Moritz von Prittwitz (General, 1795)

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Moritz von Prittwitz
The coat of arms of the von Prittwitz and Gaffron family
Moritz von Prittwitz
( Adolph Menzel , National Gallery Berlin)

Moritz Karl Ernst von Prittwitz and Gaffron (born February 9, 1795 at Gut Kreisewitz ; † October 21, 1885 in Berlin ) was a Prussian infantry general , fortress construction director in Ulm , second general inspector of the Prussian fortresses and Knight of Honor of the Order of St. John .

Life

origin

Moritz Karl Ernst came from the old, widely branched Silesian noble family von Prittwitz and Gaffron . He was the son of the Prussian Rittmeister , district administrator , state elder and landowner Ernst von Prittwitz and Gaffron (1743–1831), lord of Gut Kreisewitz, and his second wife Johanna Sophie, née von Prittwitz (1762–1832) from the Karisch family.

Military career

Initially raised by a private tutor, Prittwitz attended the grammar school in Brieg in 1808/12 , where he was particularly enthusiastic about mathematics and botany . After two years he was in the Prima displaced and made 1812 the age of 17 outstanding high school. He then studied law at the University of Wroclaw .

In March 1813 he interrupted his studies and volunteered with the pioneers of the Prussian army during the liberation wars . On the recommendation of the mathematics professor Brandes, he transferred to the engineering corps , became portepeef ensign on March 12, 1813 and, after passing the officers' examination in garrison, came to Glatz , where he was promoted to second lieutenant on August 20 of the same year . In September 1813 he was assigned to build an entrenched camp near Wartha . In 1815 he was assigned to the army corps in Givet to siege the enemy fortifications so late that he did not arrive there until after the end of the war, but initially stayed in France.

In the winter of 1815/16 he was a field engineer in Landrecies and until the autumn of 1818 he was busy surveying the fortress of Mezières and its surroundings. During this time his Professor Brandes in Breslau published an older mathematics manuscript by Prittwitz "on the curves which are rectified by their subtangents". On May 12, 1816 he was promoted to Premier Lieutenant and on August 25, 1818 to captain .

Returned from France, Prittwitz was from 1818 until the spring of 1824 to the fortress in Koblenz drafted where he alternately Baupostenoffizier of Feste Kaiser Franz , of Feste Kaiser Alexander and the city wall was. On April 24, 1824, he was assigned as second adjutant to the Inspector General of the Prussian fortresses and chief of the engineer corps, the then Lieutenant General and later Minister of War Gustav von Rauch , which he remained until 1828. While Prittwitz was greatly encouraged by Rauch during these years, he wrote and published his book The Contributions to the Applied Art of Fortification, illustrated by 100 panels . In 1826 Prittwitz was promoted to captain 1st class and in April 1828 appointed fortress construction director of the Posen Fortress .

During his years in Poznan he published several manuscripts, but not under his own name. During the Polish Revolution of 1830/31, due to his position, he got to know Field Marshal von Gneisenau , the later Field Marshal von Wrangel , General von Clausewitz and other high officers of the General Staff, and in 1838 he spent a long time in the entourage of Generals von Grolman and from Aster in the headquarters of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I in Warsaw .

On April 28, 1838 he was promoted to major and, through the mediation of his former boss, the Minister of War and General von Rauch, was appointed fortress construction director of the Federal Fortress Ulm on May 5, 1838 , where he was not only responsible for the construction, but above all for the Designs had a huge impact. On March 31, 1846, Prittwitz was promoted to lieutenant colonel and on May 9, 1849 to colonel . As such, he took part in the battle in Gernsbach and the containment and bombardment of Rastatt in the same year during the suppression of the Baden Revolution .

In mid-November 1850 he was called back to Berlin and entrusted with running the business as the inspector of the first engineer inspection. On September 30, 1851, he was appointed inspector. He has been involved as a leading Prussian military architect of the Berlin star architect Friedrich August Stüler the Hohenzollern castle near Hechingen restored (foundation stone was laid in 1850).

