Nikolaus Heinrich von Schönfeld

Nikolaus Heinrich von Schönfeld (1733–1795)

Nikolaus Heinrich von Schönfeld (born March 9, 1733 in Schlönwitz (Schivelbein district), † August 22, 1795 in Schweidnitz ) was a Prussian lieutenant general and most recently governor of the Schweidnitz fortress .

origin

His parents were Kaspar Heinrich von Schönfeld , heir of Schlönwitz, and his wife Dorothea Christiane nee. from Schwerin .

Life

In 1747 Schönfeld joined the Prussian Dragoon Regiment No. 2 as a flag junior . There he became ensign on January 21, 1751 with a patent on January 8, 1751. A year later, on January 22, 1752, he became adjutant to the head of the regiment, General Reimar von Schwerin . After his death he became an adjutant to General Nikolaus von Katzler . He then switched to the Gensdarmes and became the youngest lieutenant on October 12, 1754 . On July 22nd, 1755 he was assigned to Hussar Regiment No. 3 to get to know the hussar service there. During the Seven Years' War he fought in the Battle of Prague , where he was seriously wounded, and later at Roßbach , Leuthen and Zorndorf , where he was wounded again. On October 21, 1758 he was staff officer, on December 11, 1759 Rittmeister and company commander. Due to his wounding and because he saw no progress, he applied for and received his resignation on June 12, 1761 .

In January 1762 he entered the service of the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel , Friedrich II. , In Rinteln . In 1762 he was able to distinguish himself in the retreat battles against the French near Nauheim and at the Arnsburg monastery . On November 26th, 1762 he became Rittmeister of the Hesse-Kassel Guard du Corps (with the rank of major ) and at the same time wing adjutant of the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. In 1763 he was also stable master and in 1765 chamberlain . On May 18, 1766, he became a real major with the rank of lieutenant colonel . The Landgrave awarded him on March 5, 1769 the Order pour la vertue militaire . On August 15, 1776 he received the rank of colonel . On May 22, 1778 he was then thigh and on December 2, 1782 actual lieutenant colonel of the Guard with the rank of major general . On March 16, 1790 he resigned from the Hessian service and became commander in chief of the Belgian army against Austria. But since Prussia concluded the Treaty of Reichenbach and soon no longer had any interest in Belgium, Schönfeld, after initial successes, had to retreat to Namur on October 21, 1790 and then to Brussels . The mood turned against him and in November 1790 he left Belgium again.

On February 2, 1791, he changed again to Prussian services and became lieutenant general of the cavalry with a patent on February 5, 1791 and an annual salary of 4,000 thalers. On February 18, 1791 he became governor of the Schweidnitz Fortress. On May 29, 1792 he became a military advisor and leader of the emigrant corps. For this he received the Great Red Eagle Order on July 14, 1792 . During the First Coalition War he took part in the battles near Kaiserslautern and Pirmasens . He was wounded at Pirmasens. In addition, he fought in the siege of Mainz and in the skirmishes near Hochheim and Kostheim. The Prussian King awarded him the Order of the Black Eagle on July 24, 1793 . On May 24th, 1794 he received the supreme command of the Prussian troops north of the Vistula . He fought there in the skirmishes at Madlin and Dembniki. On November 17, 1794, he received an allowance of 1000 thalers. He died on August 22, 1795 in Schweidnitz from the consequences of a fall on his horse. He was buried in the garden of the castle in Werben .

family

Schönfeld Castle

He married Marie Eleonore Dorothea von Wintzingerode (February 28, 1732 - July 19, 1780) from the House of Adelborn on August 4, 1768 in Kassel , widowed von Wintzingerode-Bodenstein, the chief stewardess of the Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel and mother of the later Minister Georg Ernst Levin von Wintzingerode . She died of a fall from her carriage when the horse she was driving ran away. Then he married on June 25, 1781 in Kassel Freiin Marianne Charlotte von Belcastel d'Escayrac (* March 4, 1741, † November 20, 1823), a lady-in-waiting of the Landgravine.

For his first wedding, he received the "Wüsten Platz" on the Lengberg near Kassel from the Landgrave. There the general had Schönfeld Palace built as a summer residence.

literature

• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 2, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632772 , pp. 339-344, no. 821.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schlesische Provincialblätter , Volume 13, Breslau 1791, pp. 277-278 ( online ).
2. ↑ The architectural and art monuments in the district of Cassel , district of Cassel-Stadt: Text, part 2, p. 836 Gravestone of Charlotte von Schönfeld