Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel
Encyclopedia
Generalfeldmarschall
Field Marshal or Generalfeldmarschall in German, was a rank in the armies of several German states and the Holy Roman Empire; in the Austrian Empire, the rank Feldmarschall was used...
noted for his victories in the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
.
Son of the president of the superior court of Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
, he was born at Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, and brought up with his cousin, Otto von Manteuffel
Otto von Manteuffel
Otto Theodor von Manteuffel , was a conservative Prussian statesman. Manteuffel was born in Lübben , into an aristocratic family....
(1805–1882), the Prussian statesman, entered the guard cavalry at Berlin in 1827, and became an officer in 1828. After attending the War Academy for two years, and serving successively as aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to General von Müffling
Karl Freiherr von Müffling
Friedrich Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Müffling, called Weiss was a Prussian generalfeldmarschall-Biography:Born in Halle, Muffling entered the Prussian army in 1790....
and to Prince Albert of Prussia, he was promoted captain in 1843 and major in 1848, when he became aide-de-camp to Frederick William IV
Frederick William IV of Prussia
|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...
, whose confidence he had gained during the revolutionary movement in Berlin.
Promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1852, and colonel (and commanding officer of the 5th Uhlans
Uhlan
Uhlans were Polish light cavalry armed with lances, sabres and pistols. The title was later used by lancer regiments in the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian armies....
) in 1853, he was sent on important diplomatic missions to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and St Petersburg. In 1857 he was promoted to major-general and chief of the Prussian Military Cabinet
German Imperial Military Cabinet
The Prussian Military Cabinet or the German Military Cabinet was a military institution under the direct command authority of the Prussian king and German emperor for handling personnel matters of the army officer corps....
(the King's military advisers). He gave strong support to the Prince Regent's plans for the reorganization of the army. In 1861 he was violently attacked in a pamphlet by Karl Twesten (1820–1870), a Liberal leader, whom he wounded in a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
, for which Manteuffel insisted in being briefly imprisoned. He served as lieutenant-general (to which rank he was promoted on the coronation of William I, October 18, 1861) in the Danish war of 1864
Schleswig-Holstein Question
The Schleswig-Holstein Question was a complex of diplomatic and other issues arising in the 19th century from the relations of two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein , to the Danish crown and to the German Confederation....
, and at its conclusion was appointed civil and military governor of Schleswig
Schleswig
Schleswig or South Jutland is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark; the territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany...
. In the Austrian War of 1866
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...
he first occupied Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
and afterwards commanded a division under Vogel von Falkenstein in the Hanoverian campaign, and succeeded him, in July, in command of the Army of the Main (see Seven Weeks' War).
His successful operations ended with the occupation of Würzburg, and be received the order pour le mérite. However, on account of his monarchist political views throughout the political crises of the 1860s, and of his almost bigoted Roman Catholicism, he was regarded by Liberal politicians as a reactionary, and, unlike the other army commanders, he was not granted a money reward for his services. He then went on a diplomatic mission to St Petersburg, where he was persona grata, and gained Russia's acquiescence to Prussia's domination of north Germany. On his return he was gazetted to the colonelcy of the 5th Dragoons. He was appointed to the command of the IX (Schleswig-Holstein) Corps in 1866. But having formerly exercised both civil and military control in the Elbe duchies he was unwilling to be a purely military commander under one of his late civil subordinates, and retired from the army for a year.
In 1868, however, he returned to active service. In the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
of 1870–71 he commanded the I Corps under Steinmetz
Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz
Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz was a German Generalfeldmarschall, born at Eisenach.-Early life and Napoleonic Wars:...
, distinguishing himself in the Battle of Borny-Colombey
Battle of Borny-Colombey
The Battle of Borny-Colombey was a minor battle of the Franco-Prussian War. It saw the escape route of the French army under François Bazaine blocked when they encountered the First Army under von Steinmetz...
, and in the repulse of Bazaine at Noisseville (see Franco-German War). He succeeded Steinmetz in October in the command of the I. army, won the battle of Amiens
Battle of Amiens (1870)
Battle of Amiens on November 27, 1870 was fought during the Franco-Prussian War, ending in a Prussian victory.The French under General Faure fought the Prussians under Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel in Amiens, France. Having already capitulated at Metz, the French were compelled to leave the city of...
against General Jean Joseph Farre, and occupied Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, but was less fortunate against Faidherbe
Louis Faidherbe
Louis Léon César Faidherbe was a French general and colonial administrator. He created the Senegalese Tirailleurs when he was governor of Senegal.- Background :...
at Pont Noyelles and Bapaume
Battle of Bapaume (1871)
The Battle of Bapaume was a battle during the Franco-Prussian War which defeated French attempts to relieve the besieged city of Péronne. The battle was fought on January 3, 1871 near the town of Bapaume....
.
In January 1871 he commanded the newly formed Army of the South, which he led, in spite of hard frost, through the Côte-d'Or
Côte-d'Or
Côte-d'Or is a department in the eastern part of France.- History :Côte-d'Or is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was formed from part of the former province of Burgundy.- Geography :...
and over the plateau of Langres, cut off Bourbaki
Charles Denis Bourbaki
Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki was a French general.He was born at Pau, the son of Greek colonel Constantin Denis Bourbaki, who died in the War of Independence in 1827...
's Army of the East (80,000 men), and, after the action of Pontarlier, compelled it to cross the Swiss frontier, where it was disarmed. His immediate reward was the Grand Cross of the order of the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
, and at the conclusion of peace he received the Black Eagle. When the Southern Army was disbanded Manteuffel commanded first the II. army, and, from June 1871 until 1873, the army of occupation left in France, showing great tact in a difficult position.
At the close of the occupation, the Emperor promoted Manteuffel to the rank of Field Marshal and awarded him a large financial grant, and about the same time Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
gave him the Order of St. Andrew
Order of St. Andrew
The Order of St. Andrew the First-Called is the first and the highest order of chivalry of the Russian Empire.- Russian Empire :The Order was established in 1698 by Tsar Peter the Great, in honour of Saint Andrew, the first apostle of Jesus and patron saint of Russia...
. After this he was employed on several diplomatic missions, was for a time Governor of Berlin, and in 1879 – perhaps, as was commonly reported, because he was considered by Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
as a formidable rival – he was appointed Governor-General of occupied Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
. He is remembered in Alsace-Lorraine as a very human, cultivated man, and as a conciliator whose fairness was often abused by some dominant figures. Opening the first session of the Landesausschuss (the regional assembly of Alsace-Lorraine), he announced his firm intention to gain full autonomy for Alsace-Lorraine, so that she could become a fully-fledged state of the German Reich. He died at Carlsbad, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
in 1885, still in office but without having achieved his aim.
1911 Britannica references
- life by von Collas (Berlin, 1874).
- life by K. H. Keck (Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1890).