Hans Joachim von Zieten, sometimes spelled Johann Joachim von Ziethen, (14 May 1699 – 26 January 1786), also known as Zieten aus dem Busch, was a cavalry general in the Prussian Army. He served in four wars and was instrumental in several victories during the reign of Frederick the Great, most particularly at Hohenfriedberg and Torgau. He is also well known for a raid into the Habsburg territories during the Second Silesian War, known as Zieten's Ride. After engaging in a reputed 74 duels, and fighting in four wars, he died in his bed at the age of 86.
Early life
Zieten was born on 14 May 1699 in the hamlet of Wustrau, now part of Fehrbellin, in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. His father was Joachim Matthias (1657–1720) and his mother, Ilsabe Catharine Jurgass. The family had lived there for several hundred years; records show them founding a Latin School in the mid-fourteenth century. The property was small and the family referred to the ramshackle house as a calliope. His father shared the property with his brother, Hans Dietrich; when the brother died in 1693, the father owned the property outright, valued at 4,000 thalers. Zieten was the third of seven children; by 1720, when his father died, only four children remained. Wustrau came to Zieten and his three sisters. The estate was valued at 8,000 thalers, of which the maintenance of the mother had to be fulfilled and his sisters' inheritances and dowries paid. This left Zieten with about half of the value. Upon his appointment as governor of Spandau, Schwendy, who had been Zieten's mentor, released his regiment to command of Generalmajor Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin. In a report to Frederick William I, Zieten was described as "... very small, and of [too] weak [a] voice for commanding." This was sufficient for the so-called soldier-king, who was obsessed with tall men, to overlook Zieten in the promotions lists. On 28 July 1724, Zieten journeyed from Crossen, where his regiment was garrisoned, with a petition for promotion to the King, who then wrote on the margin of the petition that Zieten "shall have his dismissal." Zieten retired to his estates. Two years later, during a stay in Berlin, Zieten heard of the doubling of the dragoon regiment of Wuthenow and obtained a position as lieutenant in this regiment. In 1727, after an argument with his captain (Rittmeister), he was condemned to a one-year imprisonment on the fortress of Königsberg for disobedience. After returning from the fortress, Zieten challenged the Rittmeister to a duel and he was subsequently cashiered. He returned to Wustrau.
In 1744, Zieten advanced with the avant-garde of the Prussian army in Bohemia to Budejovice. On his own initiative at Moldau, the colonel, with his red-uniform Hussar Regiment No. 2, forced a larger enemy's force into its knees. Zieten covered the retreat behind the Elbe, and on 12 October, he fell into a violent ambush at Moldau. In this year the nickname, "Zieten aus den Busch" (Zieten of the bush) was born. During the attack at Domstadt, he could not prevent the loss of a large supply convoy. During the Battle of Liegnitz on 15 August 1760, he managed to keep the Austrian main army at bay so that it could not participate in the battle. Zieten was promoted to general of cavalry. He made one of the few tactical mistakes of his career early in the Battle of Torgau, 3 November 1760, when he misdirected an attack against the Austrian troops; he made up for this error when he and his hussars stormed the Süptitzer heights.
In the subsequent years of peace, the old army commander remained a tireless instructor of his now legendary Hussar regiment. In his last years of life, Zieten alternated between Berlin, where he bought a house in 1763 on Kochstrasse No. 61–62. and on his property at Wustrau, where he devoted himself mainly to charity. At the same time, he worked with great care to improve his property. He enjoyed the special trust of Frederick, who frequently visited "his old father Zieten." In one visit with the King, at Sanssouci, after a long conversation, the King ordered a chair to be placed on which he invited the 85-year-old man to sit. Despite his infirmities, Zieten refused to sit in the presence of the monarch; the King said: "Sit down, Zieten, or I will go away." He was buried on 31 January 1786 on the Wustrau cemetery next to the village church. His estate was valued at 65,057 thalers. Apart from property at Wustrau, he left no fortune. The furniture of the Berlin house had to be auctioned after his death, and his widow was only freed from debt by a gift from King Frederick of ten thousand thalers.