Carl Wilhelm von Heideck - General und Maler

Carl Wilhelm von Heideck - Palikaren vor dem Tempel von Korinth

Carl Wilhelm von Heideck (, born in Sarralbe,

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

, on 6 December 1788 – died in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

on 21 February 1861) was a

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n military officer, a philhellene and painter.

Biography

Von Heideck studied art in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. In 1801, he entered the military academy in Munich. Since 1805 he was in the Bavarian army, taking part in campaigns in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

, and then in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

after 1810. In 1814, with the rank of major, he accompanied the crown prince and future

Ludwig I of Bavaria Ludwig I or Louis I (; 25 August 1786 – 29 February 1868) was King of Bavaria from 1825 until the German revolutions of 1848–49, 1848 revolutions in the German states. When he was crown prince, he was involved in the Napoleonic Wars. As ki ...

to the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

. In 1826, he went to help the Greeks fight for their independence against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, during the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

. In 1827, he took part under the orders of Thomas Gordon to the attempt to help the Acropolis of Athens. In June of the same year he bought three ancient Greek statues, including the '' Nike of Megara'', just a month after the Provision of the Third National Assembly at

Troezen Troezen (; ancient Greek: Τροιζήν, modern Greek: Τροιζήνα ) is a small town and a former municipality in the northeastern Peloponnese, Greece, on the Argolid Peninsula. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the munic ...

that explicitly banned the sale and export of antiquities; thus he was not able to get the three statues out of the country. In 1828,

Ioannis Kapodistrias Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias (; February 1776 –27 September 1831), sometimes anglicized as John Capodistrias, was a Greek statesman who was one of the most distinguished politicians and diplomats of 19th-century Europe. Kapodistrias's ...

named him commander of

Nafplion Nafplio or Nauplio () is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece. It is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important tourist destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the Middle Ages du ...

and a few months later military governor of Argos. In 1830, he went back to Munich and got back his rank of colonel of the Bavarian army. He started again to paint. In 1832, when Otto the second son of

was designated to become king of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Heideck was nominated to the regency council. It is traced, that he lived at ''Kasern Straße 12'' (today ''Leonrodstraße''''Leonrodstraße''
City of Munich.) in Munich around 1850. The ''Heideckstraße'' in the quarter Neuhausen of Munich is named after him.''Die Königlich-Bayerische Armee im westlichen Straßenbild''
(German), Taxi-Kurier, April 2007, p. 37

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heideck, Carl Wilhem von 1788 births 1861 deaths 19th-century regents of Greece People from Moselle (department) Military personnel of Bavaria Bavarian generals 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters German philhellenes in the Greek War of Independence Naturalized citizens of Greece Hellenic Army officers German military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars