Nikolaus von Luckner

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Johann Nikolaus Graf Luckner , French Nicolas Luckner (born January 12, 1722 in Cham in the Upper Palatinate ; † January 4, 1794 in Paris ) was a German in French service, most recently Marshal of France . He is the great-grandfather of the German naval officer and writer Felix Graf von Luckner .

Nikolaus Graf Luckner, idealizing in a small general's uniform from 1791, Auguste Couder , 1834

origin

Luckner, 1792
Cham, Straubinger Str. 2, Lucknerhaus: memorial plaque

Luckner was the son of middle-class parents. His father was the Cham innkeeper, beer brewer and hops trader Samuel Luckner, his mother a born Billich from Kötzting . After the early death of his father, his mother and his siblings left their parents' tavern "Zur Gans" in 1730 and moved to their mother in Kötzting, where Luckner spent his childhood and youth. He attended the Jesuit college in Passau and joined the Bavarian army in 1741 . In the same year he became a cadet in the Morawitzky Infantry Regiment. During his lifetime he himself claimed to have entered the military in 1737 and to have fought against the Turks, but this has been refuted by various sources.

Early war glory

Lucknersches Hussar Corps in the Seven Years War - early uniform (contemporary representation in the magnificent Gmunden work)
The regiment with the later uniform

During the Austrian War of Succession , he first drew attention to himself as a hussar when he fell out of the besieged Straubing . He took part in the Bohemian campaign of Karl Albrecht , from which he returned in 1743 as the first lieutenant of the grenadiers . He now joined the free corps of Johann Michael Gschray in Deggendorf . In 1745 he rejoined his old regiment and at the age of 23 became a lieutenant captain (captain).

Since the Austrian War of Succession was over in the meantime, Luckner went to Holland with the Bavarian Frangipani Hussar Regiment and joined the Netherlands with his regiment. After his marriage to the wealthy Dutch woman de Cypres and the dissolution of the regiment, he lived as a farewell major on his estate in Holstein .

At the outbreak of the Seven Years' War he entered the Hanoverian service as a major in 1757 . Luckner began as the commander of a hussar corps of 54 men. He distinguished himself against the French in Krefeld , Marburg , Eisenach , Gottingen , Hameln , Kassel and Northeim and led a kind of partisan war with his hussars in the rear of the enemy. He was successful in destroying supply columns and in night raids. In August 1759 he captured the portfolio of the French marshal with secret instructions from the War Ministry. In the same year he was promoted to colonel .

In 1761 Luckner , who had meanwhile risen to lieutenant general , had a regiment and a legendary reputation. When his regiment was disbanded at the end of the war, he threw his general's coat, hung with all medals, into the fireplace in front of the assembled officer corps and asked for his release. Now Russia and France applied for him, and he entered French service as a general in 1763 for an annual salary of 30,000 livres . Luckner was accepted as a baron by the Danish king in 1778 and raised to hereditary count in 1784. Since there was peace for years, he spent most of his time on his extensive estates in Holstein.

Marshal of France

After the outbreak of the revolution , he entered the service of the National Assembly in 1790 . On December 28, 1791 he was appointed Marshal of France , and in 1792 he was given command of the Rhine Army . In this capacity, the war song of the Rhine Army by Rouget de Lisle , later known as the French national anthem Marseillaise , was composed in his honor on April 26, 1792 .

The now 70-year-old gathered his army in Strasbourg , but hardly brought together 25,000 men. With it he advanced north, crossed the Belgian border, and succeeded in driving back the Austrians. He was then appointed commander of the Northern Army and took the cities of Menen and Courtrai . After Lafayette's flight (August 1792) he received the title of generalissimo with the task of forming a new reserve army in the area of Châlons-sur-Marne .

Here, the time came over about 60,000 young swains unarmed together, and Luckner showed them against such a lack of energy that it convent to Colonel Choderlos de Laclos put to the side. Luckner then asked for his dismissal, which the government approved in January 1793 with full pay.

Sentencing and execution

Luckner, posthumous portrait (1834)

Since his pension was not paid to him, he went to Paris to complain, even though the reign of terror was raging there. Luckner was arrested after an (alleged) denunciation by Prince Carl von Hessen and stood before the Revolutionary Tribunal on January 3, 1794 . Fouquier-Tinville portrayed him as a cautious but stubborn royalist and accused him of having given up positions he had gained as Marshal of France for no apparent reason. After a brief consultation, he was sentenced to death by the guillotine and guillotined on January 4, 1794 .

Just one year later, the National Convention rehabilitated Marshal Luckner. His eldest son Nikolaus Graf von Luckner (1750–1824) was given the marshal's baton with a certificate of appointment and the funds retained. These memorabilia remained in the family until 1967 and are now in the Army Museum in Paris .

Decorations

1763 Russian Order of Saint Anne
February 29th 1768 Knight's Cross of the Mérite Militaire
June 7th 1777 Polish Order of the White Eagle
7th March 1792 Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Ludwig
(3 e dégré de la décoration militaire)

His name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 3rd column.

Trivia

In honor of the famous son of the city's carillon plays in the Town Hall Cham every afternoon at 12:05 the Luckner dedicated Marseillaise .

literature

Web links

Commons : Nicolas Luckner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Horstmann: Lieutenant General Johann Nicolaus von Luckner and his Hussars in the Seven Years' War . Zeller-Verlag, Osnabrück 1997. p. 16.
  2. ↑ Fritzsche, Werner. The Counts of Luckner at Castle Altfranken and from Gutshof Pennrich , Dresden 2006. p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Luckner, Nikolaus von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Luckner, Nikolaus Graf; Luckner, Nicolas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Marshal of France
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1722
PLACE OF BIRTH Cham , Upper Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 1794
Place of death Paris