In Berlin Prittwitz was established in early 1851 to deputies elected and was until 1857 a member of the House of Representatives . But because of the conflict of interest between a political mandate and a military mandate, he finally resigned his mandate in 1857, especially since he had meanwhile been appointed inspector of the United Artillery and Engineering School in Berlin and promoted to major general on March 22, 1853 . On May 22, 1858 he was promoted to lieutenant general and in 1860 he was also appointed second inspector general of the fortresses. In recognition of his services, King Wilhelm I awarded him the Order of the Red Eagle First Class with Oak Leaves on January 18, 1861, and the Order of the Crown, First Class on March 11, 1863 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his service . At his request Prittwitz was on 12 March 1863 with the statutory board for disposition made, but remained a member with a seat and vote in the engineering committee.

In the years of his retirement, Prittwitz wrote a number of literary works in his Berlin residence, including his writings on phrenology and "Frauenwirtschaft", his textbook on fortification art and fortification war , which was soon published in several languages ​​such as a. has been translated into French and Turkish, as well as his indications of the limits of civilization . Here he also wrote his Prittwitz'sche (n) Blätter , a school of fortress architecture. He was also a board member in the Central Association for the Welfare of the Working Class and, at the request of the Crown Prince, took over the chairmanship of the executive committee of the Victoria National Invalids Foundation in October 1866 .

When the war against France broke out on July 20, 1870, Prittwitz was appointed governor of the Ulm fortress built by him for the duration of the mobile relationship at the express request of King Karl I of Württemberg . He also paid tribute to him by awarding him the Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown with Swords. Prittwitz was released from his position as governor after the peace treaty on July 27, 1871, with the character of general of the infantry .

He was buried on October 24, 1885 in the cemetery in the Hasenheide in Berlin.

family

Prittwitz married on February 9, 1830 in Schellin Domicilie von Colbe (1810–1871), the daughter of the landowner Ferdinand von Colbe, lord of Liszewo, and Henriette Nehring. The marriage, which was divorced on August 25, 1848, had the following children:

  • Hans Gustav Victor (1831–1884), retired Prussian captain . D. ⚭ 1864 Charlotte Ottilie Wilhelmine Anna von Randow (1840–1929)
  • Ernst (1833–1904), Prussian lieutenant general ⚭ 1885 Franziska Freiin von Türckheim zu Altdorf (1855–1936)
  • Elisabeth (1834–1899) ⚭ Paul von Krenski (1827–1885), Prussian major general
  • Anna Therese Wilhelmine (* 1836)
  • Walter (1840–1901), Prussian Lieutenant General ⚭ 1882 Marie von Puttkamer (* 1855).
  • Cordula Domicilia (* 1838) ⚭ 1868 Rudolf Wilhelm Otto von Bandemer (* 1829)

Honors

  • Because of his merits, one fort in Posen and one in Ulm were named "von Prittwitz".
  • In his honor there is still Prittwitzstrasse in Ulm today.

Works

  • Contributions to the applied art of fortification and the fortress war. Poznan 1836.
  • Can too much be produced? Hoff, Mannheim 1837. Digitized
  • The art of getting rich. Mannheim 1840. Digitized
  • About general national armament. Ulm 1848, digitized
  • Indications of future advances and the limits of civilization. 2nd edition, Berlin 1855.
  • Repertory for fortress warfare. Berlin 1856, digitized
  • On the use of infantry in defending the fortresses. Berlin 1858.
  • Textbook of fortification art and fortification war. Berlin 1865, digitized

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Kingdom of Württemberg 1877. P. 36.
  2. ^ Yearbook of the German Nobility . Third volume, 1899, p. 329.
personal data
SURNAME Prittwitz, Moritz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prittwitz, Moritz Karl Ernst von; Prittwitz and Gaffron, Moritz Karl Ernst von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry, fortress construction director
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1795
PLACE OF BIRTH Good Kreisewitz
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1885
Place of death Berlin