Peter Wessel Tordenskiold
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Peter Wessel Tordenskiold (born as Peter Jansen Wessel , * 28 October July / 7 November 1690 greg. In Trondheim , Norway ; † 12 November 1720 in Gleidingen ) was a Danish-Norwegian naval officer during the Great Northern War .
Life
Wessel was the tenth child of a councilor. He secretly went on a ship to Copenhagen, where the royal chaplain Peder Jespersen took care of him, got him a place on a West India driver and finally on January 11, 1709 in the Royal Marine Cadet Corps. He went to the East Indies, became a lieutenant on July 7, 1711 and shortly thereafter commander of the four-cannon sloop Ormen (German: the snake), with which he undertook exploratory trips on the Swedish coast. With the protection of the Norwegian admiral Baron Waldemar Løwendal, and contrary to the wishes of the Danish admiralty, which considered him unreliable despite (or perhaps because of) his daring and seafaring skills, he was given command of the 20-gun frigate Løvendals Gallej in June 1712 . The Northern War was then in a quieter phase ( Charles XII was in exile in Turkey) and Tordenskiold's task was mostly to find merchant and transport ships with which Sweden maintained connections to its German provinces. His idiosyncratic approach also created enemies in the Danish navy and he was even brought before a court martial. The Norwegian-Danish King Frederick IV took a liking to him, put down the proceedings and promoted him to captain. When Charles XII. When he returned from exile in 1715 and the Northern War flared up again, Wessel was distinguished by small battles off the Pomeranian coast, which at that time belonged to Sweden, and in the sea battle near Fehmarn (April 1715). On February 24, 1716 he was ennobled under the name Tordenskiold ("Donnerschild").
When Charles XII. In 1716 besieged the Norwegian fortress Frederikshald, Tordenskiold initially forced him to give up by destroying his supply fleet, which was anchored in the narrow Dynekil Fjord. As a reward, Tordenskiold was promoted and given command of the Kattegat flotilla. At the beginning of 1717 he destroyed parts of the Swedish naval units in Gothenburg , with which the Swedes threatened the routes between Denmark and Norway. Since he did not achieve all operational goals, his enemies in the Danish Navy tried to overthrow him again by court martial, which he escaped in 1718 through the energetic intervention of his patron Admiral Gyldenløve . With the death of Karl XII. In December 1718 in front of the Frederikshald Fortress, the Great Northern War was largely over. Tordenskiold was promoted to Vice Admiral and distinguished himself once again by conquering the Carlsten fortress in Marstrand, held by the Swedes, through a ruse. Tordenskiold had only 700 men, but first made the Swedish officer drunk during the surrender negotiations and then repeatedly brought the same soldiers to him at the different gates of the fortress. Convinced of a superior force, the commandant finally handed over the fortress. On this occasion, Tordenskiold was also able to finally destroy the Swedish Gothenburg flotilla, which had previously partially escaped him, or to raise their ships.
After the Peace of Frederiksborg on July 23, 1720, Tordenskiold took a leave of absence and went traveling. At the Electoral Court in Hanover, where Georg I was staying on one of his many visits from England, he met the Swedish Colonel Jakob Axel Staël von Holstein . During the card game there was an argument (Tordenskiold accused him of having cheated on a Danish compatriot while playing), which was followed by a violent argument that ended with a duel by Stael. Because duels with weapons were forbidden in the Electorate of Hanover , the fight took place on November 12, 1720 in the neighboring diocese of Hildesheim on the Sehlwiese near Gleidingen . Tordenskiold had the choice of weapons and initially chose pistols with which he was very experienced. Stael circumvented this, however, by making the second with the pistols believe that the duel had been canceled. According to another account, Tordenskiold's second, GO von Münchhausen, announced that the short-sighted Stael had already left, so that pistols were superfluous and they only traveled pro forma to the duel area. At dawn, however, Tordenskiold found a group of 20 people at the duel. The duel was now carried out with a sword (according to other sources, Tordenskiold only had a rapier , Stael, on the other hand, had a Swedish long sword) and Tordenskiold received a stab through his right upper arm in the chest at the first weapon . Both Stael, who was accompanied by the Franco-Swedish adventurer Sicre, and Münchhausen immediately left the duel area without bothering about Tordenskiold, who died in the arms of his valet on the square (a main artery was hit and he was bleeding to death). The depictions of his death differ, however. According to other accounts, he was brought back across the border to Hannöversche in Rethen , where he died in an inn. In particular, the behavior of the seconds later gave rise to suspicions that the death was the result of a conspiracy. His body was laid out in Rethen (or Grasdorf), transferred to Copenhagen and quietly buried in Holmens Kirke (only a few friends were present), as duelists in Denmark did not receive a church burial at that time (other sources speak of an intrigue on the part of the Danish Admiralty, which prevented a dignified burial). In 1817 King Frederik VI. Tordenskiold erect a tomb in a side chapel of the Holmenkirche.
