Julius von du vernois – Wikipedia

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Julius von Verdy du Vernois

Adrian Friedrich Wilhelm Julius Ludwig of Verdy du Vernois (Born July 19, 1832 in Freystadt, † September 30, 1910 in Stockholm, Sweden) was a Prussian general of the infantry and 1889/90 Minister of War. He achieved importance primarily through his strategic studies and publications, which were also considered abroad. [first]

His grandfather Adrian Maria Francois Chevalier de Verdy du Vernoy (1738-1814) [2] had reached the Prussian court from France over the courtyard of the Landgrave of Hesse, where he served as a chamberlain of Prince Ferdinand von Prussia, the brother of Friedrich the Great, from 1780. He had written several genealogical writings [3] And already belonged to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences from 1790. [4] Also in 1790 he married Freiin Charlotte von Keller (1760–1807), whose father Johann Georg Wilhelm von Keller had only been raised to the barons after the Seven Years’ War. The following year came the only child Adrian Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Louis (1791–1855) to the world. The close connection of the family to the Hohenzollern family makes it clear that the child’s baptism as a godfather among other King Friedrich Wilhelm II as well as Prince Ferdinand and wife attended. In 1813 Louis entered the Guard Volontair Escadron as a volunteer hunter and acquired the Iron Cross in the Wars of Liberation. After that, he served as an officer in the 8th Ulanen Regiment and later as a teacher at the school of the 16th division in Koblenz, where he Gertrud Münzel (1795-1870) met. For several generations, the Münzel family has stood as a forester, hunter and farmers in Electoral Services. The marriage may have caused a stir if it was not exactly considered a mesalliance. In 1837, Louis, as a characterized major, took the farewell from the 3rd Ulanen Regiment and lived in poor conditions. It was not until 1845 that he received a higher pension from the Prussian king. After the farewell, he wrote numerous military works. [5]

Perhaps because of the tense financial situation, the only child of this marriage, Julius, was sent to the Kadettenhäuser in Potsdam in 1844 for school education. After graduation, on April 27, 1850, he joined the 14th Infantry Regiment of the Prussian Army in Berlin on April 27, 1850, with which he went to Thorn in the course of laying. There he met his future wife Luise Karoline Natalie Zimmermann (1837–1909), the daughter of the district doctor and later honorary citizen of Thorn, Carl Zimmermann. They married on September 27, 1855, immediately before Verdy was commanded to the general war school in Berlin.

After completing his studies, he remained at the academy, where he was initially deployed from 1858 to 1860 in the war history department. This use shaped him. He made the history of war on the basis of his own research and used it as a teacher at the war academy to illustrate his students strategic and tactical relationships. In 1860/61 it was used in the topographical department of the Great General Staff before it was transferred to the general staff of the IV. Army corps in Magdeburg. From there, from February 2, 1863 to October 26, 1865, he was commanded to the headquarters of the Russian troops in Warsaw, which he later published his memories in book form. Because of his apparently good performance, the Russian Tsar invited him and his wife to Saint Petersburg and Moscow.

After returning to Prussia, he was sent on a journey through southern Germany to gain knowledge about the state of preparation for war and manage of these areas. This trip was obviously related to the war of 1866 shortly afterwards. His reports are said to have been so excellent that he was ordered to the king for the oral lecture. At that time he had already noticed Moltke, who was committed to him in the future and promoted him. He took the war against Austria (1866) as a major in the staff of the 2nd army led by the Crown Prince. During this time he acquired the trust and friendship of the later 99-day emperor.

After the war, he was commissioned to write the general staff on this war. In the war in 1870, now promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was the youngest head of department in the big headquarters. After this war, he was initially head of the general staff at the 1st Army Corps in Königsberg and then again devoted himself to work as a teacher at the war academy and in the great general staff. Among other things, his writings about the tour of the troop and the war game fall during this time. The birth of his only child, Adrian Karl Friedrich von Verdy du Vernois (1873–1952), also falls during this time. [6] He also hit the officer career, was recently lieutenant and finally became extraordinary envoy and minister.

In order to gain experience in practical service, he became commander of the 62nd Infantry Brigade in Strasbourg in Alsace in 1877. From 1879 to 1883 he was director of the General War Department in the Ministry of War and was in the meantime promoted lieutenant general on November 15, 1881. Then he took over the 1st division in Königsberg. There, the later general field marshal and Reich President Paul von Hindenburg served as a general staff officer among him. In 1887 he returned to Strasbourg as a governor, where he took care of the further expansion of the fortress plants until 1889 and was promoted to the general of the infantry on April 23, 1888.

On April 8, 1889, he was appointed Prussian Minister of State and War at the instigation of his comrade from cadet times, Count Alfred von Waldersee. Although he only held this position for one and a half years, the new constellations of the XVI fell during this time. and XVII. Army Corps, as well as the infantry regimental No. 140 to No. 145, the field artillery regiments No. 33 to No. 36 and the railway brigade. At the same time, from April 13, 1889, he also acted as a representative for the Federal Council, chairman of the committee for the Landheer and the fortresses as well as the head of the directorate of the large military orphanage. On October 4, 1890, he was placed on his own request with only 58 years of life, but 40 years of service, with a pension for disposition by Wilhelm II and appointed the head of the infantry regiment “Graf Schwerin” (3rd Pomersches) No. 14.

