Otto von Pirch

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Grave of Otto Carl Lorenz von Pirch in the Invalidenfriedhof Berlin (state 2013)

Otto Karl Lorenz von Pirch , also written Otto Carl Lorenz von Pirch , (born May 23, 1765 in Stettin , † May 26, 1824 in Berlin ) was a Prussian officer. He took part as major general in the wars of liberation and was most recently as lieutenant general president of the general order commission, chief director of the general war school and the cadet corps and president of the military study commission. Also called Pirch II to distinguish it from his brother .

Life

origin

Otto came from the noble Pomeranian soldier family von Pirch and was the son of the Prussian general of the infantry Otto von Pirch (1733-1813) and his first wife Charlotte Friederike, née von Winckelmann (1740-1781). His brother was the Prussian lieutenant general Georg Dubislav Ludwig von Pirch (1763-1838).

Military career

As a 10-year-old in 1775, Pirch was hired as a free corporal with his father's infantry regiment "Hessen-Kassel" stationed in Wesel , where he was an ensign in 1781 and a second lieutenant in 1787 . He took part in the War of the Bavarian Succession and the execution march against Liège. In 1794 he became adjutant of the Pomeranian Infantry Inspectorate and in 1795 a staff captain . He remained in this position until the outbreak of war against France in 1806 and was appointed brigade major when the war broke out. He fought in the Battle of Auerstedt and was then transferred as a brigadier to the reserve battalions in East Prussia at the end of 1806.

After the end of the war he was part of the commission that had to determine the reasons for the defeat. In 1809 he became governor of Princes Wilhelm (later Kaiser Wilhelm I ) and Friedrich . During this time he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1810 and to colonel in 1812 . He went into the field with Prince Friedrich in 1813, first in Blüchers and then in Yorck's headquarters. In June 1813 he was promoted to major general. After the Battle of Leipzig he became a brigade commander and crossed the Rhine at Kaub with Blücher. He was commissioned to take the small French fortress of Vitry-le-François . When he was preparing for the storm, it was cleared by the French. On February 11th, he was shot in the thigh in the battle of Montmirail and was unable to take part in the campaign from then on.

Recovered, he soon took over the Yorck Corps when Yorck went to Great Britain with the King. He kept the corps command until April 1815. After Napoleon's return from Elba , he fought again as brigade chief in Belgium at Fleurus, Ligny and Waterloo. His brigade captured fourteen cannons and later took the fortress of Philippeville . On September 3, 1815, he commanded the troops that had taken up the flag consecration on the Field of Mars in Paris. After the war he asked for his departure because of his wounding, which he was granted on October 16, 1815.

In 1817 he was appointed a member and in 1819 President of the General Order Commission. On December 26, 1819, he was reinstated in the army as chief director of the cadet institutions , the general war school and president of the military study commission . All military schools in the State of Prussia were subordinate to him.

He was a knight of the Order of the Red Eagle 1st class and - like his brother - a knight of the order Pour le Mérite with oak leaves. Pirch remained unmarried. He was buried at the side of his brother Georg Dubislav Ludwig von Pirch in the Invalidenfriedhof Berlin .

literature
personal data
SURNAME Pirch, Otto von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pirch, Otto Karl Lorenz von (full name); Pirch, Otto Carl Lorenz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1765
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1824
Place of death Berlin