Rupert Wintersteller
Rupert Wintersteller (born January 25, 1773 in Kirchdorf in Tirol ; † August 30, 1832 ibid) was a commandant of the Tyrolean riflemen and an important person in the leadership of the Tyrolean freedom struggle in 1809 against Bavaria and Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte .
Life
Wintersteller came from a wealthy family of large landowners, landlords and rifle commanders, already honored by Emperor Leopold I and honored by Maria Theresa . His family owned 17 houses in Kirchdorf, including several inns. Already in the 1st coalition war in 1796/1797 he moved with the Kitzbühler Schützen to Welschtirol. He returned as a lieutenant with the Great Silver Medal for Bravery , an award for his courage and perseverance in the battles in the Adige Valley .
At the end of 1800, in the Second Coalition War , he moved out again with the riflemen. At Melleck am Steinpass and Jettenberg it was again successful against the French with the active support of Austrian line troops and Loferer riflemen under Captain Jakob Strucker . He was now promoted to first lieutenant and devoted himself intensively to training and equipping his Kirchdorfer riflemen.
On November 2, 1805, in the 3rd coalition war , he was a captain and one of the leaders in the defense of the Strub pass , a narrow valley between Lofer and Waidring. The rifle companies under Wintersteller, Joseph Hager , Anton Oppacher , Benno Hörwarter and the Salzburg riflemen under Jakob Strucker succeeded in stopping the advance of the Bavarian-French troops (approx. 10,000 men and 13 cannons) under Lieutenant General Deroy into the Lower Inn Valley. Decisive for the war, however, were the break-in of the French Marshal Ney via Scharnitz to Innsbruck and the military clashes between the Franco-South German coalition army and the Austrians in the Danube region. At the end of the year, after the so-called Three Emperor Battle of Austerlitz, Emperor Franz II had to accept the peace treaty of Pressburg, which was humiliating for him . The Fürstete Grafschaft Tirol now became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria . For the Bavarians, a long-cherished wish came true, for the Tyroleans, who had always been loyal to the emperor, a rebellion was mapped out.
During the 4th Coalition War in Spain, Napoleon's Soldateska could not record any sweeping military success. As a result, a large part of the French military potential was tied up there. This encouraged the Viennese court to campaign again against Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte . Emperor Franz II began the 5th coalition war in the spring of 1809 . At the same time, the Tyroleans were encouraged to revolt against Bavaria. Archduke Johann , a brother of the Austrian emperor, played an important role here.
Wintersteller's position in the survey of Tyrol in 1809
The Tyrolean popular uprising began on April 12, 1809. In contrast to the state capital, the Kitzbühel court proceeded in a coordinated and well-considered manner according to Wintersteller's plans. In contrast to the bloody battles and riots in Innsbruck, the Bavarian soldiers stationed there were captured in the court of Kitzbühel in a flash and without bloodshed. Rupert Wintersteller personally overpowered a Bavarian captain in St. Johann in Tirol . With this, 180 from St. Johann and 100 from Kitzbühel, a total of 1250 men were taken into captivity. A little later, Wintersteller was appointed major and district commander of the Kitzbühel regional court by the Austrian commander-in-chief in the Unterland, the Unterintendant Anton Leopold von Roschmann .
