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The “von” Grawert’s
The son of Gottfried von Grawert’s was Benjamin von Grawert (1709-1759), the father of Julius August Reinhold von Grawert. (Mother ; Christiane Sophie nee von Schollenstern).(Wikipedia)
After that the von Grawert’s have over several generations produced some famous
military figures to which we will come back in some detail:
Julius August Reinhold von Grawert General Major 1746-1821
Johann (Hans) Friedrich von Grawert Generaladj. and Major of the cavallerie
Albert von Grawert Captain in the general staff 1796-1826
Eduard von Grawert Prussian Garde cavallerist born 1796
Carl von Grawert ca. 1800
Hans-Dietrich von Grawert Lieutenant general 1822-1889
Curt von Grawert General of the infantry 1849-1921
Dietrich von Grawert 1851-1886
Hans von Grawert Lieutenant Colonel 1851-1901
Werner von Grawert 1867-1918
Gideon von Grawert Lieutenant Colonel 1869-1941
Hans-Curt von Grawert 1891 - ?
Julius August Reinhold von Grawert 1746 – 1821
General Major, General of the infantry, Knight of the “Black Eagle” (1810),
Decorated with the “Pour le merite” 1789, Confidant of the Prussian kings
Frederik “the Great”and Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Von Grawert was born in Koenigsberg / East Prussia on 28.12.1746 and died in Oberthalheim near Landeck/Silesia on 18.09.1821.
In 1789 he received the “Pour le merite” from Frederic the Great when he was a general of the infantry and in 1810 he received Prussions highest decoration the “Knight of the Black Eagle”.
The Prussian Infantry Regiment Nr. 47 carried his name.
There is not much literature about him before the battle of Jena and Auerstedt against Napoleons troops.
A good overview about him : wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Grawert,Julius August
In a handwritten document the later on General Quartermaster Christian von Massenbach (1758-1827) who was a very controversial figure, describes von Grawert as a confidant of Frederik II, and Massenbach shows disappointment, that “Grawert did not intervene with the King as I would have liked”.
Clausewitz in his famous book “Vom Krieg” mentions Grawert as follows:
In the years 1793 and 1794 General von Grawert who was at that time the “invigorating spirit” of the general staff, and known as a “regular man for mountains and passes”convinced two totally different characters the Duke of Braunschweig and General Mollendorf to investigate these war tactics.
Johann Rudolf von Bischofswerder Prussian general, Potsdam writes a letter to King
Friedrich Wilhelm II :
……that General Quartermaster Lieutenant von Grawert had had the courier Deneve whipped. As this would have never been done with the J.F. cavalry corps before, and as I would not have allowed such treatment myself, I see myself forced to bring this matter to Your Highness attention and decision”.
Von Grawert participated in the campaigns 1792-1794 and became Colonel in 1793, Chief of the 47th Infantry regiment in Glatz in 1797, 1798 General Major, 1804 Governor of Glatz and 1805 Generallieutenant.
He was a member of the “Military Society of Berlin” 1802-1805 .
In 1806 he was then in the Army of the Prince von Hohenlohe as Commander of the 1st Division Grawert with 10 battalions, infantry and cavalry brigades as well as three artillery brigades in the battle of Jena und Auerstaedt against Napoleonic troops at Vierzehnheiligen. (14.10.1806).
He was almost sixty years old.
Above Vierzehnheiligen there is a memorial stone “Generalleutnant Grawert, 16.000 men and 16 cannons”.
I have been there myself and have several photos.
The battle of Jena and Auerstedt 1806 is briefly described as follows:
After Napoleons victory over Austria, Russia, England and Sweden at Austerlitz in 1805 the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III wanted to stay neutral and even handed over Prussian lands to Napoleon in order to keep peace. But when Napoleon promised to give Hannover to Britain, which he had promised to Prussia, the Prussian king had no alternative to radically change his position.
On October the 9th 1806 he declared war on France.
Everything went wrong right from the beginning.
Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Braunschweig, already 71 years old was choosen to be in overall command of the Prussian troops. The first very dubious thing he did, was to declare his own duchy as neutral.
The king decide to join the battlefield himself and had his own general staff, thus there were two commanders now.
The two main Commanders at the next level, the Duke von Hohenlohe and the general von Kalckreuth had a very tense relationship with the Duke of Braunschweig.
Three armies were established, that stood around in different places.
General von Grawert was in the liaison division of the Prussian – Saxon Army under the 60 year old Duke von Hohenlohe with his Chief of staff Colonel von Massenbach.
The Prussians waited for Napoleon and tried to form an alliance with Russia. When Napoleon heard about this, he decided to act.
On October the 8th there were first skirmishes and already on October 10th Prussia lost the first battle in which Prince Louis Ferdinand was killed.
