Friedrich Wilhelm KOEPPEN

   FamilySearch ID: 9H3S-LL7.

  General Notes:

Freidrich was a General in the Napoleonic wars. He was a commander with the rank of General at the Battle of Leipzig against Napoleon in 1813 and for his actions in the battle was awarded the Iron Cross.

He was also a commander on the Prussian side in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 serving under Field Marshall Blucher.

Later in life he was the Tax and Duty Headsman of Neumark, a municipality in Germany to the West of Dresden and then a governor on the island of Rugen prior to his death around 1850 (see notes below).

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Koeppen Family Home: Island of Rugen approximately 200km north of Berlin in Germany, 1830. The top photo is of the Koeppen family home which Freidrich and his wife Pauline moved into when he was sent to the island of Rugen (approx 200km north of Berlin) as a governor. This would be after his service s the Tax and Duty Headsman of Neumark which is South West of Berlin.

The house was known as Fosberg House and the following article provides some of the history. It can be clearly identified as the house behind the main hunting castle which was known as the Granitz Hunting Castle and today has been renovated and is a museum.

The following is taken from the brochure obtained from the Granitz Hunting Castle Museum on the Island of RÜgen in 1993 by friends of Enid Talbot who is Allan Schroeder's sister (both descendents of Freidrich).

THE KOEPPEN HOME - ISLAND OF RUGEN

1723 Malte 1, Lord of Putbus, had a hunting lodge built in a
clearing in the Granitz forest. (Putbus is one of two towns shown
on the Island of Rugen)

1730 A belvedere was built on a hill overlooking the lodge.
By 1810 the belvedere had become dilapidated and was demolished.

1815 The hunting lodge was renovated and the facade decorated in the neo\emdash Gothic style.

1834 Prince of Putbus had plans drawn up for a new hunting lodge which was built on the site of the belvedere built in 1730. In 1845 the cast iron staircase in the central tower was completed and in 1846 the prince's first guests arrived,

1865 the Prince and his family took up residence in the lodge after their castle in Putbus was burnt. Alterations and restoration work were carried out over the years.

1953 Repairs to the battlements of the corner towers, improvements to the windows and painting of the facade. There had been extensive bomb damage during the WW2.

1983 Extensive renovation of the castle commenced, including the historic rooms and the central tower and the castle was opened to the public as a museum.

Enclosed are copies of two photos. The first is of a painting
sent to Hermann Theodore Koeppen in 1850, the year his father died. It is inscribed on the back "The Koeppen Home. Foresburg House near Hienberg Lodge on the Island of RÜgen"

The second photo was taken on the Island of Rügen in 1993 by friends of Mrs Enid Talbot, nee Schroeder, granddaughter of Clara MathiIda Koeppen. It is a photo of the Granitz Hunting Castle Museum described above.

The house in the early painting appears to be the same as that at the rear of the recent photo, behind and below the castle, and
believed to be the original lodge built in 1723 and renovated in 1815.

The Castle Museum with central tower in the foreground of the photo would be the new hunting lodge built on the hill above the the first lodge, and replacing the belvedere built in 1730.

It is believed the original lodge came to be the Koeppen home
when General Friedrich Wilhelm Koeppen went to live, and possibly govern, there some time after the Napoleonic Wars (and after his stint as a Tax and Duty Headsmand at Neumark).

It is not known why it was called Foresburg House.

Friedrich married Ernestine Pauline Amalie KOENIGK about 1824 in Lauban, Lauban, Silesia, Prussia. (Ernestine Pauline Amalie KOENIGK was born about 1803 and died about 1850.)