Philipp von Westphalen

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Christian Heinrich Philipp Edler von Westphalen. Oil painting

Christian Heinrich Philipp (since 1764) Edler von Westphalen (wrote himself until 1749 Westphal ) (baptized March 27, 1723 [not * April 24, 1724] in Hanover -Neustadt; † September 21, 1792 in Blücher near Boizenburg ) was one of the closest Confidants and collaborators of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig . His granddaughter Jenny von Westphalen became the wife of Karl Marx .

During the Seven Years' War he was - although not a soldier - de facto the Duke's Chief of Staff and, as his grandson, the Prussian Interior Minister Ferdinand von Westphalen , wrote, "Minister of the House, Foreign Affairs and War".

family

His parents were Isaak Johann Christian Westphal (* around 1688; † April 19, 1753 in Braunschweig) and Anna Elisabeth Henneberg (* around 1704; † August 17, 1759 in Braunschweig). Before 1720 and after 1730 his father was a chamber clerk and post administrator in Blankenburg am Harz . In the meantime, however, he seems to have worked in other places as well, at least the church records of Blankenburg do not record the birth of the son. For his introduction as Canonicus to St. Blasii in Braunschweig, Philipp brought a baptism certificate in the name of Christian Heinrich Ludwig Westphalen, baptized in 1723 in Hanover-Neustadt. In 1738 the father became court postmaster in Braunschweig and was thus at the head of the postal service in the Duchy of Braunschweig .

Westphalen married in 1765 Jeanie Wishart (of Pittarow) (born September 20, 1742 in Edinburgh ; † July 31, 1811 in Salzwedel ), daughter of pastor George Wishart (1703–1785) in Edinburgh and Anne Campbell (around 1710–1782) Ancestors in the Scottish land and high nobility. He had met her in the British camp, where she was visiting her sister as the sister-in-law of the commander of the British troops, Karl Friedrich von Beckwith . There were four sons from the marriage, including the Prussian government councilor Ludwig von Westphalen , Jenny's father and Karl Marx's father-in-law .

Life

Westphalen came after he was initially educated at home, in 1738 the monastery school in Mariental and on 9 November 1740 - together with his prematurely deceased brother Ernst August - to the University of Helmstedt to law study. After two years he went to Halle and studied there for another three years. He then returned to Braunschweig and applied for a position as court master at the Collegium Carolinum , which he received on March 23, 1746. He stayed here until Easter 1749, when he went on a journey of several years through southern Germany , France and Italy as the companion of a Herr von Spiegel . In doing so, he acquired various languages. After his return in spring 1751 he entered the service of the (non-ruling) Duke and Prussian Lieutenant General Ferdinand von Braunschweig as secretary that same year .

He accompanied the duke, who was a brother-in-law and one of the most important confidants of Frederick II of Prussia , to Potsdam , Denmark and Magdeburg , whose governor was Duke Ferdinand in 1755. Westphalen quickly gained the Duke's trust and became his right-hand man. He ran the entire house, handled correspondence , took care of financial matters, etc.

When the Seven Years' War broke out in 1756 , Westphalen accompanied the Duke, who led a Prussian division at the beginning of the war , even during the campaigns. He was present at the battles of Lobositz , Prague and Roßbach and made very detailed relations (i.e. reports) of them, which were sent to the ruling Duke Karl I , Ferdinand's brother, in Braunschweig. When Ferdinand received the supreme command in the western theater of war at the end of 1757 , Westphal accompanied him again and unfolded his activities, which were so important for the duke's military successes , in his headquarters , while in name he remained merely his secretary (secretary from 1762).

