Paul von Gonzenbach

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Paul von Gonzenbach

Paul von Gonzenbach (born July 21, 1724 in Leipzig , † October 28, 1799 in Pillau ) was a Prussian colonel and fortress builder.

life and work

Coat of arms of those of Gonzenbach zu Hauptwyl u. Freiherten

The Gender Gonzenbach originally came from the farm Gonzenbach in Lütisburg and uncertificated already 1308. Paul von Gonzenbach was the son of a textile merchant Antoni (1683-1744) and the wealthy Anne Marie, born Pelloutier (1698-1776) from Lyon . The Gonzenbach family owned the rulership of Hauptwil and Freihirten in the Swiss Landgraviate of Thurgau and since 1666 has been using the noble name Junker "von Gonzenbach von und zu Hauptwil und Freihirten".

Since Gonzenbach's father was permanently in northern Italy, he grew up for the first six years with his widowed grandfather Pierre Pelloutier in Leipzig . After his death, his mother moved with him and his five siblings to Hauptwil and from there in 1733, accompanied by the castle preacher Künzle, to her father in Verona . He returned to Leipzig with his family in 1736. Gonzenbach attended school there for another six years.

In the last year of the First Silesian War , Gonzenbach entered the service of King Frederick II of Prussia in 1742, not quite 18 years old and without the knowledge of his parents . He went to the infantry regiment "de Seers" with the garrison in Neisse . In 1747 Gonzenbach was promoted to lieutenant . After ten years of service, he was able to take a three-month paid home leave in 1751. In 1754 Gonzenbach and forty miners received an order to march to Potsdam , where he prepared secret blasting work on a large scale under the supervision of the king. When the demolition was successful, the king granted him a pay allowance of fifty Reichstalers .

During the Seven Years War , Gonzenbach fought alongside Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué . He was wounded in Austrian captivity on July 23, 1760 near Landeshut in Silesia . After a year and a half imprisonment in Bruck, he was released again with Fouqué after the Treaty of Hubertusburg . During his imprisonment, his sister-in-law Sabine Zollikofer , who lives in Hauptwil, supported him with money that his relatives in Vienna transferred to him.

After being promoted to captain, King Gonzenbach ordered in 1764 to join his entourage in Potsdam as "Capitaine de larmée, à la suite du roi à Postam" . At the annual autumn revue , he made him head of the fortress construction in Glatz and the year after that in the neighboring Silberberg . For several years Gonzenbach worked alternately with almost a thousand men on the fortress structures. In November 1775, Friedrich commissioned him to build a fortress north of Graudenz in annexed West Prussia . When Friedrich II died in 1786, the work was almost complete. Gonzenbach was no stranger to Friedrich's successor, Friedrich Wilhelm II , as he had already met him at earlier troop displays. Friedrich Wilhelm II promoted Gonzenbach to major and a year later he was appointed brigadier and inspector of the Pomeranian fortresses, with the stipulation that they inspect them at least twice a year, order the bare essentials and report continuously to the king. In addition to Graudenz, the fortresses of Pillau , Friedrichsburg near Königsberg , Memel , Lyck , Stettin and Kolberg were in the Gonzenbach service area . Gonzenbach had been in charge of the restoration of the Pillau fortress since 1791, which cost 645,000 thalers . In 1789 Gonzenbach was promoted to lieutenant colonel and in 1792 to colonel.

As a 70-year-old Gonzenbach went from his headquarters in Pillau on inspection trips to northern and eastern Germany that lasted for weeks. On January 4th, 1793 Gonzenbach went on a vacation trip that took him via Königsberg , Küstrin , Frankfurt an der Oder , Leipzig , Bayreuth , Augsburg , Lindau , Rorschach , Gossau to Hauptwil, where he arrived on January 24th. Here Gonzenbach visited his sister and brother Hans Jacob IV. Gonzenbach (1754-1815) with their family for three weeks. Hans Jacob was appointed the first governor of the new Thurgau in 1799, i.e. head of the cantonal government. During the brief occupation of Thurgau by the Austrian troops in 1799, he made the controversial attempt to partially restore the pre-revolutionary conditions. He and his relatives in Hauptwil paid for his unsuccessful political adventure by losing a large part of their fortune. Gonzenbach's nephew Daniel (1769-1853) was trained as a geometer at the University of Erlangen and later introduced a tree nursery with special types of plants in Hauptwil. Another nephew was Anton, who was married to his niece Ursula. Together they were parents of Georg Leonhard (1772–1808).

On his return, after Danzig fell to Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 , another task was the fortification of Neufahrwasser . Gonzenbach went about his usual occupations until his death. In the presence of representatives of the king, the army, especially the engineering corps and his brigade, as well as the garrison, Paul von Gonzenbach was buried on November 4, 1799 with military honors in the garrison church of Pillau.

During the war with France in 1807 under General Courbière , the Graudenz fortress, built by Gonzenbach, was one of the few Prussian fortresses that withstood the besiegers until the Peace of Tilsit .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Historical lexicon of Switzerland : Gonzenbach
  2. ^ Agreement between the monastery and judge Gonzenbach von Hauptwil on the use of the monastery ponds (1785–1793)
  3. ^ Contributions to the Prussian customer (ed. By Karl-Gottfried Hagen, L ..... Gervais and CH Hagen) . Hartung, 1824 ( google.de [accessed on March 22, 2020]).
  4. ^ Thurgau yearbook: Gonzenbach's lesson to the St. Galler. Retrieved April 22, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Gonzenbach, Paul von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian colonel and fortress builder
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1724
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1799
Place of death Pillau