Auction Catalogue

18 & 19 July 2018

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 1160

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19 July 2018

Hammer Price:
£6,000

The extremely rare First Class Gold Medal of Merit and 1813 Iron Cross group of five awarded to Lieutenant C. G. Haeckel, 2 Leib Hussaren Regiment, who served as Aide-de-Camp on the Staff of General Blücher’s Silesian Army

Germany, Prussia
, First Class Gold Medal of Merit 1793, 30.5mm, gold (22ct); Iron Cross 1813, Second Class breast badge, 43mm, silver with iron centre; War Merit Medal 1813-14, combatant’s type, 29mm, bronze; War Merit Medal 1815, non-combatant’s type, oval, 32mm x 25mm, blackened-iron; Commemorative War Merit Medal 1813-15 (issued in 1863), combatant’s type, 29mm, bronze, generally very fine and extremely rare (5) £3000-4000

Carl Gottlob Haeckel was born on 22 November 1871, the son of a textile merchant in Lower Silesia, and was educated at the Universities of Halle and Breslau. After graduating, he was appointed a Clerk in Breslau, and then Town Clerk in Landeshut, Silesia. Following the catastrophic defeat to Napoleon’s forces, Haeckel was soon involved in the clandestine resistance to the French, whilst outwardly maintaining his post as Town Clerk. By 1808 he was a member of the Tugendbund (League of Virtue), a secret political society in Prussia, founded in April of that year for the purpose of reviving the national spirit after Napoleon’s victory. The Tugendbund had over 700 members, mostly liberal noblemen, representatives of the bourgeois intelligentsia, and government officials. His next appointment was as Senior Magistrate of Landeshut, as well as a Commissioner for the secularization of the southern Landeshut monastery of Grüssau, a position he held from 1811 to 1815. He was awarded the First Class Gold Medal of Merit at the so-called ‘Ordensfest’, or ‘Feast of Decorations’, which was celebrated at the Berlin Court on 18 January 1811.

Following the outbreak of the War of Liberation on 27 March 1813, Haeckel enrolled in the Lützow Free Corps as a Jäger, but was soon afterwards posted as Ordonanzoffizier (aide-de-camp) on the Staff of General Blücher’s Silesian Army- his personal geographical knowledge of the Silesian Mountains made him an obvious candidate for this post. He was also employed by Blücher’s Chief of Staff, Gneisenau, for a number of special assignments. In 1813, following the arrival in the port of Stralsund of a major consignment of British arms, equipment, and supplies, Haeckel was ordered to receive and transport them to the advancing westward army, a logistical challenge which taxed his considerable organisational talent. After a period of illness from December 1813 to February 1814, he returned to Blücher’s Headquarters and remainder there until the end of the War, being a member of the triumphant Prussian army that paraded through Paris, and was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class.

Following Napoleon’s return from Elba and the renewal of hostilities, Haeckel applied to be posted to a combat unit and on 16 May 1815 was posted to the 2nd Leib Hussars Regiment, the famous ‘Black Hussars’. The opportunity to participate in hostilities however did not materialise, and following the triumphant end of the campaign Haeckel resigned his commission on 5 December 1815, and joined the Government College at Potsdam on 1 March 1816.

In 1822 Haeckel married Charlotte Sethe, the daughter of the lawyer Christophe Sethe, who went on to become a future President of the Court of Appeal in Berlin and the most senior judge in the Prussian state, and with her he had two sons, Carl Heackel (1824-97), who followed his grandfather and farther into the legal profession and also became a judge; and Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), the great German biologist and zoologist, who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, and did much to promote and expand Darwinian theory.

In 1834 Haeckel was appointed Senior Government Official to the Government of Merseburg, assuming ministerial responsibility for schools and ecclesiastical affairs, and remained in this role until his retirement on 30 June 1851. Following his retirement he moved with his family to Berlin, and in 1871, shortly before his death, wearing the Iron Cross of 1813 on his lapel, he attended the festive inauguration of the newly elected German Emperor. He died on 4 October 1871, a few weeks before his 90th birthday.

Sold with the original certificate, No. 16, awarded to Lieutenant Haeckel, dated 31 March 1814, with original signature and wax seal; and a photographic image of the recipient with his family taken in later life.