Wilhelm von Lebzeltern

Wilhelm Freiherr von Lebzeltern, lithograph by August Prinzhofer , 1851

Wilhelm Freiherr von Lebzeltern (born March 7, 1787 in Chernivtsi , Bukowina , † March 18, 1869 in Vienna ) was an Imperial and Royal Austrian Feldzeugmeister and Privy Councilor .

Life

He comes from a family of officers and received military training at the Imperial and Royal Engineering Academy in Vienna. In 1805 he joined the genius corps and was immediately entrusted with the task of putting the Theresienstadt fortress in a state of defense. Further fortification projects in Enns and Mauthausen followed. In 1809 he was taken prisoner by the French. In 1815 he made the campaign in Piedmont and Lombardy as a captain . In 1821 he distinguished himself in the campaign against Naples. Promoted to major in 1831 , he was appointed tutor of Archduke Charles' sons in Vienna in 1832 . As head of the court of Archduke Friedrich, he advanced to the colonel and accompanied the young Archduke to Venice in 1837 , as well as on the campaign to Syria and trips to Algeria , Portugal and England .

The officer was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown 2nd Class (1840) and the title of a Privy Councilor and was therefore promoted to the status of baron on March 16, 1842.

On October 30, 1844 he was appointed major general and in this capacity in 1848 was appointed director of the Wiener Neustädter Akademie and was promoted to field marshal lieutenant on January 27, 1849 , and in 1851 was promoted to vice-president of the regional military tribunal in Vienna.

On March 29, 1865 he was retired at his own request, with the title of Feldzeugmeister , and the Kaiser honored him for his exemplary career of more than 60 years with the Order of the Iron Crown 1st class with (KD.) 2nd class .

Awards (selection)

• Order of the Red Eagle III. Class (before 1850)
• Commander of the Order of Merit of St. Michael
• Commander 1st class of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Louis
• Knight of Honor of the Grand Ducal Oldenburg House and Merit Order, Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwigs (before 1850)
• Imperial Russian Order of Saint Stanislaus 1st Class (1846)
• Commander of the Royal British Order of Bath *
• Grand Cross of the Order of St. George for Military Merit (1834)
• Grand Cross of the Royal Sicilian Order of St. George of Reunification
• Grand Cross of the Royal Sicilian Order Francis I.
• Commander of the Order of St. Gregory (before 1850)
• Ottoman Mecidiye order and saber of honor

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the Freiherrn von Lebzeltern, younger branch, 1842

1718: Shield divided by a slanting silver bar covered with three naturally colored bees standing one below the other: on the right (below) in black a crowned, double-curved, golden lion, turned to the right, holding a silver cubic stone in the front paws; left (above) in red a free-floating, white arm emerging from blue clouds, turned to the right, holding an open book, the right side of which is labeled V, the left side L (Vitae liber). There are two crowned helmets on the shield. From the right helmet grows the arm of the left half of the shield with the beech tree in hand between an open eagle flight, the right wing of which is divided by black and gold, the left one by red and silver, and the lion grows from the left helmet the right half of the shield with the cubic stone. The covers of the right helmet are red and silver and those of the left are black and gold.

1842: The coat of arms of the younger branch baronial line contains the family coat of arms: the beam with the bees, the arm with the beech and the lion with the cubic stone. The baron's crown rests on the shield. The helmet and crest decorations are like those of the older branch, the only difference being that instead of the ram, a fortress tower with three flags, the Austrian black-and-yellow, the Turkish with the horse's tail and the English rises from the third helmet, in memory of the Taking Saida. Shield holders are two upright, inward-looking, golden lions.

literature

• Military Schematism of the Austrian Empire. Vienna 1836, p. 184.
• Military Schematism of the Austrian Empire. Vienna 1846, p. 50.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Lebzeltern, Wilhelm Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 14th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1865, pp. 281–283 ( digitized version ).
• Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: The kk or kuk generals 1816-1918. Austrian State Archives, 1907.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Military schematism of the Austrian Empire. kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1867, p. 139.
2. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses for the year 1861. Volume 17, Verlag Justus Perthes, Gotha 1867, p. 521.
3. ^ Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: The kk or kuk generality 1816-1918. Austrian State Archives, 1907, p. 102.
4. ↑ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Kaiserthums Österreich. 1st part, kk Hof- und Staats- Aerarial-Druckerey, Vienna, March 1848, p. 314.
5. ↑ Military schematism of the Austrian Empire. kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1850, p. 256.
6. ↑ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: The coats of arms of the German baronial and noble families. 4th volume, Verlag TO Weigel, Leipzig 1857, p. 251.
7. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Lebzeltern, Wilhelm Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 14th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1865, pp. 281–283 ( digitized version ).