Commemoration
In 1961 a memorial stone was erected in Gleidingen on Tordenskioldstrasse to commemorate him. Since 1974 there are friendly relations with the Danish-Norwegian Tordenskiold companies. Numerous Danes and Norwegians come to visit every year.
The popular Danish song Jeg vil sjunge om en helt (I want to sing of a hero) has a folk song-like character, and sings of Tordenskiold's life and deeds in numerous stanzas. The author is Gotfred Benjamin Rode (1830–1878), the melody is supposedly an old folk song, possibly originally of Czech origin.
Tordenskiold is mentioned in both the Danish (the royal anthem ) and the Norwegian national anthem .
In 1910, the Danish silent film Peter Tordenskjold was made based on a novel by Carit Etlar .
The ferry ship Peter Wessel of the Norwegian shipping company Color Line carried his name from 1984 to 2008. The coastal armored ship Tordenskjold (1897–1948) of the Norwegian Navy and the frigate "Peter Tordenskiold" of the Danish Navy were or are also named after him.
In 1990, on the occasion of the 300th birthday in Norway, a stamp with the coat of arms of Peter Wessel-Tordenskiold was issued.
The traditional " Sikkerhedstændstikker " matches are sold in Denmark . A picture and Tordenskiold's name are printed on their boxes.
literature
- Dan H. Andersen: Mandsmod og kongegunst: En biografi om Peter Wessel Tordenskiold. Aschehoug, Copenhagen 2004, ISBN 87-11-11667-6 .
- Hans Christian Adamson: Admiral Thunderbolt: The Spectacular Career of Peter Wessel, Norway's Greatest Sea Hero. Literary Licensing, Llc (July 2011), ISBN 9781258060367
Web links
- Tomb in the Holmenskirche , English Find a Grave
- Heimatbund Niedersachsen zu Tordenskiold, PDF file (325 kB)
Remarks
- ↑ Tomb in the Holmenskirche
- ↑ Born around 1680. He was a professional player and royal Swedish colonel. After the duel, he fled to Bremen-Verden, Sweden. In 1725 he tried in vain for a large sum of money to sell letters from the Elector Princess Sophie Dorothea of Braunschweig-Lüneburg to her lover, Königsmarck, who was murdered in the course of the Königsmarck affair. He died in Stralsund in 1730. He is the great-uncle of Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein , who married Germaine Necker in 1786, known as Madame de Staël
- ↑ Heimatbund Niedersachsen zu Tordenskiold, see web links
- ^ Encyclopedia Britannica 1911
- ↑ Death in Rethen was possibly only invented because shortly afterwards there was a dispute over jurisdiction between Hanover and Hildesheim because of the case.
- ^ Norway and Sweden: Postage stamps with coats of arms and flags
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tordenskiold, Peter Wessel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wessel, Peter Jansen (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Danish officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 7, 1690 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Trondheim , Norway |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 12, 1720 |
| Place of death | Gleidingen , Diocese of Hildesheim |