Johann Mayer

Johann von Mayr (1 May 1716 – 5 January 1759) was a Prussian military officer. He was the head of a Prussian Freibataillon ("F 2") that, during the Seven Years' War, formed part of the advanced guard of Frederick the Great's Prussian Army.

Early life Johann von Mayr was born on 1 May 1716 in Vienna. He was a natural son of Count von Stella, a royal Spanish councilor in Vienna. His mother was from the bourgeois class and married the owner of a billiard parlor named Mayr soon after. He was enrolled in a school organized by Jesuits, where they developed his natural talent for music. Eventually his propensity for trouble and his debauchery led the city of Vienna to expel him, and, in, 1732, he traveled to Hungary. There he fell into a melancholy during which he stabbed himself with a bread-knife. Prussian Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm René de l’Homme de Courbière was a young captain in the Freibataillon.

Family Mayr left a son, who remained in Austrian service, a daughter, and one of his mistresses as heirs, He was described as a well-built man with a dimpled chin, small eyes, and a prosthetic foot. In his last years, he had become quite chubby, which annoyed him, so he undertook physical exercises and constantly smoked the worst tobacco. During his lifetime he never learned who had been his father. This and his stepfather's profession, bad examples and natural superficiality led him to missteps in his youth.