Zacharias Wolf

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Zacharias von Wolf (born February 7, 1667 in Bremen , † April 5, 1726 in Kiel ) was a German military leader .

biography

Family, education and work

Zacharias Wolf's father of the same name was a Swedish lieutenant colonel , presumably a native of Pomerania. Since his father died in Stockholm in 1682 , Jakob von Kemphen, Erik Dahlberg's pupil, took care of him in "fatherly care". Through von Kemphen, Wolf got to know all of the larger permanent places in the Swedish Empire.

After a long military study trip with von Kemphen in Holland and on the Rhine, from 1686 he got a job as a copyist for the Swedish fortress system in Stettin. A few years later, in 1689, he entered the Holstein-Gottorfische service, where he became an engineer-captain in 1694 .

In Tönning

Tönning fortress

His job in Tönning was to manage the fortifications that were supposed to prevent access to Eiderstedt . His greatest work in Tönning was the magnificent arsenal planned in 1709/10, which was decorated with six monumental equestrian portraits of the Swedish kings Karl X. Gustaf , Karl XI. and Charles XII. as well as the Schleswig-Holstein dukes Christian Albrecht , Friedrich IV. and the administrator Prince-Bishop Christian August was decorated. These were brought to Frederiksborg Castle by the Danes when the fortress was demolished.

In the Northern War

He proved his great bravery and prudence in 1697 when the Danes stormed the Holmer Schanze and was promoted to major for this. When the Tönning fortress was besieged by Danish troops in 1700, as chief engineer officer, he played a major role in ensuring that it was able to hold out. Thereupon he was appointed lieutenant colonel and vice-commander of the Tönning fortress, and in 1703 he was appointed colonel and first in command of the fortress. He initiated further strengthening of the Tönning fortifications and the regulation of the oath.

When the Swedish Field Marshal Stenbock moved into the duchies in 1712/1713, he let the Swedish troops move into the fortress. Stenbock was surrounded by a Danish-Russian army in early 1713 and had to give up three months later. Wolf was promoted to major general in 1713 .

The fortress, too, had to surrender to the besieging Danes on February 10, 1714 (“for lack of victuals”) against the free withdrawal of the garrison . This is how Wolf escaped captivity. However, this meant the end of the Great Northern War in Schleswig-Holstein and on North German soil in general. Because with the surrender, all Swedish troops were in captivity. Wolf produced a "journal" on the events of the "admission of the Swedes" and the siege up to January 30th (February 10th) 1714. According to Zedler, the print is said to have taken place in Copenhagen in 1714 on royal Danish orders and again in Hamburg in 1724 have been launched.

After the Northern War

After the peace treaty in 1721, Wolf was appointed commander-in-chief of the sharply reduced Holstein-Gottorf army and in 1725 received a seat in the state government in Kiel. When he died in Kiel in 1726, an "honorary memory" (obituary) for Wolf was published, in which a portrait of the deceased and a biography were printed. It also mentions that after the loss of the Stapelholmer Schanze in May 1697 , Wolf withdrew it with his crew of 165 men under "flying flags and sounding game" and on June 6th near Tönnings by Duke Friedrich IV accompanied by the English Ambassador Herr von Cressy was received and promoted to major.

Wolf as an artist

Siege of Narva , drawn by Zacharias Wolf around 1700

As a Swedish officer, Wolf was also well informed about the conditions before Narva in 1700, either through his own experience or through reports. Because it is a picture of the siege of Narwa passed down according to which Wolf is named as the draftsman and Christian Fritzsch as the engraver.

It can also be assumed that the view of Gottorf Castle published by Chancellor Westphalen also goes back to a drawing by Zacharias Wolf.

The Kiel University Library has a manuscript in 4 volumes of the work originally laid out in 5 parts and is distinguished by 350 "clean and well-conditioned fortification cracks and hand drawings in folio". On page 1 of the manuscript there is the “Before report to the inclined reader”, in which Wolff gives indications of his identity. Accordingly, at the beginning of his career he spent 15 years in Swedish and “Fürstl. Schleswig-Holstein Services As a Fortifications Officer, it was such that "would-be war people" often need instructions for fortification, for "Practicke, how to build and what is necessary for attaque or protection"…. So I thought about what to put on, and to present the true basis of this knowledge ... from my own experience, and true examples, clearly tried, in which I met in long troubles, THUS Hertzog Tühmern Schleswig Holstein, had time to this would be carried together and all the cracks made even according to the scale ... "

