Jean Baptiste Kleber

Jean-Baptiste Kléber was born on 9 March 1753 in Strasbourg, France, where his father worked as a master builder. He briefly engaged in 1769 in the French 1st Hussar Regiment, but resigned to study architecture, partly in Paris with Jean Chalgrin. He designed a number of buildings in his peaceful times, such as the town hall of Colmar and the Kléber fountain in Strasbourg. He entered Habsburg service in 1777, but left the Austrian army in 1783 due to his humble birth. He volunteered for the French Revolutionary Army in 1792 and quickly rose through the ranks. He served in the Rhineland during the War of the First Coalition, and also suppressed the Vendée Revolt. He retired to private life after the Treaty of Campo Formio, but returned to military service to accompany Napoleon Bonaparte in the campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1798. As the Egyptian campaign was deteriorating, Napoleon returned to Paris in 1799 and appointed Kléber as commander of all French forces in Egypt. He was assassinated by a student in Cairo on 14 June 1800. He is regarded as one of the best generals of the French Revolutionary Wars and his name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.