In June 2007, Douglas Rogers forwarded to me a message from Lars-Holger Thümmler, a specialist in Prussian military history during the time of Napolean and an archivist with the administrative archives in Berlin and a project manager at the university library of Humboldt University. In his message, Thümmler responded to a query by Douglas asking for information regarding a "P. Gerwien" who was in the Prussian 22nd infantry regiment. Thümmler identified a Karl Ludwig Gerwien as the only Gerwien in the Prussian 22nd infantry regiment. Details:Karl Ludwig Gerwien was born in 1799 in Landsberg in East Prussia. He entered the Garde-Ulanen-Regiment in 1815, then climbed the military ladder: becoming a second lieutenant in 22nd infantry regiment in 1818, a first lieutenant in 1829, a captain and company commander in 1835, then major in 1843, lieutenant colonel in 1851, colonel in 1852, major general in 1857. He died in Münster, Westfalen, in 1858.Gerwien commanded a general war school 1820-1823, was a teacher in the division school of the 12th division 1823-26, was a teacher at the cadet institute in 1826-1833, shifted to the general staff in 1849, and became commander of the 26th infantry brigade in 1856.I contacted Thümmler to ask a few follow-up questions. In particular, I asked him whether the "P." in "P. Gerwien" might be an abbreviation for "Premierlieutenant", Gerwien's rank at the time that he published his articles in Crelle's journal as well as his two-volume work with von Holleben. In reply, Thümmler affirmed that there was only one Gerwien in the whole regiment history of the 22nd infantry regiment, and none in the 21st, which was von Holleben's regiment. By the same token, Thümmler stated that using "P" as an abbreviation for "Premierlieutenant" was not normal practice. Karl Ludwig Gerwien may or may not have followed normal practice, but his dates and positions are so close a match that he is almost certainly the author listed as "P. Gerwien" in Crelle's Journal.
The sources consulted by Lars-Holger Thümmler are:
- Kurt von Priesdorff, Soldatisches Führertum. Hamburg: 1937-42. Vol. 6, No. 1992.
- Geschichte des 1. Oberschlesischen Infanterie-Regiments Nr. 22. Berlin: 1884.
- H. Holtoff, Offizier-Stammliste des königlich Preußischen Infanterie-Regiments Nr. 21. Oldenburg: 1913.
In 1998, Bernard Lemaire continued to work on a wide variety of different crosses, including Maltese crosses. He collaborated with Gavin Theobald on the following two manuscripts:"Geometric dissections of a family of forky Maltese Crosses: Mn", 3rd version, December 1998.These are almost exclusively dissections of crosses to squares.
"Geometric dissections: twenty-two crosses squared", December 1998.
Copyright 1999-2007, Greg N. Frederickson.
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Last updated June 18, 2007.