Alfred von Neidenburg

Alfred von Neidenburg (1781 - 1845) was a prominent German reactionary politician. From 1840 to 1845, von Neidenburg led the Reactionary Faction in the Landtag. Alfred dissapeared in the months leading up to the 1845 elections.

Early life and military career
Alfred was born in Neidenburg Castle, his family’s ancestral homeland since the era of the Teutonic Knights. Like his ancestors before him, he was raised to join the Prussian military and served with distinction as an officer from the 1790’s. When the French Revolutionary Wars began, Alfred was a junior officer and quickly rose through the ranks attaining the rank of oberst by the Napoleonic invasion of Prussia in 1806. When Prussia surrendered, Alfred refused to lay down his arms and joined the Imperial Russian Army alongside several other officers such as von Clausewitz who swore to see their country and king liberated from the French yoke and fought against the invasion of 1812.

For his insubordination, castle Neidenburg was burned down by the French, but the war of the 6th Coalitions finally liberated Prussia and brought down the vile French yoke. Despite giving all for his country, his refusal to follow his king’s order of surrender was viewed with contempt in the Prussian court and army in the years following the war, and once it became clear to Alfred that his career was effectively stifled, he took a commision as military attache to the Russian Empire and shortly thereafter retired from the service to rebuild his estate. With the Reactionary Faction destabilized by senseless intrigue and the army decapitated of leaders as a result of the Donnersmarck Plot, Alfred felt obligated to return to the public scene accepting a commission in the army and candidacy for the Reactionaries.

In his time in Russia, Alfred became acquainted with a lady of the Baltic German aristocracy whom he married; the couple had three sons.

Political career
In 1840, Alfred von Neidenburg was elected into the Landtag for the Reactionary Faction. He quickly gained enough influence to become the leader of the faction. In 1845, in the months leading up to the elections, Alfred von Neidenburg dissapeared. Today, historians claim that von Neidenburg's dissapearance is tied to a series of gang murders, others claim that von Neidenburg took his own life and more wild theorists claim that he was abducted by foreign powers.