Friedrich Friesen

• Illustration — Heinrich Hartmann (lying, left) Theodor Körner (sitting, middle) and Friedrich Friesen (standing, right) at a forward post, by Georg Friedrich Kersting (1815). All three are wearing the uniform of the Jäger and the Iron Cross, 2nd Class. He studied at the Academy of Architecture, Berlin, collaborated on the great atlas of Mexico edited by Humboldt, and from 1810 was an instructor in the Plamann Institute. In 1810-12 he rendered important services to Jahn in the establishment of German gymnastics.

Upon the outbreak of the German War of Liberation in 1813, he assisted in organizing the famous volunteer corps of Major von Lützow, whose adjutant he became. In mid-June 1813, the Lützow Freikorps was ambushed by Napoleonic troops near Kitzen due to a delay in an agreed troop withdrawal despite an armistice. 105 Lützowers fell, 90 were captured and 300 fled, including Lützow, Friesen and the seriously wounded Körner, who dragged himself to Großzschocher, about 11 km away. Various monuments in the region bear witness to these days.

After the dispersion of the corps by Napoleon at Rheims, he was captured and slain by French auxiliary troops from Lorraine near the village of La Lobbe, Ardennes on 15 March 1814. A long search for Friesen took place. In 1816, his friend August von Vietinghoff found the remains. In 1843, his remains were reburied in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin near the grave of Gerhard von Scharnhorst.