The Prussians marched hither and thither and finally took quarter near Jena.
The Duke of Hohenlohe, already tired because of his age, took quarter near Kapellendorf (a castle with a moat).
The French took Naumburg, where the Prussians had their supply camp and cut the Prussian troops off from the fortress of Magdeburg as well as from Berlin.
Against the advice of Scharnhorst the Prussian king decided to withdraw his main army.
Hohenlohe stayed at Kapellendorf, which meant that the Prussian armies were even further apart from each other. He posted his army the wrong way, ate and drank into the night and went to bed “without any worries”.
He did not believe that a battle would happen and told his troops via Massenbach, that he had “no intention to attack the French”.
But at 6 a.m. the French attacked.
At 7 a.m., awoken by the battle noise, Hohenlohe thought that there was something happening, but he gave no orders.
The main attack by the French was against Generallieutenant von Grawert’s troops.
As he received no orders from Hohenlohe, he dared to make his own decisions and moved his troops around in order to face the French.
This led to heated discussions when Hohenlohe finally arrived, but in the end H. had to admit, that this had been necessary.
He gave orders to move forward to face the situation and asked for the support of General Ruechel, who stood with his troops only a few miles away.
38.000 Prussians faced 47.000 French.
Ruechel had another 15.000 soldiers but Napoleon decided to move another 40.000 (22.000 VI Corps, 18.000, IV Corps) in.
The Prussians used old tactics by attacking in closed formation, whereas the French troops were well entrenched in the villages of Krippendorf and Vierzehnheiligen.
Still the Prussian attack made good progress.
Hohenlohe however became doubtful about the chances of success and decided to wait for the support from General Ruechel.
The Prussian troops then stood above the villages and were shot by the French like target figures.
The battalions of Grawert’s division had high casualty rates and Grawert was wounded and had to leave the battlefield.
At midday Napoleon had managed to bring in further troops under General Ney and went on the attack. The Prussians fled.
One hour later, Ruechel’s troops, which had been much closer, arrived far too late.
It was never found out, why he came so late.
His army was annihilated.
At the same time the Prussian main army at Auerstedt was beaten by the French Marshal Davout, although they had superior forces (50.000 Prussians against 30.000 French).
Important was:
The Duke of Braunschweig was hit in the head by a bullet and his Chief of Staff Scharnhorst had just been sent to the left flank.
Due to this there was no central command and every troop leader “did as he liked”.
The King himself had no idea what to do and the commander of the reserves General von Kalckreuth did nothing at all. He was already 70 years old and totally unable to make his own decisions.
“If the Prussians had used their reserves, they would have won” (Clausewitz).
In 1810 von Grawert received the Order of the Black Eagle, Prussians highest decoration. During the years 1701 until 1918 this was only awarded 407 times.
After the peace agreement of Tilsit he became General Governor of Silesia, where he supposedly was very popular.
In 1812 Napoleon requested von Grawert to become the commander of the Prussian Corps (27th Division), that Prussia had to supply to the victorious French and participated in Napoleon’s campaign against Russia.
In July 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia.
General Grawert ( now already more than 65 years old) was also made commander of the 3rd Prussian/Lithuanian Cavalry regiment. On 19.07.1812 he commanded the first big battle of the war (near Eckau) against the Russians with great success.
His troops were also involved in several skirmishes at Mittau (near Riga).
On August 13th,1812 Grawert resigned his command due to ill health and his deputy Johann David Ludwig Graf York von Warthenburg succeeded him.
Although he was old and of ill health Grawert supposedly only took command “in order to restore honour to Prussians army”.
He wrote a book “The battle of Pirmasens on 14.09.1793”
Printed Potsdam 1796, reprinted Kaiserslautern 1993.
He died 1821.
Johann (Hans) Friedrich von Grawert
Received the order “Pour le merite” in 1793. Most likely a brother of Julius August.
Carl von Grawert, Colonel, was commander of the Galizischen Ulanen regiment Nr. 4
(Austria) “Kaiser Franz Joseph”.
“During the revolution in Lombardy three squadrons under Colonel Grawert had to fight their way through the uprising population of Cremona”.
Oesterr.Ulanen www.kuk-wehrmacht.de/regiment/ulanen/u04.html
Hans-Dietrich von Grawert ( from Lexikon der dt. Generale):
His mother was Auguste Henriette von Witzleben, his father Albert von Grawert.
He was born 29.07.1822 in Dresden. 1837 cadet in Berlin. 1839 Grenadier Regiment Kaiser Alexander Berlin, 1840 officer.
1848 War against Denmark (battle near Schleswig)
1859 Commander of the 6th Company, 1860 Commander of the 12th Company in Breslau.
1864 War against Denmark (Friderica, Heisekro, Horsens)
1866 Commander 1st battalion in the Guardsregiment 4 (Spandau), 1870 Colonel
1870-1871 Commander of the infantry regiment Nr. 82 (Goettingen). War against France.
