Son of the president of the superior court of Magdeburg, Manteuffel was born at Dresden and brought up with his cousin, Otto von Manteuffel (1805–1882), the Prussian statesman. He entered the guards cavalry at Berlin in 1827 and became an officer in 1828. After attending the War Academy for two years, and serving successively as aide-de-camp to General von Müffling and to Prince Albert of Prussia, he was promoted captain in 1843 and major in 1848, when he became aide-de-camp to Frederick William IV, whose confidence he had gained during the revolutionary movement in Berlin.[1]
Promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1852, and colonel (and commanding officer of the 5th Uhlans) in 1853, Manteuffel was sent on important diplomatic missions to Vienna and St Petersburg. In 1857 he was promoted to major-general and chief of the Prussian Military Cabinet (the King's military advisers). He gave strong support to the Prince Regent's plans for the reorganization of the army. In 1861 he was violently attacked in a pamphlet by Karl Twesten (1820–1870), a Liberal leader, whom he had wounded in a duel, for which Manteuffel insisted on being briefly imprisoned. He was promoted to lieutenant-general for the coronation of William I on 18 October 1861 and saw active service in that rank in the Danish War of 1864, then at its conclusion was appointed civil and military governor of Schleswig. In the Austrian War of 1866 he first occupied Holstein and afterwards commanded a division under Vogel von Falkenstein in the Hanoverian campaign, then in July succeeded Vogel in command of the Army of the Main.[1]
Manteuffel's successful campaign ended with the occupation of Würzburg, and he received the order Pour le Mérite. However, on account of his monarchist political views throughout the political crises of the 1860s, and of his almost bigoted Roman Catholicism, he was regarded by Liberal politicians as a reactionary, and, unlike the other army commanders, he was not granted a financial reward for his services. He then went on a diplomatic mission to St Petersburg, where he was persona grata, and gained Russia's acquiescence to Prussia's domination of north Germany. On his return he was made honorary colonel of the 5th Dragoon Regiment. He was appointed to the command of the IX (Schleswig-Holstein) Corps in 1866. But having previously exercised both civil and military control in the Elbe duchies he was unwilling to be a purely military commander under one of his former civil subordinates, and retired from the army for a year.[1]
Manteuffel's signature on a document from 20 July 1866: Frankfurt has to pay 25 million gulden war contribution within 24 hours.
In January 1871 he commanded the newly formed Army of the South, which he led, in spite of hard frost, through the Côte-d'Or and over the plateau of Langres, cut off Bourbaki's Army of the East with 80,000 men, and, after the action of Pontarlier, compelled it to cross the Swiss frontier, where it was disarmed. His immediate reward was the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, and at the conclusion of peace he was made a member of the Order of the Black Eagle. When the Southern Army was disbanded Manteuffel commanded the Second Army and, from June 1871 until 1873, the army of occupation left in France, showing great tact in a difficult position.[1]
At the close of the occupation, the Emperor promoted Manteuffel to the rank of Field Marshal and awarded him a large financial grant, and about the same time Alexander II of Russia gave him the Order of St. Andrew. After this he was employed on several diplomatic missions, was for a time Governor of Berlin, and in 1879—perhaps, as was commonly reported, because he was considered by Bismarck as a formidable rival—he was appointed Imperial Lieutenant of occupied Alsace–Lorraine. He is remembered in Alsace–Lorraine as a very humane, cultivated man, and as a conciliator whose fairness was often abused by some dominant figures. Opening the first session of the Landesausschuss (the regional assembly of Alsace–Lorraine), he announced his firm intention to gain full autonomy for Alsace–Lorraine, so that it could become a fully-fledged state of the German Empire. He died at Karlsbad, Bohemia, in 1885, still in office but without having achieved his aim.[citation needed]
Honours
He received the following orders and decorations:[2]
Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, 1851; Commander's Cross with Star and Swords, 1864; Grand Commander's Cross with Swords on Ring, 29 June 1865[3]
Pour le Mérite (military), 7 August 1866; with Oak Leaves, 24 December 1870[4]
Knight of the Royal Crown Order, 1st Class with Enamel Band of the Red Eagle Order and Oak Leaves, 19 January 1867[3]
^Regarding personal names: Freiherr is a former title (translated as 'Baron'). In Germany since 1919, it forms part of family names. The feminine forms are Freifrau and Freiin.