On May 11, 1809, Bavarian-French troops with a strength of approx. 8,000 men, 3,000 of them French, under Marshal Lefebvre and Lieutenant General Wrede , advanced over the Strub Pass to Tyrol, which due to the dispositions of Unterintendant von. Roschmann was only very weakly staffed. V. Roschmann, Wintersteller's superior, was of the opinion that the opponents would break in via Reit im Winkl and Kössen. After nine hours of fighting, in which they had to retreat four times, the Bavaro French were able to force the original 344 Tyroleans, 87 of whom fell, and the 115 Austrian soldiers to retreat, but suffered heavy losses of dead and wounded. The next day Winterstell was able to successfully push back the opposing troops at Waidring, but their superiority was too great. Hoped-for help from the Austrian military under Field Marshal Lieutenant Chasteler did not materialize. Wintersteller had to clear the field with his riflemen and was able to save himself with difficulty. Most of his riflemen managed to escape. The opponents, embittered by the fierce resistance of the Tyroleans and the 60 or so fighting Tyroleans, who had not forgotten the disgrace of their capture a month ago in the Kitzbühel court and were incited by atrocity propaganda, took disproportionately wild revenge on the civilian population and burned Wintersteller's hometown Kirchdorf completely low. This is what happened to almost all the houses on the road to St. Johann. Chasteler had moved the imperial line troops too late from Innsbruck to the lowlands. Heavy fighting broke out in Söll and Wörgl, which the Bavarians and the French were able to win in an hour with their strong cavalry and artillery. Compare with it the hour-long resistance of the "rural people" in the Strubpass and near Waidring. Chasteler explained his defeat with the absence of the Tyrolean riflemen and the Landsturm. Wintersteller couldn't and didn't want to call on his traumatized compatriots.
After a severe defeat by the Austrian army in the Battle of Wagram in July , Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte was able to send troops against Tyrol again. Andreas Hofer resented Wintersteller that, in a realistic assessment of the situation, he capitulated when the enemy marched in again on July 27th. Hofer did not want to admit that the Lower Lands could no longer oppose the approximately 14,000 Bavarians, French and Saxons. The Unterländer under Wintersteller also did not take part in the military conflicts on the Bergisel . However, he remained in command of the north-eastern border of Tyrol. At the end of August, Andreas Hofer sent two of his confidants, Joseph Speckbacher and Martin Firler , to the Unterland. There were major differences of opinion between Winterstellers and these very presumptuous commanders, also because the Oberlanders behaved like conquerors in the Kitzbühel region and beyond.
After reconciliation was restored, the Oberlanders, Unterländer and some companies from South Tyrol and Salzburg inflicted one of the most severe defeats of the year on the enemy on September 25 on the Salzburg-Tyrolean border. Under Wintersteller's command, the 1st Royal Bavarian Line Body Regiment, an elite troop, was completely wiped out in Unken in the Saalachtal valley by its “Kitzbichlers” in a “shiny battle”. Only a few Bavarians were able to escape after hours of fighting. They left 400 dead, around 200 prisoners and rich booty. Speckbacher came victorious from Lofer only later, but then claimed that he alone would have made the victory possible in Unken. In fact, the Tyroleans achieved their greatest but last war success only through a remarkable coordination of their forces: Joseph Speckbacher near Lofer, Rupert Wintersteller near Unken, Anton Wallner and Johann Panzl at the Luftenstein Pass in the Saalachtal and Father Joachim Haspinger at the Lueg Pass in the Salzach Valley.
That day Winterstell had taken part in combat operations for the last time. In October he learned of peace negotiations in Vienna and that Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte was marching strong troops for the third time over Kufstein, Kössen and the Strub Pass against Tyrol. Wintersteller did not want his countrymen to be worn down by the overwhelming force, so withdrew them from the border and released them two hours before the enemy military arrived in St. Johann. He warned the Speckbacher who was standing with Melleck several times of the impending danger, but was not heard by him. Speckbacher also rejected all parliamentary contacts with the Bavarians and so on October 17th, after a surprise attack by the Bavarians and the French, the Tyroleans suffered the worst defeat in the entire uprising, with 300 dead and 400 captured shooters.
Attempted recovery and involvement in the Alpine Confederation
Although Wintersteller was amnestied by a military court under General Drouet d'Erlon in December 1809 and had to take three hostages, the Bavarian government continued to consider him extremely dangerous. In 1813 he was involved with the Alpine League in a new liberation movement and at the end of March 1813 was forcibly taken to Munich as an important hostage with many other former insurgents. The then Police Director Marcus von Stetten wrote daily reports to the King and Minister of State Montgelas about his detention at the police headquarters . Wintersteller came to Ingolstadt fortress in August . Despite his physical and psychological problems, which were evidently caused by his imprisonment, numerous petitions and the special advocacy of the Kitzbühel district judge Joseph Knitl , Wintersteller remained held hostage. He was only released as a broken, prematurely aged man at the end of October, when Napoleon's star faded in the 6th coalition war and Bavaria re-allied with Austria with the Treaty of Ried . With little support from the beloved Emperor Franz and closely monitored by the Bavarian authorities, Wintersteller was no longer able to gain a foothold economically.
