Wilhelm Ludwig Viktor Henckel von Donnersmarck

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Count Viktor Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Wilhelm Ludwig Viktor Count Henckel von Donnersmarck (born October 30, 1775 in Potsdam , † June 24, 1849 in Dresden; buried in Dessau ) was a Prussian lieutenant general .

Life

family

Wilhelm Ludwig Viktor Count Henckel von Donnersmarck was born on October 30, 1775 as the son of Viktor Amadeus Count Henckel von Donnersmarck . His father was a close friend of Prince Heinrich of Prussia , the brother of Frederick II and chief of Infantry Regiment No. 14 . His second marriage was Eleonore Maximiliane Ottilie , born Countess von Lepel and mother of Wilhelm Ludwig Viktor.

Military background

Wilhelm Ludwig also began a military career in 1789, joined the “von Brausen” dragoon regiment of the Prussian Army and at the end of January 1792 advanced to secondary lieutenant . From mid-December 1794 to mid-July 1798 he was in the cuirassier regiment "von der Marwitz" and was then transferred to the regiment of the Gardes du Corps . He had been a member of the Military Society since 1803 , was promoted to Rittmeister until the end of August 1806 and took part in the Battle of Auerstedt and the battles near Gollau and Königsberg during the Fourth Coalition War in 1806 . Promoted to major at the end of May 1807 , Henckel worked on the reorganization of the reserve cavalry.

In 1810 Henckel was adjutant to the wing of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and accompanied Field Marshal von Kalckreuth to Paris that same year to congratulate Emperor Napoleon on his marriage. In 1812 he was sent to Yorck on a secret mission and brought the first news of the Tauroggen Convention to the king . Appointed Colonel and Commander of the Reserve Cavalry in the 1st Army Corps in 1813, he freed 4,000 prisoners near Laucha after the Battle of Leipzig . On January 1, 1814, he crossed the Rhine with his horsemen at the head of the York Corps and, with only six squadrons, brought Landwehr cavalry , a battalion of infantry and half a mounted battery, 7,000-8,000 French, who were garrisoned in Simmern / Hunsrück . to give way and freed Trier on January 30th without a fight . Henckel took part in the campaign of 1815 as major general (since 1814) and chief of the 4th Infantry Brigade of the 1st Corps. They had little part in the Battle of Waterloo , but they helped in the pursuit of the enemy. Until 1818 he was in command of the reserve cavalry of the 5th Army Corps in the occupation army in France . In 1820 Henckel became commander of the 6th division , lieutenant general and commander of Torgau .

In 1821 he said goodbye and retired to his manor Tiefensee near Bad Düben . From 1842 he lived in Dessau, where he was made an honorary citizen of the city in 1845. Henckel died on June 24, 1849 during a stay in Dresden. He was buried in the historical cemetery in Dessau .

In honor of Henckel, a large wooden memorial (epitaph) was erected in the church in Tiefensee in 1899, which names his life data as well as campaigns and places in which he was involved in battles and skirmishes.

Marriage and offspring

He married Friederika von dem Knesebeck (1778–1848) on January 26, 1804 in Charlottenburg . She was the stepsister of General Karl Friedrich von dem Knesebeck . Her parents were Friedrich Wilhelm von dem Knesebeck (1735-1803) and his second wife Maria Magdalene Elisabeth von der Groeben (1739-1819). The couple had no children of their own. On August 12, 1819, they adopted Paulina von dem Knesebeck (1813-1894) the youngest daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig von dem Knesebeck (1775-1860) (brother of Karl Friedrich) and Wilhelmina von Bredow (1776-1856) from the house Haage. On December 3, 1834, she married the tax adviser and forest master Hilmar von Schönfeld (1801–1861).

Freemasons

In 1791 von Donnersmarck became a Freemason and accepted into the “To the Three Crowns” lodge in Königsberg. He later became the chairman of the "Zur Resiliency" lodge in Berlin. On March 4, 1813, together with General Surgeon von Wiebel, he applied for the establishment of a field box at the Great State Lodge. But since his unit left Breslau on April 13th and traveled through Silesia and Saxony for a long time, the actual establishment had to be postponed to 1814. The field box was named "No. 2 ”in progress. On September 5, 1816, this was converted into a standing box with the name "Friedrich Wilhelm zum Eisernen Kreuz" based in Erfurt.

After Henckel was transferred to Bar-le-Duc , he tried to found a field box there too, but met resistance from his superior, the corps commander Count von Zieten . It wasn't until November 14, 1817 that he succeeded in opening the old field box “No. 2 ”to reawaken. At the Aachen Congress it was decided that the Prussian occupation troops should be withdrawn. On January 9, 1819, already from Charlottenburg , Henckel ordered the field box to be closed.

After he had given up the chairmanship of the "Friedrich Wilhelm zum Eisernen Kreuz" lodge because of his transfer, it experienced a significant decline in members and financial difficulties. The circumstances in Erfurt were not particularly favorable as there was already an older lodge there. Count Henckel asked the Grand State Lodge to be allowed to move “his” box to its new official seat in Torgau. There it was reopened on January 21, 1820. He led the lodge until autumn 1823. During this time, this lodge flourished again for a short time.

After he was asked to help found a new lodge in Delitzsch called "Viktor zum goldennen Hammer", he withdrew from active management of the lodge in Torgau and handed it over to Karl Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Uttenhoven . On January 17, 1827, at the request of his brothers in Torgau, he took over the management of the lodge again and at that time was head of two lodges at the same time. Due to economic difficulties, the "Friedrich Wilhelm zum iron Kreuz" lodge was initially inactivated on January 2, 1828 and was no longer in operation during Donnersmarcks' lifetime. This only happened in Bonn in 1857 .

From 1838 to 1841 and again from 1842 to 1843 he held the office of State Grand Master of the Great State Lodge of Germany . From 1841 to 1849 he was Master of the Order of the Grand National Lodge. For about a year he held the two leading offices of the grand lodge alone. During his tenure, he accepted the future Kaiser Wilhelm I into the Freemasons' Union in 1840.

Works

  • Memories from my life. 1846.
  • Letters from the brothers of Frederick the Great to my grandparents. (posthumously) 1877.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Joachim Böttcher : Historical grave monuments and their inscriptions in the Dübener Heide . Ed .: AMF. tape 165 , August 2005, p. 51-52 .
  2. ^ Richter, Günter:  Knesebeck, Karl Friedrich von dem. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 179 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Yearbook of the German Nobility . Volume 2, p. 309.
  4. ^ Yearbook of the German Nobility. Volume 2, p. 312.
  5. ^ Yearbook of the German Nobility. Volume 2, p. 316.
personal data
SURNAME Henckel von Donnersmarck, Wilhelm Ludwig Viktor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henckel von Donnersmarck, Wilhelm Ludwig Viktor Graf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1775
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1849
Place of death Dessau