A member of the noble
Pfuel family, Ernest Pfuel was born in
Jahnsfelde,
Prussia (present-day
Müncheberg,
Germany), the son of General and Johanna Christiane Sophie Krantz. He studied at the
Prussian War College. He was a member of the
Prussian National Assembly of 1848 and later that year served as
Prussian Minister of War from 7 September to 2 November, as well as
Minister President of Prussia. Pfuel was a close friend of
Heinrich von Kleist. He was also an innovator of the
breaststroke swimming technique, and the founder of the world's first military swimming-school, in 1810 in
Prague. From 1816 he was a member of the
Gesetzlose Gesellschaft zu Berlin. He died in
Berlin on 3 December 1866, aged 87. ==See also==