Karl Mack von Leiberich

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Karl Mack von Leiberich Signature Karl Mack von Leiberich.PNG
Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

Karl Mack Freiherr von Leiberich (born August 24, 1752 in Nennslingen , Principality of Ansbach as Karl Mack , † October 22, 1828 in St. Pölten ) was an Austrian general and knight of the Maria Theresa Order .

Life

Karl Mack entered Austrian service as a Fourier in 1770 and initially belonged to Count Althan's 2nd Carabinier Regiment (later renamed Emperor Franz Josef Cuirassiers No. 1). Meanwhile, Colonel Count Kavanagh carried Mack soon became the regiment - aides . In 1778 he became adjutant of Prince Kinsky , later of Count Franz Moritz von Lacy , fought as a major with distinction in the 8th Austrian Turkish War (1787–1792) and was appointed imperial wing adjutant in 1789 and after the fall of Belgrade he was appointed colonel .

In 1792/1793 he served in the Netherlands as Chief of Staff of Prince Friedrich Josias von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld (Josias von Koburg) and, after the victory in the Battle of Neer winds in March 1793, negotiated with Charles-François Dumouriez , which led to his conversion Had a consequence.

In 1794 he led the campaign as quartermaster general of the emperor and was appointed field marshal lieutenant in 1797. After the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797, he received the supreme command of the Neapolitan troops from the King of Naples Ferdinand IV , threw back the French under Jean-Étienne Championnet in November 1789 and occupied Rome. The French garrison who stayed behind in Castel Sant'Angelo soon forced him to retreat.

As he then concluded an armistice with the French general, an uproar among the Lazzaroni broke out in Naples . Mack was forced to take shelter in the French camp. He was taken to Dijon as a prisoner of war and then taken to Paris, from where he escaped in 1800. From 1800 to 1805 he was on leave with full pay without employment.

Napoleonic Wars

Location on 11-14 October 1805

The Commander-in-Chief of the Kk Hauptarmee, the former army of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany, was Archduke Ferdinand Karl d'Este . In 1805, Field Marshal Lieutenant Mack became Quartermaster General of the 72,000-strong army. In fact, Mack had the entire command of the army that was supposed to oppose Napoléon in Bavaria . Bavaria was to be forced into an alliance with Austria, but joined France in the Bogenhausen Treaty like Baden and Württemberg. In autumn 1805 the French were able to raise an army of almost 200,000 men in southern Germany. The Austrian General Staff fatally underestimated this fact .

Battle of Elchingen and Ulm

The order of the Emperor Francis was quickly up to the Iller advance and Ulm to fix. Mack pushed through Memmingen to the Iller and then swung north in the direction of Ulm. North-east of Ulm, at the Battle of Elchingen , parts of Mack's army were attacked and defeated by the French, who were advancing unexpectedly quickly, on October 14, 1805. Thereupon he withdrew with the main army to Ulm in the fortress. Trusting in Prussian neutrality and Russian help - Emperor Alexander of Russia's 35,000-strong army under Kutuzov was already encamped near Braunau am Inn - he refused to retreat to Bohemia in time. One serious problem arose from the fact that the Austrians used the Gregorian calendar and the allied Russian army used the Julian calendar in their timing arrangements. On October 20, 1805, a Sunday, Mack surrendered and handed the Ulm Fortress over to the French. The French took 20,000 men prisoner, including seven field marshal lieutenants (Mack, Graf von Riesch, Graf von Klenau , Ignaz Graf von Gyulay , Hereditary Prince Friedrich von Hessen-Homburg , Freiherr von Laudon and Freiherr von Gottesheim), eight major generals, 3000 cavalrymen and 273 artillerymen and captured 49 artillery pieces, 50 ammunition wagons and a lot of luggage.

With the capture of Ulm, the way to Vienna was open to Napoleon. After minor skirmishes along the Danube, less than a month later, on November 13, 1805, his troops captured Vienna without a fight . In fulfillment of the obligations under the Bogenhausen Treaty, the French troops, operating unhindered, freed Munich from the Austrian occupation on October 24, 1805. Napoléon pursued the retreating Russian army in the direction of Brno , as he wanted to force a decisive battle before the superior forces of his opponents could unite. In particular, Napoleon wanted to avoid Prussia's entry into the war. Therefore he lured the Russians and Austrians into the battle of Austerlitz by cleverly pretending to be weak .

Released on his word of honor , Mack left for Vienna via Augsburg on October 21. When he left Ulm, all the Austrian generals and his staff accompanied him to the car. There he said goodbye to them with the following words: "I have saved the Austrian monarchy and I am now going to his Majesty in Vienna!"

In Vienna he was tried by a court martial and sentenced to death. However, Emperor Franz mitigated the sentence to release from the army and 20 years of imprisonment. Through the mediation of Archduke Karl , Mack was released from prison in the Bohemian fortress Josefstadt in 1808 . After the victory over the Napoleonic occupying power, he was fully rehabilitated in 1819 and reinstated as a knight of the Maria Theresa Order . Mack von Leiberich died on October 22, 1828 in St. Pölten. His justification for the surrender of Ulm was published in Raumer's Historisches Taschenbuch (1873).

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personal data
SURNAME Mack von Leiberich, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karl Mack Freiherr von Leiberich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian general
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH Nennslingen , Franconia
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1828
Place of death St. Polten