Richard von Stutterheim

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Richard von Stutterheim

Baron Richard Carl Gustav Ludwig Wilhelm Julius von Stutterheim (born August 10, 1815 in Helmstedt ; † November 9, 1871 near Wiesbaden in the Rhine ) was a Prussian - later also Spanish, Brunswick, Holstein and British - officer and commander of the British-German legion .

Life

Stutterheim began his military career in 1830 in the Prussian cadet corps , was on August 5, 1833 as second lieutenant the 17th Infantry Regiment in Dusseldorf allocated and on 23 July 1834 to the 8th Hussars added. Because of a duel in which he shot his opponent, Stutterheim left the Prussian service on April 13, 1835 and joined the so-called British Auxiliary Legion, which in Great Britain under General De Lacy Evans to take part in the fight for the cause of the Spanish Liberals , Called Cristinos, was formed in the Carlist Wars .

Returning to Germany in 1839, he found employment in the Brunswick artillery , participated as prime lieutenant in the campaign of 1849 against Denmark, joined the Schleswig-Holstein army and took part in the war against Denmark in 1850 as a major and general staff officer in the avant-garde brigade , then in the position of a sous-chief of the general staff under Ludwig von der Tann and finally as chief of the general staff of the commanding general von der Horst . In the unfortunate battle of Idstedt on July 24th and 25th, 1850, he was distinguished by particular bravery.

When the Schleswig-Holstein army was dissolved, he was taken over as a staff officer in the Holstein dragoon regiment . Since he was spoiled for staying in this Danish troop as a German officer, he said goodbye, held the post of secretary of the Mexican legation in Berlin for a while and was in Great Britain when the Crimean War broke out. In May 1855 he was a brevet - Colonel in the British Army received and the recruitment and organization of a Foreign Legion ( British-German Legion charge) for the Crimean War. In September 1855 he was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General and in February 1856 to Major General of this unit, which was no longer used because the war ended earlier.

Then he directed the transfer of part of the legionaries to British Kaffraria in the Cape Colony (today South Africa ), where they settled and at the same time formed a border force to the Xhosa area . He reached Cape Town at the end of January 1857 with the first settlers, who were later joined by another 2,000 soldiers and some women and children. In South Africa, the small town of Stutterheim is still a reminder of his activities.

However, he himself returned to Germany, where he first settled in Braunschweig, but then - with the money from South Africa - acquired the Baumgarten estate near Ohlau in Silesia . Due to a money-consuming social life and his increasing gambling addiction , he went bankrupt . He had to sell the estate in 1866 and initially returned to Braunschweig. Broken by bankruptcy, he ended his life on November 9, 1871 at Biebrich in the Rhine , after major gambling losses again in the Wiesbaden casino .

Stutterheim was married to Marie von Lauingen, the daughter of a high-ranking forest official from Braunschweig, and had several sons and daughters.

literature

  • Bernhard von Poten :  Stutterheim, Richard von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 79 f.
  • The South African Military History Society / Die Suid-Afrikaanse Krygshistoriese Vereniging: Military History Journal. Volume 3, No. 4: Baron Richard von Stutterheim.
  • Ulrike Kirchberger: Aspects of German-British Expansion - The Overseas Interests of German Migrants in Great Britain in the Middle of the 19th Century. Stuttgart 1998.
  • Eckart von Stutterheim and Kurt von Stutterheim: The gentlemen and barons of Stutterheim / Alt-Stutterheim. Verlag Degener & Co., Neustadt an der Aisch 1965, pp. 187, 229–232, plate after p. 228.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 21707, HMSO, London, May 4, 1855, p. 1728 ( PDF , English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 21719, HMSO, London, May 25, 1855, p. 2015 ( PDF , English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 21796, HMSO, London, October 9, 1855, p. 3724 ( PDF , English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 21853, HMSO, London, February 26, 1856, p. 698 ( PDF , English).
personal data
SURNAME Stutterheim, Richard von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stutterheim, Richard Carl Gustav Ludwig Wilhelm Julius von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian, Spanish, Brunswick, Holstein and British officer
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Helmstedt
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1871
Place of death near Wiesbaden in the Rhine