Ferdinand Willem, Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt

Ferdinand Willem, Duke of Wurttemberg-Neuenstadt (Neuenstadt am Kocher, 12 September 1659 – Sluis, 7 June 1701) was a German general in the Brunswick, Danish, Imperial and Dutch army.

Biography Ferdinand Wilhelm (original German spelling) was the sixth child and second surviving son of Frederick of Württemberg-Neuenstadt.

He gained his first military experience in the Franco-Dutch War in 1675, where he served alongside his older brother, Frederick Augustus, in a Brunswick-Lüneburg regiment. He then entered Danish service during the Scanian War, where he was promoted to lieutenant general in 1682.

When the Turkish army threatened Vienna in 1683, Ferdinand William joined the army under Duke Charles of Lorraine and fought in the Battle of Kahlenberg, which relieved Vienna. He continued to fight in the Great Turkish War afterward, and was severely wounded in 1685 by a gunshot to the forehead near the fortress of Neuhäusel. Initially, the doctors doubted whether he would survive, but after only 14 days, with his head bandaged, he stood at the head of the Franconian dragoons and led them to storm Neuhäusel. However, Ferdinand William would succumb to the long-term effects of this injury 16 years later.

Shortly thereafter, he suffered a severe illness resulting from complications from the gunshot wound he had received near Neuhäusel. He died of this illness on 7 June 1701, in Sluis. He was unmarried and left no descendants. He was buried in the crypt of the House of Württemberg-Neuenstadt in St. Nicholas Church in Neuenstadt am Kocher.