FERDINAND, Ludwig, normally known as Louis ¨Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia

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Born in Friedrichsfelde, 18 November 1772, Died Saalfeld, 10 October, 1806.
 
Son of Prince Ferdinand of Prussia and Princess Louise von Brandeburg-Schwedt and cousin of Frederick William III, Louis joined the Prussian army on 1 March 1789 as captain in the Möllendorf regiment. On 12 April 1790 he joined the Jung-Schwerin regiment as Oberst-Lieutenant and fought alongside king Wilhelm Friedrich II against Austria in Silesia in the summer of 1790. He played a role in many battles during the wars of the French Revolution, receiving a serious wound in the leg on 17 July 1793. For his bravery he was immediately promoted by the king to General Major. Though popular with his men and exceedingly brave, he was nevertheless a fiery character. On 23 February, he left Berlin to live in Magdeburg where the king had put him in charge of the regiment there. Here his calm life made him envious of all those who were fighting elsewhere. On 21 May 1799 he became General Lieutenant. In 1801 he threw himself into military studies in Magdeberg, writing many works of history and philosophy. Scharnhorst noted that he was likely to become Prussia greatest ever soldier. In the following year he returned to Berlin where he assembled a circle of famous figures around him, namely: Friedrich Gentz, Johannes von Müller, Metternich, Clausewitz, Arndt and Marwitz, who all thought very highly of the prince.

In August 1804 during troop manoeuvres in Silesia he visited the Austrian emperor, Francis, in an attempt to forge closer links between the two countries. The prince then in the autumn of 1804 assiduously pursued his plan to bring the two countries together against France, lobbying not only the king but also Hardenberg and Behme, writing a memoir underlining the importance of “closer links between Austria and Prussia in order to preserve peace and to impede foreign meddling in Germany”. But the king and his ministers feared that an alliance with Austria would cause the outbreak of war on the continent, and so his plan came to nothing. During the autumn of 1805 and the build up to Austerlitz, Prince Louis made a long journey visiting Dresden, Karlsbad, Munich, the Tyrol, Trento and Venice. He then returned to Prussia to find Russian troops on the Prussian border and France and Austria at war. With Brunswick attempting to occupy Hanover and Hohenlohe heading for Silesia, Prince Louis joined his own troops and went to Erfurt to link up with Hohenlohe's reserve. Here he met Goethe. In January 1806, learning of the French treaty and hearing of the Prussian demobilisation, he returned in disgust to his house in Magdeburg to devote himself entirely to hunting. In the summer of 1806 he was back in Berlin, lobbying the King. But as war broke out he headed to Freiberg (26 September) to meet Hohenlohe and to take command of the avant garde. He was disgusted by the lack of purpose in the army leadership. On 2 October the Prince set up his headquarters in Jena. Without really synchronising his movements either with those of the king or with those of Brunswick, Louis decided on his own to head for the Saal river and to gather his troops at Kahla, Orlamünde and Rudolstadt and there to make preparations for a crossing. On 9 October, he gave the order to concentrate the avant garde at Rudolstadt, but during the night as his troops were marching for Rudolstadt he heard that the French were near Saalfeld. After joining battle on 10 October and losing against superior numbers and firepower, Louis (in retreat) was encircled near the hamlet of Mölsdorf (north west of Saalfeld) and killed by French cavalrymen. His body was to lie in state in the Saalfeld castle chapel that night and to be brought to Berlin later. He was to receive a state funeral on 21 March, 1811, in the cathedral in Berlin.
 
Source:
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, s.v. Ludwig Ferdinand, Vol. 19, 582-87 (author: Bailleu)

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