1874 General Major
Received the Red Eagle order with decoration in 1874 and with oak leaves in 1876.
Died 10.12.1889 Bornstedt near Potsdam.
He was married to:
1848 Natalie von Mueffling (1824-1863)
1866 Henriette Graefin von Blumenthal (1839-1885)
1887 Alice von Witzleben (1857 – 1928)
Children:
Kurt (Prussian General Major, born Berlin 1849, died Jena 1921)
Dietrich (born Berlin 25.04.1851 – died Libon 02.04.1886)
Hans (born Berlin 25.04.1851 – died Bonn 22.07.1901), Lieutenant Colonel)
Werner (born Spandau 1867, Lieutenant Colonel, died 18.10.1918 of his wounds received at La Cateau).
Gideon (born 1869, Spandau, Lieutenant Colonel died 1941 Ballenstedt)
Nataly (born 1870 Spandau, died 1939 Erfurt)
Marie (born 1873 Darmstadt, died 1938 Derby/UK)
Margarethe (born 1879 Potsdam, died Ehrstein/Hofgeismar 1946).
Werner von Grawert had a very interesting life:
According to the New York Times 31.01.1903 he was given a two year prison sentence, because he killed a lawyer from Flensburg, Dr.Aye, in a duel in the Grunewald (Berlin).
Dr. Aye was a reserve officer.
Von Grawert did not spent two years in prison (at least not in full), as he was quickly sent off to Africa.
From 1904 – 1906 he was Commander of the military district of Usambara and from 1906 – 1907 Military Resident of Urundi (now Burundi) and Ruanda. At that time German colony.
He is registered as resident until about the beginning of WW 1.
In the years 1897-1899 a von Grawert participated in a Nile expedition. May be that was him. A “von Grawert” was mentioned in a report about “Hot springs in the Kapella mountains”.
From 1911 – 1914 he had a regular exchange of letters with the missions at Mahenge, Kiberege, Kwiro, Tosamaganga, Sangi, etc.
These letters are supposedt o be stored at Benedict Abbey of St. Ottilien. Dto. a letter from 1912 to Blasius Brunner.
In the book “Geschenkte Kolonien von Helmut Strizek” he appears on several pages.
But I have no access to this book.
He received the order “Cross with swords, 3rd class from Reus-Gera."
Deutsche Ostafrikanische Zeitung 21.10.1905 and 28.07.1906:
On August 5th 1905 Major Johannes arrived with 120 Askaris under the command of Lieutenant von Grawert on the Cruiser Bussard from Daressalam at Mingumbi.
12.08. the Dundiri Camp was taken.
14.08. the company von Grawert marches to Mtumbei in order to punish the murderers of the planter Hopfer.
On 20.08 von Grawert marched to Kilwa via Kitope. On the way several skirmishes with insurgents. In the Matumbi mountains there is some extended fighting.
13.09. Bush battles in Kitande
11.10. Bush battles in Mkoma
16.10. Attack of the Mingumbi camp.
Von Grawert is mentioned under La colonization allemande 1896-1916
www.netpress.bi/hist/colate.htm
He concentrated his efforts against the rebel leaders from Gisabo in order to establish order and to re-unite the country. He organized the campaigns against Manconco and Kirima. Manconco was killed and Kirima deported.
The fate of the dissidents strengthened the authority of the king.
In 1908 von Grawert invited the King Mwezi Gisabo to Usambara although there was a taboo, that the King was not to see lake Tanganjika. On the way back the king suddenly died.
Von Grawert is mentioned in the dissertation of Albert Kraller, University of Vienna, about Ruanda on pages 124-126. Further on by Simon Turner, RoskildeUniversity, Dec. 2001, pages 179-180.
In his report about a trip to Africa Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklemburg writes:
Cap. 20: On July 1st we had the pleasant surprise to meet Lt. Wintguns, for which we thank the resident of Ruanda von Grawert.
Cap. 37: I received a letter from von Grawert with an invitation to the palace of Sultan Msinga.
Cap. 44: Von Grawert has represented the residence for more than ten years now and fulfills his difficult posting with diplomacy and prudence. He has a masterful art to keep the natives under German control.
Cap.55: (from Ruanda to lake Kiwu) We had the pleasure to meet von Grawert, who did not let himself be put off by the long distance from Usambara and who had already been at the sultans camp for several days.
Cap.56: Resident von Grawert came to our meeting in full uniform. Thanks to von Grawert the camp had been carefully and well prepared.
Werner von Grawert died shortly before the end of WW1 on 18.10.1918 of his wounds received at La Cateau / France.