His grandson, the Prussian Minister of State Ferdinand von Westphalen , wrote in the pathetic style of the 19th century:

“Throughout the five full years of war in Duke Ferdinand's headquarters, he was and remained his most skilful, tireless assistant in all war business and work of the Cabinet , his clever advisor and watchful servant for himself, his friend who never left him . In the outwardly modest position of ' secretary ' to the duke, with the elimination of all control by a council of war, he was in possession of the unlimited confidence of his noble lord: he made the strategic drafts, gave the operations down to the smallest detail , prepared them and helped guide and improve them in execution; he was always heard from the Duke with specific suggestions as to when, where and how the meetings were to be delivered. He took care of the general staff business and the Duke's correspondence on everything related to the provisions, clothing, armament, recruiting and reinforcement of the allied troops, in order to prevent that the secret of the Duke's operations could not be revealed to the enemy . "

After the end of the war, Westphalen, ennobled by the emperor as "Edler von Westphalen" and appointed ducal landdrosten, retired into private life and refused higher offices offered to him. From him by King George III. He did not make use of the title of adjutant general of the army, but received British and Hanover pensions until the end of his life. Also in 1764, with the support of Ferdinand, he bought the Bornum estate near Königslutter from Duke Karl , which he sold back to him in 1779. He now hoped to switch to Danish service, but in 1780 only became a knight of the Dannebrog Order . He spent his last years as heir and court lord and private scholar on the Mecklenburg estates of Blücher and Teichenberg on the Elbe, which he acquired in 1781, while some winters were spent in Braunschweig.

Westphalen's reports from the field to Friedrich II. Of Prussia used this later in his history of the Seven Years' War. Immediately in 1763, Westphalen himself began to write down the history of the campaigns he had witnessed, which Duke Ferdinand pursued with keen interest despite their subsequent less intensive contact. However, his account did not get beyond the year 1758, and due to disagreements with the publisher and out of consideration for living people, it was not published during his lifetime.

plant

literature

  • The battle of Minden in Westphalia between the Allies, led by Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig, and the royal French troops, under Marshal de Contades, August 1st, 1759. (1792?)
  • Ferdinand von Westphalen: Westphalen, the secretary of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Decker, Berlin 1866 digitized
  • Emil Daniels: Ferdinand of Braunschweig. Part 7: The battles of Vellinghausen. The end of the war. Personal information from Ferdinand and Westphalen. The relationship of the two to one another as strategists. In: Prussian yearbooks 82.2. Walther, Berlin 1895, pp. 267–286.
  • Paul Zimmermann :  Westphalen, Philipp von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, pp. 228-231.
  • Hans Donalies: The share of the secretary Westphalen in the campaigns of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1758-1762). Pierer, Altenburg 1894. Bonn, Univ., Phil. Diss., 1894.
  • Hans Donalies: The share of the secretary Westphalen in the campaigns of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig. In: FBPG. Vol. 8 (1895), pp. 1-57 and 319-417.
  • Helmuth Albrecht: Catalogus Professorum of the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Braunschweig. T. 1: Teachers at the Collegium Carolinum 1745-1877. Braunschweig 1986, p. 97.
  • Gero von Wilcke: Jenny von Westphalen. On the genealogy of Karl Marx's wife and comrade in arms. In: Rudolstädter Heimathefte. 20: 44-57 (1974).
  • Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk : Jenny Marx. Love and suffering in the shadow of Karl Marx. Wuppertal 1975, pp. 164-172 and passim.
  • Gero von Wilcke: Karl Marx's Trier family circle. In: Genealogy. H. 12/1983, pp. 761-782.
  • Kai Drewes: Westphalen, Christian Heinrich Philipp Edler von. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 8th to 18th centuries. Braunschweig 2006, pp. 737 f., ISBN 3-937664-46-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to his grandson, he was born on April 24, 1724. Ferdinand von Westphalen: Westphalen, the secretary of Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Lüneburg , p. 7 (also Paul Zimmermann, Westphalen, Philipp von , p. 228, with the note: "[w] o, cannot be given with certainty" ). However, this date cannot be verified. From the documents in the Wolfenbüttel State Archives, the following emerges: "For his introduction as Canonicus St. Blasii in Braunschweig, he submitted a document referring to a Christian Heinrich Ludwig Westphalen (~ Hanover-Neustadt March 27, 1723)." Gero von Wilcke, Karl Marx 'Trier family circle , p. 778.
  2. ^ Ferdinand von Westphalen: Westphalen, the secretary of Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . P. 11 f.
personal data
SURNAME Westphalen, Philipp von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Westphalen, Christian Heinrich Philipp Edler von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Confidante and collaborator of Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig
DATE OF BIRTH baptized March 27, 1723
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover -Neustadt
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1792
Place of death Blücher near Boizenburg