Tomb Verdy du Vernois (1925)
Grave of Julius and Luise of Verdy du Vernois (state 2013)
Grave of Julius and Luise from Verdy du Vernois with a restored angel on February 29, 2016

In retirement, he wrote his writings, which were also much noticed abroad, about strategy and tactics and various memories of the stations of his life. During a visit to his son, who worked in Stockholm as a Legation Council at the German Embassy, ​​he died on September 30, 1910 from pneumonia, just a year after his wife’s death. The internationally recognized of high importance was also made clear by the mourning conduct by Stockholm. Accompanied by a Swedish Guard Regiment, his coffin, which was carried by officers, to whom his religious pillows were given, followed a numerous escort of Swedish dignitaries. He found his last rest next to his wife in the disability cemetery in Berlin. His grave site was restored in 2012.

On August 1, 1891, he was awarded the Order Pour Le Mérite for Science and Arts. According to Moltke, Verdy was the second officer who was awarded both the military and civil class of this high award.

In 1894, the Albertina in Königsberg gave him the honorary doctorate of her Faculty of Philosophy.

In addition, Verdy was owner of numerous highest orders. So he was The Great Cross of the Friedrichs Order (December 4, 1879), the Order of Albrecht (October 7, 1882), the Red Order of Eagle with oak leaves and swords on the rings (March 23, 1890), the Bavarian Military Merit (November 10, 1890)) of the Order of the Wendische Krone (December 20, 1897). On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Ministry of War, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Prussian crown on March 1, 1909. [7]

Verdy was known for his captivating and interesting way of giving lectures and teaching. In addition to the military writings, through which he gained its outstanding meaning, he also wrote historical stories and stage pieces. [8] However, he has gained its real meaning through his strategic and tactical studies, of which Gustav Freytag was also deeply impressed. Marschall Ferdinand Foch, the chief commander of the French armed forces in the First World War, attributed his “objective method of strategy” and his success in the First World War to study the writings of Verdys. The German military writer General Wilhelm von Blume held him postally after his intellectual disposition for the most appointed successor to Moltkes.

To this day, Verdy You Vernois works through his war games and his theoretical considerations for this training method. There is hardly a publication on this topic in which it is not mentioned. [9]

  • Studies on troop leadership. Berlin 1873–1875.
  • Studies of war history according to the application method. Issue I, tactical details from the Battle of Custoza on June 24, 1866. Berlin 1876.
  • Contribution to the cavalry trip. Berlin 1876.
  • Contribution to the war game. Berlin 1876.
  • About practical field service tasks. Berlin 1889.
  • Studies on war. Based on the Franco-German War in 1870/71. Berlin 1891.
  • In the big headquarters 1870/71. Personal memories. Berlin 1894, 3rd edition. IT. Middle & son. Berlin 1896.
  • Studies on field service. Newly edited due to the field service order of July 20, 1894. Berlin 1895.
  • In the headquarters of the second army in 1866 under the command of his royal sovereignty of the crown prince Friedrich Wilhelm v. Prussia. Berlin 1900.
  • In the headquarters of the Russian army in Poland 1863-1865. Berlin 1905.
  • Border-detachments. Berlin 1908.
  • Verdy du vernois, julius . In: Meyer’s conversation lexicon 1905 on zeno.org
  • Trevor N. Dupuy: A Genius for War. o. O., o. J.
  • Tim Lenoir, Henry Lowood: Theaters of War, the military entertainment complex. Stanford/Berlin 2003.
  • Kurt von Priesdorff: Soldatic leadership. Volume 10, Hanseatic publishing house Hamburg, o. O. [Hamburg], o. J. [1942], DNB 986919810 , Pp. 506–512, no. 3359.
  1. ↑ Unless otherwise listed, all the following information is based on Klaus Schlegel’s article: General the infantry Dr.phil.h.c. Julius v. Devil you benois. In: German Soldier Yearbook 1982. S. 71ff. – DSJB
  2. ↑ Still listed in the state manual (DSJB 1982, p. 72)
  3. ↑ z. B. Genealogical and chronological history of the Serenissime House of Hesse-Hombourg. To serve the story of Hesse by Mr. Mallet. Composed according to the titles and manuscripts of the archives of this house , Berlin 1791
  4. ↑ Verdy du Vernois, Adrien-Marie-François de . In: Werner Hartkopf: The Berlin Academy of Sciences. Its members and award winners 1700–1990. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-05-002153-5, p. 373.
  5. ↑ Among other things one Ranking, regular and neighborhood list of the 3rd Ulanen Regiment. 1839.
  6. ↑ Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. 5. T – Z, supplements. Published by the Federal Foreign Office, historical service. Volume 5: Bernd Issphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn and others. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0, p. 120 f.
  7. ↑ Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann: The Order of Merit of the Prussian crown. Communication from the Institute for Scientific Ordinance. The herald volume 12, 32nd year 1989, Issue 9, p. 247.
  8. ↑ z. B. Alarich, Döneys the West Goting became a great stage success in Berlin and Strasbourg in the 1890s.
  9. ↑ z. B. Tim Lenoir, Henry Lowood: Theaters of War, the military entertainment complex. Stanford/Berlin 2003.