Karl Georg Albrecht Ernst von Hake

Hake was born on the estate of Flatow (now part of Kremmen) in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. He entered the Prussian Army in 1785. In 1793, while serving in the French Revolutionary Wars under the command of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, he distinguished himself in the Battle of Pirmasens against France. For his actions he was awarded the order Pour le Mérite.[1]

Hake was appointed to a post in the War Ministry in 1809,[2] and served as Minister of War from 17 June 1810 until August 1813 when he was replaced by Boyen (during which time he attracted much attention by his efficient preparations for war[2]). Subsequently he, by now a Generalmajor, served as Prussian envoy at the headquarters of the Allied Armies.[1] In 1814, serving in his position under Fürst Schwarzenberg, he was awarded the oakleaves to his Pour le Mérite. During the War of the Seventh Coalition he first commanded a brigade in the IV Corps under von Bülow, playing a distinguished part in the Battle of Waterloo, and then led the North German Corps for the remainder of the war.[1]

In 1819 Hake was again appointed Minister of War. In 1825 he was promoted to General of the Infantry.[3] King Frederick William III of Prussia ordered him to conduct experiments into the use of the optical telegraph. Hake, however, was opposed to optical telegraphy and devised several means of preventing the experiments from being implemented. He successfully delayed the experiments until May 1830. Hake finally left the War Ministry in 1833 and died two years later, in 1835, at Castellammare di Stabia near Naples in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

• Bernhard von Poten (1879), "Hake, Karl Georg Albrecht Ernst von", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German), vol. 10, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 394–396
• Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Hake, Karl von" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
• Hirtenfeld, Jaromir (1857). Der Militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden und seine Mitglieder (in German). Vienna. p. 1312.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Scheel, Heinrich; Schmidt, Doris (1986). Von Stein zu Hardenberg (Quellenedition) (in German). Berlin (GDR): Akademie Verlag. pp. 780–782.
• Priesdorff, Kurt von. Soldatisches Führertum (in German). Vol. 3. Hamburg: Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt. pp. 376–382.