Matthias Wilhelm von Below

Matthias Wilhelm von Below

Matthias Wilhelm von Below (born April 11, 1722 on Gut Saleske ; † August 30, 1798 in Stettin ) was a Prussian lieutenant general , governor of the fortress Stettin and knight of the order Pour le Mérite .

Life

origin

Matthias Wilhelm came from the Pomeranian noble family von Below . He was the son of Franz Jakob von Below (* December 25, 1675; † November 24, 1738), heir to the Saleske estate in Pomerania , and his wife Maria Juliane von Massow († November 21, 1727).

Military career

Below was a cadet in Berlin from August 1735 and in 1738 he became the Leibpage of King Friedrich Wilhelm I. On April 16, 1740 he was employed as a private corporal in the infantry regiment "von der Marwitz" No. 21 of the Prussian Army . During the campaign of 1740/42 Below was wounded, was taken prisoner and was soon exchanged. As an ensign he took part in the campaign in 1744/45 , became second lieutenant in March 1745 and fought near Hohenfriedberg and Kesselsdorf . He also took part in the siege of Prague .

In September 1747 Below became Premier Lieutenant . It was also at the beginning of the Seven Years' War in 1756. Below fought near Lobositz , was seriously wounded during the Battle of Kolin , then was there near Leuthen , Schweidnitz and Hochkirch as well as the capture of Olmütz and Spie-Schanze near Kolberg . In the meantime Below was May 19, 1757 to staff captain and already on August 30, 1757 to captain been promoted. Associated with this was his appointment as company commander in the grenadier battalion "von Diringshofen".

In November 1762 he was promoted to major and appointed head of a musketeer company in the "von Hülsen" infantry regiment No. 21. In 1765 he rose to command of the 2nd battalion. This was followed on July 7, 1772, his promotion to lieutenant colonel and on July 2, 1776 to colonel . As such he was then regiment commander on June 23, 1777 and led this in the Bavarian War of Succession . As early as 1774, the king had awarded him the Pour le Mérite order.

On June 13, 1784, King Friedrich II appointed him chief of the "von Kalckstein" No. 20 infantry regiment and promoted him to major general just under three months later . As early as the next year he asked for his departure, but it was not given. Instead, he was promoted to lieutenant general by the king on March 1, 1786 and appointed governor of Stettin with an annual salary of 1000 thalers . However, he had to hand over his regiment to Dietrich Eugen Philipp von Bornstedt .

Because of his poor health, Below received two months' leave to Bad Polzin in June 1787 . In recognition of his services, Friedrich Wilhelm III. on May 28, 1798 the Great Order of the Red Eagle . Below died unmarried in Stettin three months later.

literature

• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 2, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632772 , p. 178, no. 694.
• Eduard Lange : The soldiers of Frederick the Great. Leipzig 1853, p. 82, digitized
• Anton Balthasar König : Biographical dictionary of all heroes and military figures . tape I . Arnold Wever, Berlin 1788, p. 121–122 ( Matthias Wilhelm von Below in the Google book search).

Web links

• Family Tree Below