Wichard von Möllendorff (General)

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Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorff, oil painting by Carl Kretschmar 1797.
Wichard v. Möllendorff
(portrait copperplate engraving by FC Krüger 1795 after a painting by Holtzmann 1778)

Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorff (born January 7, 1724 in Lindenberg in the Prignitz , † January 28, 1816 in Havelberg ) was a Prussian field marshal .

Life

Wichard von Möllendorff was the son of Max Friedrich von Möllendorff (1665–1762), heir to Lindenberg, dike captain in the Prignitz, and his wife Alma Elisabeth, née von Platen from the Kuhwinkel family.

Möllendorff became a page with Frederick the Great in 1740 and later took part in the Second Silesian War as an ensign . Soon after, he was promoted to captain and appointed wing adjutant .

In the Seven Years' War Möllendorff made a significant contribution to the decision of the Battle of Leuthen by taking away the cemetery , for which Friedrich decorated it with the Pour le Mérite . The king rewarded his behavior during the siege of Breslau in 1758 by being promoted to major .

Möllendorff also distinguished himself in the battle of Hochkirch and in 1760 received command of the Guard Regiment as a lieutenant colonel . In the battle of Torgau on November 3, 1760, he stormed the Siptitzer heights, was captured, but replaced again in early 1761 and promoted to colonel . The king promoted him to major general on May 15, 1761 . On July 21, 1762 Möllendorff stormed the entrenched post of Burkersdorf .

In May 1775 Möllendorff was lieutenant general and as such commanded a corps in the War of the Bavarian Succession .

With his appointment as governor of Berlin on December 11, 1782, he also received the supreme command of all regiments in the garrison and of all military facilities and personnel in Berlin, including the commandant of Berlin. He became head of the "Ramm on foot regiment" .

Around 1780 he built a castle-like, if only one-story country estate in the village of Lichtenberg near Berlin, which was called the “Möllendorffsche Schlösschen”. Around 1910, the municipality of Lichtenberg renamed the former Dorfstrasse , on which the access to the Möllendorff estate was located, to Möllendorffstrasse . The traffic route bore this name until 1976, then again from 1992.

Möllendorff repeatedly turned against the disdainful and harsh treatment of Prussian officers with their soldiers. He demanded of young officers "to lead the common man more with ambition than with tyranny", that is, to influence him with an appeal to a sense of honor instead of insults, beatings and other punishments. "Your Majesty the King has no rascals, Canailles, Racailles, dogs and crops in their service, but righteous soldiers."

Under Friedrich Wilhelm II. Möllendorff was General of the Infantry in 1787 and General Field Marshal in 1793. That year he commanded the army sent to Poland . On January 31, 1794, in place of the Duke of Braunschweig, he received the supreme command of the Prussian army in the Palatinate . Here he won at Kaiserslautern on May 23rd and later again on September 20th, but could not resist the overwhelming power of France. Under Friedrich Wilhelm III. Every year he led the great autumn maneuvers of the Prussian army near Potsdam and Berlin together with General Ernst von Rüchel .

In the war of 1806 , at the age of 82, he accompanied King Friedrich Wilhelm III. without command into the field. On September 21, he slipped down on the other side of the Brandenburg Gate while mounting his horse. On the same day, Hulots Bellona fell from the gable of the armory . Both events immediately made the rounds as bad omens in the army and the public . After the Battle of Auerstedt Möllendorff tolerated the strategically unfavorable escape of remnants of the main army to Erfurt . There, disregarding the simplest of tactical principles, he issued abruptly contradicting orders, finally fell silent and withdrew into the sickroom, where he demanded to be seen as an "injured officer". His presence undoubtedly contributed to the “senseless surrender” of Erfurt. Möllendorff went to Berlin, where Napoleon awarded him the Grand Aigle of the Legion of Honor . The acceptance of the honor brought him allegations from patriotic circles.

Wichard von Möllendorff was canon of the cathedral chapter in Havelberg since 1754. In 1782 he was also given the Kucklow cathedral provost in Western Pomerania, which he transferred to the Prussian minister Karl Georg von Hoym in 1796 with the approval of the king . After his death in 1807 Möllendorff claimed the Dompropstei again for himself, about which he led a legal dispute with the Prussian tax authorities; but in 1811 the Dompropstei was abolished anyway, like all other Protestant monasteries and cathedral monasteries in Prussia. At that time, the offices of canon and provost had the purpose of giving Wichard von Möllendorff, as a deserving officer, the associated income.

A village established in 1776 after the lowering of the Madusees in Western Pomerania was named Möllendorf in his honor . At the beginning of the 1790s, Prince Heinrich of Prussia dedicated a plaque to him on his Rheinsberg obelisk .

Shortly before his death, the childless general adopted three of his great-grand-nephews, the sons Hugo, Ottokar and Arnold of Major Theodor von Wilamowitz. From 1815, with royal permission, they therefore inherited the double name of Wilamowitz-Moellendorff .

literature

Web links

Commons : Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The first name Max in the cited literature contradicts original contemporary sources, e. B. the baptism register January 1724 and death register May 1762 of the church book Cumlosen (Prignitz), after which the father "Marx" (d. I. Marcus) was called Friedrich
  2. ↑ Möllendorffstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  3. ^ Arthur von Witzleben: Old Prussian Commission, reprint Biblio-Verlag Osnabrück 1971, p. 8
  4. ↑ Wolf-Jörg Schuster: We are invited to a rendezvous. Napoleon in Thuringia 1806 . Jenzig Verlag, Jena 1993, ISBN 3-910141-06-4 , p. 54
  5. ^ Fr. Förster : Modern and recent Prussian history. Since the death of Frederick II up to our day. With the use of many previously unpublished sources and oral information from important contemporaries. 5th edition, Volume 1., Hempel, Berlin 1867, p. 744
  6. ^ Oscar von Lettow-Vorbeck: The war of 1806 and 1807. Second volume. Prenzlau and Lübeck. Mittler, Berlin 1892, p. 50 (with proof). On the events in Erfurt from October 13 to 17, 1806 see also Eduard von Höpfner : The war of 1806 and 1807. First part. The campaign of 1806. Volume two. Schropp, Berlin 1855, pp. 15-20.
  7. ↑ So Priesdorff (literature), p. 520, there also the following
  8. ↑ Munich newspaper. 1796, p. 1046 ( online ).
  9. ^ Heinrich Berghaus : Land book of the Duchy of Pomerania and the Principality of Rügen . Part II, Volume 6. Anklam 1870, p. 264 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Möllendorff, Wichard von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Möllendorff, Wichard Joachim Heinrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Field Marshal General
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1724
PLACE OF BIRTH Lindenberg (Prignitz) in today's municipality of Groß Pankow (Prignitz)
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1816
Place of death Havelberg