Karl Ritter von Schönhals (15 November 1788,

Braunfels Braunfels () is a town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location The climatic spa of Braunfels lies at a height of some 100 m above the Lahn valley. It is 9 km southwes ...

Solms-Braunfels Solms-Braunfels was a County and later Principality with Imperial immediacy in what is today the federal Land of Hesse in Germany. History Solms-Braunfels was a partition of Solms, ruled by the House of Solms, and was raised to a Princi ...

- 16 February 1857,

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

) was an Austrian general.

Life

Schönhals entered the army in 1807, joining an Austrian Jäger regiment, and was badly wounded at the

battle of Aspern In the Battle of Aspern-Essling (21–22 May 1809), Napoleon crossed the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were attacked and forced back across the river by the Austrians under Archduke Charles. It was the first time Napoleon ...

and

battle of Dresden The Battle of Dresden (26–27 August 1813) was a major engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle took place around the city of Dresden in modern-day Germany. With the recent addition of Austria, the Sixth Coalition felt emboldened in t ...

. In 1821 he joined the Naples expedition, in 1830 he acted as general-adjutant to General Frimont in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and in as 1832 general-adjutant to

Radetzky Johann Josef Wenzel Anton Franz Karl, Graf Radetzky von Radetz (2 November 1766 – 5 January 1858) was a Czech nobleman and Austrian field marshal. He served as chief of the general staff in the Habsburg monarchy during the later period of ...

. In 1838 he was promoted to major general and in 1848 to

Feldmarschallleutnant Lieutenant field marshal, also frequently historically field marshal lieutenant (, formerly , historically also and, in official Imperial and Royal Austrian army documents from 1867 always , abbreviated ''FML''), was a senior army rank in certai ...

. In the dangerous times of 1848 he did a great service to the Austrian army. In 1849 the Provisional Central Government of the

German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

was dissolved and replaced by plenipotentiaries for Austria and Prussia, with Schönhals and Karl Friedrich Kübeck Freiherr von Kübau representing the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

until the commission was dissolved and parliament restored. Starting in 1851, he resigned due to his war wounds, at the rank of

Feldzeugmeister General of the Artillery () was a historical military rank in some German and Austro-Hungarian armies, specifically in artillery. It was commonly used in the 16th and 17th centuries, and survived until the beginning of the 20th century in some Euro ...

, and devoted himself to writing biographies and military history. He lived in Graz, where he was looked after by his sister Henriette Schönhals. His tomb is located in the Protestant cemetery of St Peter in Graz.

Honours

* Knight's Cross of the

Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to: * Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918 * Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium * Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...

- 1838 * Knight's Cross of the

Military Order of Maria Theresa The Military Order of Maria Theresa (; ; ; ; ; ) was the highest military honour of the Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire. History Founded on 18 June 1757, the day of the Battle of Kolín, by the Empress Mari ...

- 19 August 1848, along with promotion to the rank of knight, his name thereafter being Karl Ritter von Schönhals. *

Order of the Iron Crown The Order of the Iron Crown () was an order of merit that was established on 5 June 1805 in the Kingdom of Italy by Napoleon Bonaparte under his title of Napoleon I, King of Italy. The order took its name from the ancient Iron Crown of Lombard ...

- 1849 * Wirklicher Geheimer Rat - 1849 * Number 16 of the personalities of the Italian campaign 1848–1849 on the Gedenkstätte Heldenberg

Works

1) Published under his own name: * ''Aphorismen aus der Kriegskunst'', 2 Teile, 1820 und 1821; * ''Einige Betrachtungen über die Verwendung der stehenden Heere'', 1820. * ''Biographie des K.K.Generals der Kavallerie und Hofkriegspräsidenten Grafen von Frimont'', 1833. 2) Published anonymously : * ''Erinnerungen eines österreichischen Veteranen aus dem italienischen Kriege in den Jahren 1848 und 1849'', Stuttgart 1852, 2 Bde.; 7. Aufl. 1853; * ''Biographie des Feldzeugmeisters J. Freiherr von Haynau'', 3. Aufl., Graz 1853; * ''Der Krieg 1805 in Deutschland'', Wien 1874.

Bibliography

Schönhals, Karl Ritter von
in Constant von Wurzbach, ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich'', 31st Volume, page 157, Wien, k. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei 1876 * http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl_11/81.pdf * http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Sch%C3%B6nhals,_Karl_Freiherr_von * L. Weißbart: ''C. Eine Rückschau auf sein Leben und Wirken zur 150. Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages''. In ''Heimat im Bild. Beilage zum Gießener Anzeiger.'' Jahrgang 1938, Nr. 45, pp. 177-180 and Nr. 46, pp. 183–184. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schoenhals, Karl 1788 births 1857 deaths People from Braunfels People from Solms-Braunfels Austrian generals 19th-century Austrian historians Historians from the Austrian Empire Austrian Empire military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Austrian biographers Austrian male biographers Austrian military historians Austrian people of German descent