Johann von Mayr

Johann von Mayr was born on 1 May 1716 in Vienna. He was a natural son of Count von Stella, a royal Spanish councilor in Vienna. His mother was from the bourgeois class and married the owner of a billiard parlor named Mayr soon after.[1] He was enrolled in a school organized by Jesuits, where they developed his natural talent for music.[2] Eventually his propensity for trouble and his debauchery led the city of Vienna to expel him,[3] and, in, 1732, he traveled to Hungary.[2] There, he supported himself through his violin, and his music so intrigued the commandant of Temesvar, the General von Engelshofen, that he took Mayr in.[1][3]

At about twenty years of age, at last he decided to become a soldier and entered the officially into the Duke of Lorraine's regiment, in which he ultimately became a sergeant. The life of soldiers – at no time a restrained one – also led him to excesses in the enjoyment, drinking and love, which at last followed a serious life-threatening illness.[4] There he fell into a melancholy during which he stabbed himself with a bread-knife.[2] In the then war of Austria with the Turks, Mayr fought several battles and received several wounds from 1736 to 1739. After the death of the Emperor Charles VI, during the War of Austrian Succession, he also fought in the Battle of Mollwitz, and then at the Siege of Prague, after which he was taken prisoner by the French on 26 November 1741. Mayr bought himself out the French captivity and returned to the imperial service. General-Field Marshal Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff took him into his entourage as lieutenant and adjutant, as Mayr proved to be useful and skilled. He remained in this service, until trouble with his colonel, the Claude Louis, Comte de Saint-Germain, caused him to leave. He wanted to go into Prussian service, but his patron, General Seckendorff, advised him to go to Saxony instead, and gave him recommendations to Dresden, where Mayr went in 1744.[4]

In the spring of 1758 he made a successful advance, burning the imperial magazine and plundering an armory in Suhl, in which he captured 2200 guns.[3] His expedition to Plauen in the middle of February 1758, the capture of Hof on 12 April, and the capture of Bamberg on 31 May, by fewer than 2000 men, generated fear, despondency and horror. During the summer and autumn 1758, Mayr was entrusted with several particularly dangerous assignments in Saxony. When General Georg Wilhelm von Driesen was commanded to return to Franconia on another occasion, Mayr led his avant-garde, remained in summer and autumn in Saxony, and was often entrusted with special commissions, especially when defending Dresden. In November, he distinguished himself with special bravery in the defense of Dresden against Count Leopold Joseph von Daun and was promoted to Generalmajor.[4] After Daun had lifted his camp before Dresden on 16 November 1758, and had retreated, Mayr followed him as far the Bohemian frontier. At the beginning of December 1758, he moved his corps into the winter quarters at Plauen. He died on 5 January 1759 in Plauen of a pneumonia and, although a Catholic and Jesuit-educated, was buried with military honors in front of the altar of the cemetery church of Plauen.[5][1]

The later general inspector of the American continental army Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben served as his adjutant of Mayr,[6] Prussian Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm René de l’Homme de Courbière was a young captain in the Freibataillon.[4]

Among the many eulogies written for him, this one written by the bibliophile Praetorius (a pen name) strikingly frames the fear he struck into the towns he raided:

Here, Wanderer, lies the horror of his times, Johann von Mayr, a freeman of mercenaries.

He died a hero in battle and fight;
His steady shot and blow never failed;
Fear and quiet human beings fled him.
Here, death became his first conqueror;
He died too late and too early;

Now go and proclaim: We are all sinners.[7]

Mayr left a son, who remained in Austrian service, a daughter, and one of his mistresses as heirs,[2] He was described as a well-built man with a dimpled chin, small eyes, and a prosthetic foot. In his last years, he had become quite chubby, which annoyed him, so he undertook physical exercises and constantly smoked the worst tobacco. During his lifetime he never learned who had been his father. This and his stepfather's profession, bad examples and natural superficiality led him to missteps in his youth.[5]