Manteuffel, EDWIN HANS KARL, FREIHERR VON

Manteuffel, EDWIN HANS KARL, FREIHERR VON, Prussian general and administrator, was born, of an old Pomeranian noble family, at Dresden on 24th February 1809. Entering the Prussian guards in 1827, he rose to be colonel by 1854, and three years later was nominated head of the military bureau at Berlin, a post which he held until 1865. Having been appointed commander of the Prussian troops in Sleswick, he protested against the summoning of the Holstein estates by marching his men into that duchy (June 7, 1866). On the outbreak of hostilities Manteuffel commanded a division of the army of the Main, which was destined to act against the south German allies of Austria. He took part in the battle of Langensalza (27th June), which brought about the capitulation of the Hanoverian army, and on 19th July succeeded Von Falckenstein as commander-in-chief of the Main army, and by winning the battles of Werbach, Tauberbischofsheim, Helmstädt, and Rossbrunn over the Bavarians and others he brought that part of the campaign to a successful issue. He entered the war of 1870 as commander of the First Corps, but was soon promoted to the command of the First army, which fought successfully at Amiens and other places. Transferred in January 1871 to the command of the army of the south, operating against Bourbaki, Manteuffel assailed the enemy's rear near Belfort, and drove 80,000 men across the frontier into Switzerland. When peace was proclaimed he was placed at the head of the army of occupation in France, and in 1879 was appointed imperial viceroy of the newly-organised provinces, Alsace-Lorraine. His administration was not a happy one: his endeavours to help on the process of Germanisation by direct efforts only incensed the clergy and upper classes, both French and German. He died at Carlsbad, 17th June 1885. See Life by Keck (Bielef. 1889).