Jean-Baptiste Kléber
French general, and architect (1753-1800)
Divisional-General Jean-Baptiste Kléber (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ batist klebɛʁ]; 9 March 1753 – 14 June 1800) was a French army officer and architect who served in the War of the Bavarian Succession and French Revolutionary Wars. After serving for one year in the French Royal Army, he joined the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor seven years later. However, his humble birth hindered his opportunities. Eventually, Kléber joined the French Revolutionary Army in 1792 and quickly rose through the ranks.
Serving in the Rhineland during the War of the First Coalition, he also suppressed the Vendée Revolt. Kléber retired to private life in the peaceful interim after the Treaty of Campo Formio, but returned to military service to accompany Napoleon in the French invasion of Egypt in 1798. As the invasion started to suffer setbacks, Napoleon returned to Paris in 1799 and appointed Kléber as commander of all French forces in Egypt. He was assassinated by Suleiman al-Halabi, a Syrian theology student, in Cairo in 1800. Kléber, in times of peace, designed a number of buildings.
Early career
Jean-Baptiste Kléber was born on 9 March 1753 in Strasbourg, in the province of Alsace, where his father worked as a master builder.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Jean-Baptiste Kléber” as french general, and architect (1753-1800). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q319302. VIAF identifies the subject as 24631180. The Library of Congress control number is n87828430. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1753, 1800, 1792 and 1798.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jean-Baptiste Kléber” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.