Sigbert Heister

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Portrait of Sigbert Graf Heister Signature Sigbert Heister.PNG
Bust from 1849 in the Heldenberg Memorial

Sigbert Graf Heister (* 1646 in Kirchberg an der Raab , Styria , † February 22, 1718 there ) was an Austrian field marshal .

ancestry

His parents were Baron Gottfried von Heister (1609–1679), Vice President of the Imperial Court War Council and his wife Maria Anna von Virmond . His brother Hannibal Joseph († 1719) became imperial major general and commander in Croatia.

Life

Sigbert Graf Heister fought against the Turks in 1665 , then against the French and also distinguished himself in the later campaigns through bravery and insight after he was appointed general . He was already a major when he was seriously wounded on June 6, 1678 in the fighting over the Rheinfelden Bridge. He recovered and in 1682 was commissioned by the emperor to form a regiment, and he was appointed colonel. In 1683 Heister took part in the relief of Vienna from the Turkish siege and the campaign that followed; In 1686 he was appointed major general. In the following years Heister fought on the Turkish front in Transylvania .

Heister led the entire infantry of Prince Ludwig of Baden in 1689 in the battles of Batocina and Nissa . On March 3, 1682 he was raised to the rank of imperial count and promoted to field marshal lieutenant. Then in 1693 he commanded an independent corps against the rebels in Upper Hungary .

His financial means enabled him to buy the rule in Kirchberg , his birthplace, for 60,000 guilders. In 1704 he had the dilapidated fortification of the former Kirchbergs demolished and a cozy castle complex built, which he gradually expanded to include several fish ponds, a large cattle breeding facility for fine horses and cattle and even an orangery .

In 1697 Heister was one of the imperial commanders under Prince Eugene at the Battle of Zenta ; In 1699 he was again given command of an independent corps .

In the War of the Spanish Succession he was used in Bavaria and Tyrol in 1703 .

The Kuruc uprisings , however, now required a greater degree of attention, because while the majority of the army under Prince Eugene fought against the French and Bavaria, the multitudes of the "Malcontenten" ("dissatisfied", as the Kuruzen were also called by contemporary German sources) grazed. already to the Vienna suburbs ! Fortifications were hastily erected around the capital ( "The Line" ).

Heister was appointed field marshal and took over the command of hastily assembled troops, with which he attacked an army detachment of the Kurucs under Count Sándor Károlyi near St. Niclas in May 1704 and partly destroyed and partly led them to flee. In the further course of the year he succeeded several times in bringing the rebels to battle and beat them (June 22nd near Győr / Raab , December 26th 1704 near Tyrnau ). In doing so, he sought to bring the fight back to the source of the uprising, to Hungary and Upper Hungary . There Heister proceeded with iron severity; However, since the imperial court still hoped to negotiate the Hungarians to make peace, Heister was summoned to Vienna in between, where he had to justify his actions. Despite winning the Battle of Tyrnau, in which Heister personally led the decisive cavalry attack, completely wiped out the enemy infantry (almost 2,000 dead and 3,000 prisoners were reported), 14 guns and over 30 Hungarian flags, he was recalled from the theater of war and handing over command to General d´Erbeville.

In 1706, the court war council sent Heister to see Prince Eugene in Italy. In 1708, however, he was again given high command in Hungary after neither d´Erbeville nor his successor had been able to end the uprising.

On August 4, 1708, the decisive battle at Trenčín took place , in which Heister's troops defeated the enemy, which was more than twice as strong. Heister's high command was later transferred to the Hungarian cavalry leader Johann Pálffy , who, freshly promoted to field marshal, brought the campaign to a close in 1711, partly through victorious battles and partly through clever negotiations.

Heister served again under Prince Eugene in the flare-up Turkish war in 1716 , first in the Banat and on August 22, 1717 in the victorious battle of Belgrade , in which his son was killed. Heister probably couldn't get over the death of his son.

The following year he died in his castle in Kirchberg ; he was buried in the local parish church, where today a stone tablet in Latin praises his deeds.

In 1876, Heistergasse in Vienna- Brigittenau (20th district) was named after him.

family

He was married four times. His first wife was Anna Maria von Zinzendorf , the daughter of Count Ferdinand von Zinzendorf and his wife Rebecka Regina von Gienger . From this marriage comes the son:

  • Johann Albert (* 1676; † October 16, 1746) Field Marshal Lieutenant and Court War Councilor ⚭ May 5, 1711 Gabriele Josepha von Kaunitz (April 2, 1690; † March 6, 1769)
  • Rudolf (⚔ September 21, 1717 in front of Belgrade) Lieutenant Field Marshal
⚭ Eleonore von Khuenburg
⚭ Maria Josepha von Gleisbach († April 5, 1749)

literature

Web links

Commons : Sigbert Heister  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. 1829, p. 35, accessed April 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ see master list of the Gienger
  3. ^ Franz Karl Wißgrill , Karl von Odelga: scene of the rural Lower Austrian nobility. Volume 5, p. 40. (digitized version)
personal data
SURNAME Heister, Sigbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heister, Sigbert Graf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian general
DATE OF BIRTH 1646
PLACE OF BIRTH Kirchberg an der Raab
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1718
Place of death Kirchberg an der Raab