HONOR ROLL

Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm Freiherr von Lützow

The first I heard of Ludwig was long time ago when I was talking to Grandma about genealogy. We were discussing her family, when she brought out manila envelope, in it was a term paper written in 1968 by a young man – Don Bridge. When Don researched his paper, he found my Grandma in his family tree. After completing his paper, he made a copy of it and sent to her with a nice letter saying he thought she would be interested in this story. I forgot about Don's term paper for many years until another person contacted me about the Luetzow family. Unfortunately she was just interested in being related to Ludwig and not about recording family history accurately.
This is Ludwig's story. Ludwig was born May 18, 1782 in Berlin, from the House of Mecklenburg. His father was also an officer in the Prussian Army. He entered military service in 1795, at the young age of 13. At 24 he was a lieutenant, but he didn't gain distinction until the siege of Kolberg. He retired the first time at the rank of major in 1808, angry over what he perceived to being a humiliating treaty of Tilsit. In 1811 he rejoined the Prussian army as a major, at the outbreak of the German War of Liberation. He received permission to organize a free corps which consisted of infantry, cavalry and Tirolese marksmen. These free corps, were known as the “Black Troopers” or “Black Riflemen”,because of the color of their uniforms. The free corps played a marked part in the campaign of 1813, but the wanderings of the corps had little military influence. While at Kitzen the corps were warned too late of the armistice of Poischwitz and the corps were all but annihilated. Lützow was wounded, and with his surviving men, he immediately reorganized and recruited new men. During the second part of the campaign the corps were more a part of the regular forces and distinguished themselves in several battles. Lützow is wounded again and is taken before Napoleon and is sent to France, on the way he escapes. His last campaign is in Denmark where he is wounded one more time. He retires in 1830 as a lieutenant-general. I have found no mention of a wife or children, his legacy has been in the way of warships named after him; including the SMS Lützow of WWI and the heavy cruiser of WWII. The 37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division was also named after him.

Lützow's wild hunt