lucadou was already in poor health and could no longer be used in the front line.

After the defeat and collapse of the Prussian Army in the fall of 1806 in the Fourth Coalition War , Lucadou refused to hand the fortress over to the French, put it systematically into a state of defense and exercised control over a large part of northwestern Pomerania for months. When the struggle for Kolberg began in March 1807, Lucadou's position was difficult because of the distrust of the patriotic part of the citizenship around the citizen representative Joachim Nettelbeck , while another part did not agree with the burdens resulting from the defense efforts. Lucadou did not succeed in harnessing the vigor of militant citizens to defend the fortress. He had a French name, spoke with a French accent and did not understand the Low German dialect of the Kolberger. A stroke had left hemiplegic facial paralysis , which is why “he was only able to make himself clear to his subordinates with great difficulty”. With his seclusion he appeared to the citizens as an incalculable danger and they feared that the fortress would be handed over.

As an infantry officer, Lucadou had neither experience nor training in fortress warfare. He insisted on the few older principles known to him. His decisions therefore aroused criticism from his junior officers. Their urging to present a flexible defense against the numerically inferior attackers outside the fortifications, he followed hesitantly and uncertainly. After the unclear subordination of the Schill Corps resulted in military failures and conflicts in the garrison , officers and officials, dissatisfied with Lucadou's leadership, joined the bourgeois critics who had banded around Nettelbeck and conspired against him. They conveyed alarming news to the king that the fortress would be surrendered soon as a result of the failure of the commander. In fact, this had to be expected, even according to later judgments, Lucadou was not up to his task. In order to avert the danger, the king sent Major Gneisenau to Kolberg as the new commanding officer in April 1807 .

Gneisenau was also commissioned to review the allegations against Lucadou. As a result of Gneisenau's report, which later disappeared, King Lucadou was released on April 10th with full pay as fortress commander and passed him on May 9th, 1807 with the character of major general. At the same time, Lucadou was given permission to wear the general's uniform. The king gave him his final farewell on January 30, 1808 with the approval of a pension of 1000 thalers, shortly afterwards supplemented by the right to use the commandant's apartment.

Lucadou was married twice. In 1777 he married Charlotte Sophie Wilhelmine, born von Seherr-Thoss (1745-1804) in Schwedt / Oder . His second marriage was on April 8, 1808, far below his standing, with 29-year-old Sophie Charlotte Martinette (1778-1834), the daughter of military officer Daniel Gottlieb Liebchen. From 1810 he lived with her in Köslin.

Lucadou as a literary figure

In the widely read memoirs of his enemy Nettelbeck, which form the core of the myth that arose about the siege and are still printed today, Lucadou was untruthfully portrayed as a coward and failure. During his lifetime, no such number of allegations were made. Reports from his officers, including Schill and Karl Wilhelm Ernst von Waldenfels , which were submitted to the Immediat Investigation Commission , attested Lucadou's honorable conduct, steadfastness and faithful fulfillment of duties. When Nettelbeck's work appeared in 1823, Lucadou had already died and could no longer defend himself. His defenders, especially regional historians like Hermann Klaje from Kolberg and RM Horstig from Stolp , as well as members of the Prussian officer corps like Karl von Bagensky , could not prevail. In contrast, numerous writers adopted Nettelbeck's portrayal, including Paul Heyse in his play "Kolberg", which has been widely performed since 1868 and designed as a national drama. Veit Harlan and Alfred Braun did the same in 1943/1944 in their script for the Nazi propaganda film " Kolberg ".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On Lucadou as a fortress commander see Great General Staff , War History Department II (ed.): Documentary contributions and research on the history of the Prussian Army, Vol. 4, Kolberg 1806/07 , Berlin 1912, pp. 95-101, Immediatuntersuchungskommission p. 100; also Priedsdorff (Lit.), pp. 286–289.
  2. ^ Hermann Klaje , Joachim Nettelbeck . Post, Kolberg 1927, p. 87, quoted from the memories of the youth of Johann Gottlieb Maaß (1791–1861), who was Lucadou's secretary during the siege.
  3. ^ Johann Christian Nettelbeck: Joachim Nettelbeck, citizens of Kolberg - a biography . Two volumes, published by JCL Haken, Leipzig 1821. Volume 1 ( full text ); Joachim Nettelbeck: The story of the navigator Joachim Nettelbeck . Europäische Hochschulverlag, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8457-1030-3 .
  4. ↑ Joachim Nettelbeck Post, Kolberg 1927.
  5. ↑ RM Horstig: Kolberg in 1807 - A jubilee , Stolp 1857 ( full text )
  6. ^ History of the 9th Infantry Regiment called Colbergsches , Post, Kolberg 1842 ( full text, without folded terrain map ).
personal data
SURNAME Lucadou, Ludwig Moritz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian officer, most recently major general
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1812
Place of death Koslin