Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld
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Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld (15 July 1817 – 25 May 1896) was an Austro-Hungarian military officer who fought against
Life
Kuhn was born 15 July
In the
Minister of War
On 18 January 1868, Emperor
Since Austria-Hungary's military charts had proven inadequate in the
Drawing on his experience of fighting on the Alpine frontier during the
During his time as a Major General in the Tyrol in September 1864, Kuhn noticed a young lieutenant named Julius Payer, who had sketched some maps while on a mountaineering holiday. Payer later claimed that the meeting with Kuhn had been the decisive moment in his life.[7] When Kuhn was appointed Minister of War at the beginning of 1868, he assigned Payer to the Institute of Military Geography, whose director August von Fligely further supported Payer.[7] In order to produce new maps of Mount Adamello and Ortler, Payer was assigned three Kaiserjäger, 1,000 guilder, and a theodolite.[8]
After Payer had completed this survey work in autumn 1868, Kuhn released him from service in January 1869, in order to allow him to participate in the Second German North Polar Expedition (1869-1870), led by Carl Koldewey.[7] Kuhn was later also a supporter of the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition (1872-1874) led by Payer and Karl Weyprecht, which discovered Franz Josef Land. The historian Günther Hamann identified Kuhn as the key figure in Payer's academic career and the launching of the expedition.[9] As a result of this patronage, Kuhn Island off the eastern coast of Greenland and Kuhn Island in Franz Josef Land were named in his honour.
On 14 July 1874, Kuhn was dismissed by Franz Joseph I from the position of Minister of War and appointed as Commander General of
.Later life
As an Austrian patriot and opponent of Prussia, Kuhn unsuccessfully argued for intervening on the French side in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. In the 1880s he made no secret of his opposition to the Dual Alliance with the German Empire and advocated an alternative alliance with the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire, by abandoning Austria-Hungary's eastern policy (including the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina) and committing to the destruction of Prussia. Kuhn was totally supported in this position by Crown Prince Rudolf. Seven weeks after a discussion of these issues with Rudolf in May 1888, Kuhn was suddenly and unexpectedly sent into retirement, probably because Rudolf had named him as someone who shared his own views.
Kuhn had a daughter, Rosa Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld (22 February 1856 - 30 October 1917), who had married on 24 June 1878, Julius Cäsar von Strassoldo, a nephew of Julius Cäsar von Strassoldo and of Franziska Romana Strassoldo (wife of Joseph Radetzky von Radetz). After his retirement, Kuhn acquired an estate at Strassoldo in Gorizia and Gradisca, near the one which his daughter had inherited from her father-in-law. Kuhn died at this estate of a heart attack, still bitter about his "bleak position", on 25 May 1896.[10]
Honours and arms
He received the following orders and decorations:[11]
- Austrian awards[12]
- Knight of the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown, 3rd Class with War Decoration, 1848
- Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, 1849;[13] Commander, 1866
- Military Merit Cross, with War Decoration, 1866
- Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Leopold, 5 December 1868
- Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, 1874
- Foreign awards
- Kingdom of Italy: Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
- Order of Saint Gregory the Great
- Persian Empire: Imperial Order of the Lion and the Sun, 2nd Class
- Russian Empire: Knight of the Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky
- Principality of Serbia: Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of Takovo
- Sweden-Norway: Commander Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sword, 15 August 1871[14]
References
- ^ BLKÖ
- ^ Austria: RGBl. Nr. 151 vom 5. Dezember 1868
- ^ "Kriegsminister als Erfinder der Wehrpflicht - Franz Kuhn Freiherr von Kuhnenfeld".
- ANNO)
- ANNO)
- ^ Ernst Hofstätter, Beiträge zur Geschichte der österreichischen Landesaufnahmen: Ein Überblick der topographischen Aufnahmeverfahren, deren Ursprünge, ihrer Entwicklungen und Organisationsformen der vier österreichischen Landesaufnahmen. Herausgegeben vom Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen. 2 volumes. Vienna 1989, pp. 99–100, DNB 943727200.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-7022-3441-6.
- ANNO)
- ISBN 3-205-98041-7. p. 251
- ^ Tageszeitung Neue Freie Presse, Wien, 26. Mai 1896, p. 3.
- ^ "K. und K. Generalität", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1896, p. 241, retrieved 3 February 2021
- ^ "Ritter-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1896, pp. 63-64, 68, 84, retrieved 3 February 2021
- ^ "Ritter-Orden: K.K. Militärischer Maria-Theresien-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Österreichischen Kaiserthumes, 1856, p. 41, retrieved 5 February 2021
- ^ Sveriges statskalender (in Swedish), 1881, p. 381, retrieved 2021-02-03 – via runeberg.org
Bibliography
- Constantin von Wurzbach: "Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, Franz Freiherr." In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich (Biographical Lexicon of the Empire of Austria). Part 13 Kaiserlich-königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1865, p. 344–348 (digitalised).
- Franz Ilwof (1906), "Kuhn, Franz Freiherr von Kuhnenfeld", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 51, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 422–428
- Neue Österreichische Biographie ab 1815. Große Österreicher. Band XIII, Amalthea-Verlag, Wien 1959.
- Kiszling: "Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld Franz Frh.". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 4, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1969, p. 336 f. (Direct links to "p. 336", "p. 337")
- ISBN 978-3-492-24572-2, pp. 351–354.
- Walter Wagner (1982), "Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, Franz Freiherr", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 13, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 269–270; (full text online)
- Walter Wagner, Geschichte des k. k. Kriegsministeriums, II. Band 1866–1888. Böhlau, Wien-Köln-Graz 1971, ISBN 3-205-08579-5, pp. 37–127
- Heinrich von Srbik, Aus Österreichs Vergangenheit. Von Prinz Eugen zu Franz Joseph, Otto Müller, Salzburg 1949, pp. 141–221
External links
- Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld in Austria-Forum (in German) (at AEIOU)