The son of Christian Heinrich Graf (from 1792 Fürst) von Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg; entered military service in Hesse-Darmstadt and was promoted to first lieutenant (1803) with a life guards squad; staff-captain (1804); charged with command of a unit in the war with Prussia (1806); distinguished himself in the war with Austria (battles of Aspern-Essling and Wagram, 1809); promoted to major (1811); as commander of the First Battalion of the Life Guards Brigade, participated in the war with Russia at the side of Napoléon I (1812-1813); captured (19 Oct 1813) by the Prussians after the battle of Leipzig, but was released soon afterwards; promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed commander of the Life Guards Regiment (1814); promoted to colonel (1818), major-general (1836), lieutenant-general (1839); retired from the army (1848); appointed Reich war minister (21 May 1849 - 20 Dec 1849) and President of the Reich Council of Ministers (3 Jun 1849 - 20 Dec 1849) by the Reich Vicar Johann Archduke of Austria; served as minister of state of the Duchy of Nassau (7 Feb 1852 - 31 Jul 1866); in the crisis of 1866, stood by the interests of Austria. Biography source: [3] |
