Friedrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf

Friedrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf

Friedrich Emil Ferdinand Heinrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf (April 9, 1762 – February 17, 1823), born and died in Berlin, was a Prussian field marshal and a member of the old junker family von Kleist.

Biography

Kleist entered the Prussian army in 1778 and served in the War of the Bavarian Succession and the French Revolutionary Wars. By 1799, Kleist had been promoted to major and was put in command of a battalion of grenadiers.

Kleist served in the Napoleonic Wars and fought at Jena. In 1807 he went on extended leave but by 1808 he was put in command of an infantry brigade and the next year he was made commandant of Berlin. During the War of Liberation he was given a corps with which he fought in the battles of Kulm and Leipzig. In 1814, he was given the title Count of Nollendorf (from the German name of the Czech town Nakléřov) for his decisive role in this battle.

After Leipzig, Kleist blockaded the fortress of Erfurt and in early 1814 he marched his troops into France, where his corps was attached to Blücher's army. He then fought in the battle of Laon and in the attack on Paris. At the end of the war Kleist was promoted to the rank of General der Infanterie. During the Hundred Days, Kleist was given command of a Prussian corps (the North German Corps) which was to operate independently from Blücher's Army of the Lower Rhine; he was therefore not involved in the battles of Ligny and Waterloo.

Two years before his death he was promoted to the rank of field marshal.

References

• ; (full text online)

Further reading

• (PDF; 2,1 MB)]
• Denkmal in Merseburg