Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz

Who was Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz?

Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Pöllnitz was a German adventurer and writer from Issum.

His father, Wilhelm Ludwig von Pöllnitz, was in the military service of the elector of Brandenburg, and much of his son's youth was passed at the electoral court in Berlin. He was a man of restless and adventurous disposition, unscrupulous even for the age in which he lived, visited many of the European courts, and served as a soldier in Austria, Italy and Spain.

Returning to Berlin in 1735, he obtained a position in the household of King Frederick William I of Prussia and afterwards in that of Frederick the Great, with whom he appears to have been a great favorite; and he died in Berlin on June 23, 1775.

Pöllnitz's Mémoires, which were translated into German, give interesting glimpses of his life and the people whom he met, but they are very untrustworthy. He also wrote Nouveaux mémoires; Etat abrégé de la cour de Saxe sous le règne d'Auguste III.; and Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des quatres derniers souverains de la maison de Branderibourg, published by F. L. Brunn.