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Encyclopedia Britannica

MUFFLING, FRIEDRICH KARL FERDINAND, FREIHERR

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 955 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MOS-NAN

MUFFLING, FRIEDRICH KARL FERDINAND, FREIHERR voN, called WEISS (17751851), Prussian general field marshal, was born on the lath of June 1775, and entered the Prussian army in 1790. In 1799 he 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

WORK

, and was now charged with survey duties under the astronomer F. X. von Zach (17541832). In 18o5, when in view of a war with France the army was placed on a war footing, Muffling was promoted captain and assigned to the general staffs, successively, of General von Wartensleben, Prince Hohenlohe and Blucher. In 18o6 he served under Hohenlohe, the duke of Saxe-

Weimar

WEIMAR

, and Bhicher, and was included in the capitulation of the latter's corps at Rattkau, after which he entered the civil service of the duke of

Weimar

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 Muffling and 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 Jena was attributed. In the interval between the first occupation of Paris and the Hundred Days, Muffling served as

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

of the staff to the Russian general Barclay de Tolly and to General Kleist von Nollendorf. He was Prussian

commissioner

COMMISSIONER

at the duke of

Wellington

's headquarters in the Waterloo campaign, and was involved in the various controversies which centred round the events of the 16th of June 1815. After the final fall of

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

he served on the staff of the army of occupation in France and was for some months military

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of Paris. He spent a part of his time on the Rhine in survey

work

WORK

, and was employed by Frederick William III. in various diplomatic missions. In 1821 he became

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

of the general staff at Berlin, and though he has been accused of indulging his

taste

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

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

PETERSBURG

in connexion with negotiations for peace between Russia and Turkey. He took a prominent part in the military and civil history of Prussia, and from 18381847 was

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of Berlin. Failing health compelled his retirement in the latter year, and he died on the 16th of January 1851, at his estate of Ringhofen near Berlin.
Under the initials of Carl) von W(eiss), he wrote various important works on military art and history: Operations plan der preuss-sacks. Armee i8o6 (Weimar, 1807); marginalia on the archduke Charles's Grundsatze der hoheren Kriegskunst fur die Generale der oesterr. Armee, and on Riihle von Lilienstern's Bericht fiber die Vorgange bei der Hohenloheschen Armee i8o6; Die preussisch-russische Kampagne bis zum Waffenstillstande 1813 (Berlin, 1813); Geschichte der Armeen unter

Wellington

and Blucher 1813 (

Stuttgart

STUTTGART

, I817); Zur Kriegsgesch. der Jahre 18131814: die Feldziige der schiesischen Armee von der Beendigung des Waffenstillstandes bis zur Eroberung von Paris (Berlin, 1824.); Betrachtungen fiber die grossen Operationen and Schlachten 18131815 (Berlin, 1825) ; Napoleons Strategie 1813 (Berlin, 1827) ; and an essay on the Roman roads on the lower Rhine (Berlin, 1834). Muffling was also the inventor of a system of hachuring for maps. His reminiscences, Aus meinem Leben, were published at Berlin in 1851.

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