FINCK, FRIEDRICH AUGUST VON (1718-1766)

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 353 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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FINCK, FRIEDRICH AUGUST VON (1718-1766) , Prussian soldier, was born at Strelitz in 1718. He first saw active service in 1934 on the Rhine, as a member of the suite of Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. Soon after this he transferred to the Austrian service, and thence went to

Russia

RUSSIA
RUSSIA (Rossiya)

, where he served until the fall of his patron

Marshal

MARSHAL (med. Lat. marescalcus, from O.H.Ger. marah, horse, and scalc, servant)

Mtinnich put an end to his prospects of advancement. In 1742 he went to Berlin, and Frederick the

Great

GREAT

made him his aide-de-camp, with the rank of major. Good service brought him rapid promotion in the Seven Years' War. After the battle of Kolin (June 18th, 1757) he was made colonel, and at the end of 1757 major-general. At the beginning of 1759 Finck became

lieutenant

LIEUTENANT

-general, and in this rank commanded a corps at the disastrous battle of Kunersdorf, where he did good service both on the field of battle and (Frederick having in despair handed over to him the command) in the rallying of the beaten Prussians. Later in the year he fought in concert with General Wunsch a widespread combat, called the action of Korbitz (Sept. 21st) in which the Austrians and the contingents of the

minor

states of the Empire were sharply defeated. For this action Frederick gave Finck the Black Eagle (Seyfarth, Beilagen, ii. 621-630). But the subsequent catastrophe of Maxen (see SEVEN YEARS' WAR) abruptly put an end to Finck's active career. Dangerously exposed, and with inadequate forces, Finck received the king's positive order to

march

upon Maxen (a

village

VILLAGE

in the Pirna region of Saxony). Unfortunately for himself the general dared not disobey his master, and, cut off by greatly superior numbers, was forced to surrender with some 11,000 men (21st Nov. 1759). After the peace, Frederick sent him before a court-martial, which sentenced him to be cashiered and to suffer a

term

TERM

of imprisonment in a fortress. At the expiry of this

term

TERM

Finck entered the Danish service as general of infantry. He died at

Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN (Danish Kjobenhavn)

in 1766.
He left a

work

WORK

called Gedanken fiber militdrische Gegenstande (Berlin, 1788). See Denkwiirdigkeiten der militdrischen Gesellschaft, vol. ii. (Berlin, 1802-1805), and the report of the Finck court-martial in Zeitschrift file Kunst, Wissenschaft and Geschichte des Krieges, pt. 81 (Berlin, 1851). There is a life of Finck in MS. in the library of the

Great

GREAT

General Staff.

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