Last honor, the Great Golden Civil Medal of Honor
In contrast to his comrades-in-arms Andreas Hofer and Josef Speckbacher and Father Joachim Haspinger , who had fled to Vienna , Wintersteller enjoyed a great reputation in his valley and with the state government. In 1815 he was awarded one of the highest orders that the Austrian monarchy had to award, the Great Golden Civil Medal of Honor . In 1819 Wintersteller, who had suffered a loss of around 50,000 guilders in 1809, only received a captain's pension of 400 guilders a year. He died after long and severe suffering in 1832 and was buried in his home town of Kirchdorf. He left behind his wife Anna Hintlerin / Wintersteller, who lived in St. Johann until her death, and six children, four of whom were minors. The eldest son Rupert had to sell the large, but very indebted Wintersteller estate in 1843. Like his siblings, he died impoverished.
Which still reminds of Major Rupert Wintersteller today
- The Wintersteller barracks of the Austrian. Federal Army in St. Johann in Tirol
- The Winterstellers Rifle Battalion , it awards the Winterstellerkreuz
- The Wintersteller Schützenkompanie Kirchdorf
- The Wintersteller costume
- The rifle flag donated by Wintersteller in 1815 along with personal items in the Kirchdorfer Heimatmuseum Metzgerhaus
- The Wintersteller picture in the Heldengalerie on the Bergisel in Innsbruck
- His name on the memorial from 1887 in the Strub Pass
- The Wintersteller monument from 1901 in his hometown
- His name on the tablet Heroes of the Tyrolean Struggles for Freedom 1797-1809 next to Andreas Hofer's tomb in the Hofkirche in Innsbruck
- Streets in Kirchdorf in Tirol and St. Johann in Tirol named after him
- A fresco in Kitzbühel, Malingstrasse 1
- Several plays and odes
- A picture on the bay window of the Gasthaus Oberbräu in Hopfgarten im Brixental (along with other national defenders)
literature
- Marcus v. Stetten, Obedient Rapporte , BayHStA M Inn 45 144–45 149, Munich 1813.
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Wintersteller, Rupert . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 57th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1889, pp. 98–101 ( digitized version ).
- Heinrich v. Wörndle: War events in Kirchdorf and the surrounding area. Self-published by the Wintersteller Memorial Committee, Innsbruck 1901.
- Herta Haisjackl: Major Rupert Wintersteller - Tyrolean rifle commandant 1809. The hapless "idol of the Lower Inn Valley" , in: Farewell to the fight for freedom. Eds. Brigitte Mazohl and Bernhard Mertelseder, Schlern-Schriften 346, Innsbruck 2009, pp. 199–221.
- Herta Haisjackl: Landesschützenmajor Rupert Wintersteller , undedr. Master's thesis, Innsbruck 2010.
- Herta Haisjackl: Love letters from 1813 , in: Tiroler Heimat . Yearbook f. History and Folklore, Innsbruck 2013, pp. 163–170.
- Herta Haisjackl: The winter plate from Kirchdorf falcons or pigeons? Book, self-published, Aldrans 2015.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ BayHSTA MA 6943, act Sept.-Oct. 1809, report by a Bavarian informant.
- ^ Anton v. Schallhammer, Warlike events in the Duchy of Salzburg in 1800, 1805 and 1809, Salzburg 1853, p. 232 f.
- ↑ Anton Peter Ader, Tyrol Landesvertheidigung, Innsbruck 1853, Part 1, pp 131 and 156. Part 3, p 86th
- ↑ Heinrich von Wörndle "Anno Neun" Vol. VII. Innsbruck 1903, p. 35 ff.
- ^ Josef Hirn, Tyrol's survey in 1809, Innsbruck 1909, p. 725.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wintersteller, Rupert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Tyrolean freedom fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 25, 1773 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kirchdorf in Tirol |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 30, 1832 |
| Place of death | Kirchdorf in Tirol |