User:Troystar223332/August von Witzleben

August von Witzleben

Karl August Friedrich von Witzleben (March 19, 23 or 27 1773 at Manor Traumlitz; † March 5 or July 9 1839 in Dresden; also Carl August Friedrich von Witzleben), Lord of the Red Court at Wohlmirstedt, was a Prussian Colonel and German writer, known by the Pseudonym A. von Tromlitz.

Origin

Karl August Friedrich von Witzleben came from the Thuringian noble family "von Witzleben" and was the eleventh child of the Electoral Saxon Lieutenant Colonel, Dietrich Gottlieb von Witzleben at Wohlmirstedt and Henriette Elisabeth von Stecher. His maternal grandfather was the salt works owner Johann Christoph von Stecher.

Life and Work

He received his education at the Gymnasium in Halle. He came to the court in Weimar as a page. There Johann Karl August Musäus and Johann Gottfried Herder were his teachers. But in 1786 he went into Prussian service and took part in the War of the First Coalition. He was transferred in 1803 as a lieutenant colonel in the newly established 59th Infantry Regiment (Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 59). During the War of the Fourth Coalition, he was in the Duke of Brunswick's headquarters during the Battle of Jena and then took part in the retreat to Hohenlohe, before being taken prisoner near Prenzlau. There he met the French Marshal Murat (at the time Grand Duke of Berg). After this, According to the Peace of Tilsit , all foreigners had to leave the Prussian army, including Witzleben. He transfered to the service of the Grand Duchy of Berg and initially became a captain in the infantry. He soon became squadron chief in the Berg Lancer Regiment. In 1809 he became a major and formed a new regiment of Lancers in Munster, of which he became commander in 1811. With the regiment, he took part in Napoleon's campaign in Spain. The regiment returned to Berg in 1812. When Prussia declared war on France in 1813, he switched to Russian service and ultimately commanded the Hanseatic Legion at the rank of Colonel. After the Peace of Paris, he lived as a farmer on his wife's manors in Beuchlitz near Halle, he moved to Berlin in 1821 and to Dresden in 1826.

In 1831 he acquired the Kynast winery in Zitzschewig (today a district of Radebeul ) just outside of Dresden in order to spend the rest of his life as a writer. He was very successful as a writer of entertaining novellas with a historical background. His stories, mostly published in the Dresdner Abendzeitung (Dresden Evening Newspaper) and the paperback Vielliebchen, including about Dyveke, the lover of Christian II of Denmark, were published as complete writings in three collections (Dresden 1829-1843, 108 vols., several editions).

A. von Tromlitz' grave in the Neustadt Cemetery in Dresden

"It was not without justification that he was reproached with used motifs, especially in his later works, but especially that the fact that in the choice of his historical subjects he limited himself too much to a sphere, that of the Thirty Years' War and despite this never turned into one have raised a higher historical view. Nevertheless, he has acquired a large audience through tireless work and a generally lively performance."

— Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon, 1853

"His stories sometimes suffer from the trickiness of the language and the arbitrariness of the invention, his historical novels at least tried to offer the reading world stronger fare than was usual at the time, and the great interest that his works found speaks for the readers deeming the intention achieved.”

— Karl Goedeke: Grundriß zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 1881

Family

Karl August von Witzleben was married four times. His first marriage was with Antoinette Freiin von Heine on November 12th, 1799. In the year after her death he married Angelie von Diest and one year after her death (on March 11, 1815) he was in his third marriage with Charlotte von Billerbeck, later von Möllendorf, his cousin's widow. This marriage ended in divorce in 1820. Lastly, he married Auguste Albanus on May 16, 1825. All of his wives (whose first names begin with an A) were around 19 years old at the time of the marriage, which was not always understood, especially his marriage to Auguste in which she was more than 32 years younger:

“[…] A. von Tromlitz (Karl August von Witzleben), a tall, stately, very courageous-looking, albeit elderly gentleman. […] I, on the other hand, could not understand at all how a beautiful young lady could have decided to marry him […].

Pappenheimer was the last work by Tromlitzen that I read; they, whose struggle he compared to lions and tigers, took away all my desire to repeat such terrifying scenes. It was only later, when Saphir said: A gentle way of dying for him should consist in chasing a Tromlitz novel through his head , did I realize why Tromlitz's creations failed to inspire me.

He is said to have lived on his vineyard for many more years, carefully looked after by the lovely woman, which I begrudged him from the bottom of my heart – despite the Pappenheimers .”

— Karoline Bauer: Erinnerungen

The marriage with Auguste seems to have been very harmonious, despite the great age difference between the two. Shortly before his death Tromlitz writes:

An Auguste ……
[…]
Now take it, you angel of my life,
You my staff and consolation at the goal of my path,
Accept the songs kindly from me,
And the imagination did not create them in vain.
Because in Your faithful, tender hand
– Even if tears and sighs flow from you –
Will they become a wreath of immortelle for you,
Who found his quiet Eden on your faithful breast.

Among his four children were (from his first marriage) the later Prussian generals Ferdinand von Witzleben (1800–1859) and August von Witzleben (1808–1880) and (from a third marriage) the later Chamberlain Hermann von Witzleben.

and (from a third marriage) the later Chamberlain Hermann von Witzleben.

Work

• Almost complete list with links to digital copies at Wikisource:
  • 101 mostly "historical-romantic" stories and novellas (between 16 and 956 pages)
  • 3 plays
  • Poems (largely as songs in the integrated novel)

Editorship of Own Works

• Vielliebchen. Historisch-romantisches Taschenbuch. Baumgärtner, Leipzig 1828–1839 (continued by Theodor Mügge)

Literature

• Max Mendheim (1898), "Witzleben, August von", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 43, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 665–666
• Karl August Fr. v. Witzleben (ps. Aug. v. Tromlitz). In: Karl Goedeke: Grundriß zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen. 3. Band, 2. Abteilung. Ehlermann, Dresden 1881, S. 677–681 (Digitalisat bei Google Books).
• Karl August Friedrich v. Witzleben. In: Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen. 17. Jg., 1839. Band 1. Voigt, Weimar 1841, S. 566–568 (Digitalisat bei Google Books).
• von Tromlitz, August. In: Andreas Gottfried Schmidt: Gallerie deutscher pseudonymer Schriftsteller vorzüglich des letzten Jahrzehents. Ein Beitrag zur neuesten Literargeschichte. Verlags-Comptoir, Grimma 1840, S. 203–206 (mit genauer Übersicht über die militärische Laufbahn; Digitalisat bei Google Books).

• Literature by and about Troystar223332/August von Witzleben in the German National Library catalogue
• Works by and about Troystar223332/August von Witzleben in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)
• A. von Tromlitz im CERL-Thesaurus
• Werke von A. von Tromlitz im Projekt Historischer Roman (Datenbank der Universität Innsbruck) mit Informationen zu Erstveröffentlichungen, Links zu Rezensionen, Schlagwortregister etc.
• Porträt (Bruststück) des Autors von Cäcilie Brand im Digitalen Portraitindex
• Der erste Romanfabrikant der Lößnitz. In: Sächsische Zeitung. 13. Juni 2014 (mit Porträtbild)

[[Category:1839 deaths]] [[Category:1773 births]] [[Category:German people]] [[Category:German-language literature]]