Wilhelm von Rahden
Baron Wilhelm von Rahden (born April 13, 1790 in Poplan, Lithuania ; † November 3, 1860 at Schloss Friedenstein , Gotha ) was a German officer and writer .
Life
Wilhelm von Rahden was a member of the Courland noble family of the Barons von Rahden . His parents were the Prussian lieutenant and parish representative for Neuhausen in Kurland and the heir to Karpischek and Birsen in Lithuania, Reinhold von Rahden (1757-1824) and Karoline Friederika von Klinkowsky († before 1799). He entered the Prussian military service in 1809 , took part as a lieutenant in the campaigns from 1813 to 1815 and was wounded near Lützen , Bautzen , Leipzig and Belle Alliance .
In autumn 1829 he took his leave as captain and went to Saint Petersburg , where he was given the post of captain in the general staff of the Imperial Russian Army , but returned to Prussia in August 1830. In 1832 he joined the ranks of the defenders of the Citadel of Antwerp as a gunner and was seriously wounded here.
He then went to Spain via France to fight as a volunteer in the ranks of the Carlist . Appointed Colonel of the Artillery, he took part in all the battles of the so-called royal expedition in 1837, headed the port fortifications on the Cantabrian coast as commander of the Genie Corps in the winter of 1837 to 1838, then joined Rafael Maroto's general staff as a colonel and lived as chief of the staff of Ramón Cabrera y Griño's army in the glorious campaign of 1839.
Seriously wounded, he returned to Germany with the rank of brigadier general , where he devoted himself to literary work. From 1845 to 1849 he lived with the Duchess Dorothea von Sagan , but then took up arms again, first for Schleswig, then against the Baden insurgents . From 1849 he lived at the Gothic Friedenstein Castle in the vicinity of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ; he died there on November 2nd, 1860.
Works (selection)
- Cabrera. Memories from the Spanish Civil War. Wilmans Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1840.
- Kruse Menthen. Low German poems mostly of cheerful content in Oldenburg dialect. Self-published, Kolmar 1868.
- Walks of an old soldier. Duncker publishing house, Berlin 1846 ff.
- War of Liberation of 1813, 1814 and 1815. 1846.
- 15 years of peace. 1847.
- From Spain's Civil War 1833-1840. 1851.
literature
- Roman Polsakiewicz: An unknown letter from Bettina von Arnim to Baron Wilhelm von Rahden. In: active word. German language and literature in research and teaching. 36: 170-171 (1986).
- Gerd Spiekermann: Wilhelm Rahden. A mostly forgotten Schrieversmann ut dat Ollnborger Land. In: Kay Dohnke u. a. (Ed.): Vun Böker un Minschen. Festschrift for Friedrich W. Michelsen on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Quickborn Verlag, Hamburg 1996, pp. 139–147 (Quickborn; 86)
- Oskar Stavenhagen : Genealogical manual of the Baltic knighthoods. Part 3, 2: Kurland, Lfg. 9-12, Görlitz, pp. 699 and 731
Web links
- Baltic Historical Commission (Ed.): Entry on Wilhelm von Rahden. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rahden, Wilhelm von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rahden, Wilhelm Johann Theodor Friedrich Moritz von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German officer and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 13, 1790 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Poplan, Lithuania |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 3, 1860 |
| Place of death | Friedenstein Castle , Gotha |