”The mummy of the “Devil” in the Capuchin crypt in Brno”

When he died on 4 October 1749 no one raised any objections to the decision to take his body to the Capuchin crypt in Brno where the remains of the friars and benefactors of the Order were kept. Yet, in life, he was known as “the Devil Trenck” for his warlike exploits. The particular climatic conditions have preserved the mummified body of Baron Franz von der Trenck to this day, which contains all the implications and contradictions of eighteenth-century Europe. Born in Reggio Calabria on January 1, 1711 to Anne Marie Kettler von Hargrätten and the imperial lieutenant Johann Heinrich Trenck, sent to southern Italy for service reasons, he was of Prussian blood, but Austrian by family and military tradition, German and Hungarian by school education, still Austrian and Russian due to war experience, Croatian due to militancy and finally Moravian in the waning phase of his short life.

Cultured, cosmopolitan and polyglot, he had chosen the profession of arms

Brilliant, cosmopolitan and polyglot, rebellious by character, he gave the best and the worst in the profession of arms. Among many things he created a corps of mercenaries, around five thousand paramilitaries, almost all Croatian, with whom he spread terror liberally in wartime, due to the ruthlessness and cruelty of which they were guilty. Yet he was a cultured and broad-minded man. Between 1720 and 1728 he had studied in Sopron, Požega and Vienna with the Jesuits, demonstrating notable qualities that allowed him, among other things, to express himself fluently in German, Italian, Latin, Hungarian, Croatian and French. But the call of the army had been stronger than that of culture. At seventeen he joined the 8th Hungarian Infantry Regiment, immediately becoming lieutenant, but it didn’t last long: due to indiscipline he was immediately demoted and expelled.

And so in 1737 he offered his sword to Austria to fight against the Turks, bringing with him a personal militia of 4,000 men, but his offer was rejected. He then looked to Russia, and Tsarina Anna Ivanovna took him into the imperial ranks as second cavalry captain of the hussar regiment. His valor in battle is equal to his impatience with discipline and superiors. He is promoted to major despite those same superiors underlining the episodes of brutality of which his men are accused, who do not accept any interference in their conduct and do not recognize orders that do not come from their leader.

The first death sentence in Russia and then to the service of Austria

In 1740, however, Trenck ended up court-martialed for having insulted and attacked his commander. Degraded, imprisoned and sentenced to death, he was pardoned at the last moment through the intercession of Field Marshal Münnich, but had to leave the tsarist army and even Russia. He returns to his properties in Slavonia and immediately shows the same iron fist on the battlefield against banditry. He restores order and reads in his own way, but he goes so far beyond the limits that he is forced to leave and ask for asylum from the Capuchin friars in Vienna. Here Archduke Charles of Lorraine opened the doors of Maria Theresa’s court to him, where someone like him could come in handy, because the Prussians of Frederick II had occupied Austrian Silesia since 16 December 1740, prey to the War of the Austrian Succession. Maria Teresa authorizes Trenck to form a corps of volunteers, the Panduri, enlisted without any filter. In the ranks of the corps that will make a frightening reputation there are criminals, criminals, cutthroats, adventurers very loyal to the leader who do not recognize any military discipline, let alone the rest.

At the head of the Panduri, between valor in war and atrocities of all kinds

Trenck goes from the rank of lieutenant colonel to colonel and subverts every tactic of the time by specializing in guerrilla warfare and infiltrations behind enemy lines, without caring about the cruelty of the Panduri against soldiers and civilians, indiscriminate victims of looting, violence, rape and raids . As ruthless as they were always on the front line of the Habsburg army, brave and unscrupulous. In Poor, the Prussians manage to escape the Austrian annihilation maneuver and Frederick II’s retreat is attributed to Trenck, most likely to cover other responsibilities, perhaps because Friedrich von der Trenck (1727-1794), his cousin, is active in King Frederick II’s circle. of the commander of the Panduri. Sentenced to death, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Maria Teresa himself. He was locked up in the infamous Spielberg prison in Brno, which would become even more famous in Italy when the Risorgimento patriots Silvio Pellico and Pietro Maroncelli were detained there. Today, it is no coincidence that the main street that leads to the fortress is named after the author of “My Prisons”.

In recognition of his military past and noble blood, Trenck was granted some privileges, including those of being able to make a will, a right granted by the Empress after his health conditions took a sharp turn for the worse, just six months after his imprisonment. It is then that the baron disposes of his assets in favor of the poor and the dispossessed, of the Church and of the Capuchins, in exchange for a prayer a week for his soul, and partly for his cousin Friedrich provided he converts to Catholicism and undertakes to no longer fight against Austria by serving in the Prussian army. Friedrich, of course, accepts. In the last phase of his life Trenck tries to make amends for the atrocities spread by his Panduri and shortly before his death he allocates compensation of 30,000 gulden to the city of Marienburg which had been put to sword and fire by his soldiers. Since 1656, the Capuchin crypt in Brno was intended to welcome friars and benefactors. It is here that the body of the adventurous baron, who died at just 38 years of age, finds rest. The particular ventilation system of the basement allowed the mummification of the corpses and allowed the preservation of the bodies of more than 150 members of the Order and about fifty high-ranking figures who distinguished themselves for works of good and charity. Among these is the “Devil” Franz von der Trenck, whose mummy preserved in a crystal case welcomes the numerous visitors at the entrance.