Otto Ferdinand von Abensperg and Traun

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Otto Ferdinand von Abensperg and Traun

Otto Ferdinand Graf von Abensperg and Traun , often just called Traun , (born August 27, 1677 in Ödenburg , † February 18, 1748 in Sibiu ) was an Austrian field marshal in the era of Empress Maria Theresa .

His parents were Otto Laurenz von Abensperg and Traun (1638–1695) and his second wife Eva Susanna Rüber von Pixendorf (1645–1695).

Life

Equestrian statue of Otto Ferdinand von Abensperg and Trauns, part of the Maria Theresa monument in Vienna

He left the University of Halle , to which his father had sent him, in 1695 to go to the Netherlands as a volunteer with Brandenburg troops. After the siege of Namur in 1695, he entered imperial service and took part in the battles of the Spanish War of Succession in Italy and on the Rhine. In 1709 he went to Spain as adjutant to Field Marshal Guido Graf Starhemberg and became a colonel the following year. In 1713, when the imperial troops withdrew from Spain, he led his regiment to Lombardy, marched with him to Naples in 1718 and went to Sicily in 1719 with the corps of Field Marshal Count Claudius Florimund Mercy . For his achievements he was appointed General Sergeant ( Major General ) in 1723 and Lieutenant Field Marshal in 1733 . After the evacuation of Capua , which he defended tenaciously, he was recalled to Vienna in 1735 and promoted to field warden. In the summer of the same year he was entrusted with the suppression of the unrest in Hungary and then by Charles VI. sent to Lombardy as captain general.

Soon after the death of the emperor, Maria Theresa appointed him field marshal on April 9, 1741 . When the Austrian War of Succession spread to Lombardy, he was able to beat the Spaniards at Camposanto on February 8, 1743 , but the difficulties with the superior opponent, the insecure Sardinian allies and the lack of support from Vienna prevented the success from being exploited. Field Marshal Traun, who had been awarded the golden fleece , was subsequently sent to the Rhine, but Frederick II's invasion of Bohemia made rapid intervention in this country necessary. Traun and his troops marched out of Alsace through Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate into the threatened area and maneuvered the king out of Bohemia with great skill. Without a field battle, but with the consequences of a severe defeat for Prussia, the campaign came to an end. Friedrich II fully recognized Traun's mastery and later referred to him as his teacher in the art of war . In 1745 he succeeded in pushing the French back across the Rhine and thus enabling the coronation of Francis I Stephen , the husband of Maria Theresa, in Frankfurt.

He died as General Commander of Transylvania and was buried in the Sibiu Jesuit Church. His monumental grave memorial is the work of the sculptor Anton Schuchbauer .

As one of the empress's four great generals , an equestrian statue on her monument in Vienna was dedicated to him - like Leopold Joseph Daun , Ernst Gideon von Laudon and Ludwig Andreas Khevenhüller .

family

He was married twice. His first wife was Fulvia Juliana Polapina Contessa di Cusa-Faletti , his two wife was Maria Sidonia Freiin von Hinderer († 1775). His only son Karl Joseph (1719–1747) died before him.

reception

Through the imperial resolution of Franz Joseph I on February 28, 1863 Otto Ferdinand von Abensperg and Traun was added to the list of the "most famous warlords and generals of Austria worthy of perpetual emulation" , in whose honor and memory there is also a life-size statue in the Feldherrenhalle of the then newly established Imperial and Royal Court Weapons Museum (today: Army History Museum Vienna ) was built. The statue was created in 1868 by the sculptor Johann Silbernagl (1836–1915) from Carrara marble and was dedicated by Emperor Franz Joseph himself.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neu-Vermehrtes Historisch- und Geographisches Allgemeine Lexicon , p. 783, digitized
  2. ↑ Family tree
  3. ↑ Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck : The Army History Museum Vienna. The museum and its representative rooms . Kiesel Verlag, Salzburg 1981, ISBN 3-7023-0113-5 , p. 34
personal data
SURNAME Abensperg and Traun, Otto Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abensperg and Traun, Otto Ferdinand Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian field marshal under Empress Maria Theresa
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1677
PLACE OF BIRTH Ödenburg
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1748
Place of death Sibiu