Epitaph of the wife

Epitaph for Christiane Wolf

Barthold Conrath made the epitaph for Christine de Wulfen, the wife of Zacharias Wolf, and the couple's four deceased children. The artist painted the middle picture in 1708. It initially hung in the Tönninger Sophienkirche. It has been in the Sankt Martinskirche in Tellingstedt since it was sold in 1744 .

literature

  • Jöcher IV, p. 2058
  • Gerhard Eimer : Swedish officers as builders in Schleswig-Holstein. Contributions to the activities of N. Tessin the Elder J., Z. Wolff, RM Dallin and JC Löwen-Lewon for Holstein-Gottorp. In: Nordelbingen Volume 30, 1961, pages 103-133.
  • Schmidt: Art and cultural historical drawings by Major General Zacharias Wolff, which are of importance for the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, including his explanations . In: Nordelbingen 23 (1955), p. 101
  • Wolfgang Merckens: The bombardment of Tönning in 1700 according to an unknown report in the Kiel University Library . In: ZSHG 128, 2003, pp. 137-148
  • Jörg Rathjen: Zacharias Wolff: Life and work of the last Tönninger fortress commander . In: GTStM 16 (1997), pp. 14-32, illustrations.
  • Jürgen Lafrenz: The “Pracktische Kriegsbaukunst” by Zacharias Wolff: a map of the fortress system . In: Duisburger Forschungen 42 (1996), pp. 167-193.
  • Frenz Bertram: The powder mill of Zacharias Wolff: Commander of the Tönning fortress, 1703–1713 . In: Heimat 98 (1991), pp. 15-18, illustrations.
  • Gerd Andresen: Zacharias Wolff's plan for a third fortification of the city of Tönning . In: GTStM 9 (1990), pp. 29-35, illustrations
  • Rockstroh: Wolf, Zacharias . In: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon 16, 3rd edition, Copenhagen 1984, p. 17
  • August Geerkens: Luck, hardship and the end of the Tönning fortress . In: Yearbook of the North Frisian Institute 3 (1951/52). Pp. 5-41.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Munthe: Fortifikationens historia II. 1, Stockholm 1911, p. 44
  2. ↑ Eimer, NE 1961, p. 108
  3. ↑ Eimer, NE 1961, p. 109
  4. ↑ a b Wolf, Zacharias. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 58, Leipzig 1748, column 784.
  5. ↑ Reprint of Zacharia Wolf, held by the Princely Gottorffischen General-Majorn and who was Commendant of the Vestung Tönningen, partly himself, / partly also made on his order by the chief auditor Rubach, / and from January 1st…. 1713. bit on January 30th anni currentis, Continued Journals… Everyone and everyone… For the message… What happened both when the Swedes entered Tönningen / and during the bloquade afterwards… Imprinted the order and asked for it to be printed. 1714. 86 sheets. Second edition after the original printed in Copenhagen: 1724
  6. ↑ Schmidt: Art and cultural historical drawings by Major General Zacharias Wolff, which are of importance for the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, including his explanations . In: Nordelbingen 23 (1955), p. 101
  7. ↑ Relief of the city of Narva and the Moscowites great defeat on the 20th, 21st of November 1700 / Drawn by Zacharias Wolf. Engraved by C. Fritzsch; see illustration on page 5
  8. ↑ Ernst Joachim von Westphalen: Monumenta inedita Rerum Germanicarum PRÆCIPUE CIMBRICARUM, ET MEGAPOLENSIUM ..... 1739f., Vol. 3, p. 323
  9. ↑ Schmidt: Art and cultural historical drawings by Major General Zacharias Wolff, which are of importance for the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, including his explanations . In: Nordelbingen 23 (1955), p. 114.
  10. ↑ Practical war architecture: after many years of personal experience ... by Zacharias Wolff [1722]: See: Schmidt: Art and cultural-historical drawings by Major General Zacharias Wolff, which are important for the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, including his explanations . In: Nordelbingen 23 (1955). Schmidt describes here a copy of the engineering corpsets Bibliotek in Copenhagen.
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Zacharias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolf, Zacharias von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soldier in the service of Godfather, nobleman, fortress construction engineer, cartographer
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1667
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1726
Place of death near Kiel