Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg

Friedrich Wilhelm von Berg

Assassination attempt on Russian general Fyodor Berg in Warsaw 1863

Russians demolishing Zamoyski Palace in Warsaw, in the aftermath of the assassination attempt (the assassins were hidden in the palace)

Count Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg (Russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Берг Graf Fyodor Fyodorovich Berg; 15 May 1794 – 6 January 1874) was a Russian Field Marshal, and the Governor-General of Finland from 1855 to 1861.

He was born in the Sangaste Castle, Livonia (present-day Valga County, Estonia) into a Baltic German noble family. He studied at the University of Dorpat and joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1812.

He was also the last Namestnik of the Kingdom of Poland (1863–1874). He was crucial in crushing the Polish January Uprising and carrying out repressions and russification policies afterwards. Polish insurgents carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt on him on 19 September 1863.

He was made a count in the Finnish House of Nobility (and thus a Finnish citizen) in 1857, along with his adopted sons, as the 11th Finnish comital family.

He died in Saint Petersburg.

Children

In 1856 Fredrik Wilhelm adopted his brother's two sons:

• Friedrich Georg Magnus von Berg (1845–1938), "The count of rye", developer of Estonian agriculture
• Georg Erik Rembert Berg (1849–1920), Finnish general in the Imperial Russian Army

Publications

• Le feldmaréchal-comte Berg, namiestnik dans le royaume de Pologne. Notice biographique. Warsaw 1872 – Autobiography

Sources

• Berg (von Berg), Fredrik Wilhelm Rembert (in Finnish)