Karl Freiherr von Müffling

Karl von Müffling

Friedrich Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Müffling, called Weiss (12 June 1775 – 10 January 1851) was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall^[1] and military theorist. He served as Blücher's liaison officer in Wellington's headquarters during the Battle of Waterloo and was one of the organizers of the final victory over Napoleon. After the wars he served a diplomatic role at the Congress of Aix-la-Chappelle and was a major contributor to the development of the Prussian General Staff as Chief. Müffling also specialized in military topography and cartography.

Biography

Born in Halle, Müffling entered the Prussian army in 1790.^[2]

In 1799 Müffling contributed to a military dictionary edited by Lieutenant W. von Leipziger, and in the winter of 1802-1803, being then a subaltern, he was appointed to the newly formed general staff as quartermaster-lieutenant. He had already done survey work, and was now charged with survey duties under the astronomer Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach (1754–1832). In 1805, when in view of a war with France the army was placed on a war footing, Müffling was promoted captain and assigned to the general staffs, successively, of General von Wartensleben, Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.^[2]

In 1806 Müffling served under Hohenlohe, Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and Blücher, and was included in the capitulation of the latter's corps at Ratekau on 7 November 1806, the day after the Battle of Lübeck. After this he entered the civil service of the Duke of Weimar. He rejoined the army on the outbreak of the War of Liberation in 1813, and was placed on the headquarters staff of the army of Silesia. His business qualities and common sense were greatly valued, though the temperamental differences between Müffling and August von Gneisenau often led to friction, especially as the former was in a measure the representative of the antiquated topographical school of strategists, to whom (rightly in the main) the disaster of the Battle of Jena was attributed. In the interval between the first occupation of Paris and the Hundred Days, Müffling served as chief of the staff to the Russian General Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly and to General Friedrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf. He was Prussian commissioner at the Duke of Wellington's headquarters in the Waterloo campaign, and was involved in the various controversies which centred round the events at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.^[2]

After the final fall of Napoleon Müffling was a signatory to the Convention of St. Cloud and later served on the staff of the Army of Occupation in France. For some months he was military governor of Paris. He spent a part of his time on the Rhine in survey work, and was employed by King Frederick William III in various diplomatic missions. In 1821 he became chief of the general staff at Berlin, and though he has been accused of indulging his taste for topographical work at the expense of training for war, his work was not wasted, for he gave an excellent organization to the general staff, and executed elaborate and useful surveys. In 1829 he visited Constantinople and St Petersburg in connection with negotiations for peace between Russia and Turkey. He took a prominent part in the military and civil history of Prussia, and from 1838 to 1847 was governor of Berlin. He was also the inventor of a system of hachuring for maps. Failing health compelled his retirement in the latter year, and he died on the 10 January 1851, at his estate of Ringhofen near Berlin.^[2]

Bibliography

Under the initials of C(arl) von W(eiss), Muffling wrote various important works on military art and history:^[2]

• Operations plan der preuss-sächs. Armee 1800 (Weimar, 1807)
• marginalia on the archduke Charles's Grundsätze der höheren Kriegskunst für die Generäle der österreichischen Armee
• marginalia on Rühle von Lilienstern's Bericht über die Vorgänge bei der Hohenloheschen Armee 1806
• Die preussisch-russische Kampagne bis zum Waffenstillstande 1813 (Berlin, 1813)
• Geschichte der Armeen unter Wellington und Blücher 1819 (Stuttgart, 1817)
• Zur Kriegsgesch. der Jahre 1813-1814: die Feldzüge der schlesischen Armee von des Beendigung des Waffenstillstandes bis zur Eroberung von Paris (Berlin, 1824)
• Betrachtungen über die grossen Operationen und Schlachten 1813-1815 (Berlin, 1825)
• Napoleons Strategie 1813 (Berlin, 1827)
• an essay on the Roman roads on the lower Rhine (Berlin, 1834).

His reminiscences:

• Aus meinem Leben (Berlin, 1851).
• Narrative of my Missions to Constantinople and St. Petersburg, in the Years 1829 and 1830 (London, 1855); translated by David Jardine.

Notes

1. Regarding personal names: Freiherr is a former title (translated as Baron), which is now legally a part of the last name. The feminine forms are Freifrau and Freiin.
2. Chisholm 1911.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Müffling, Friedrich Karl Ferdinand, Freiherr von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.