Joachim Bernhardt von Prittwitz and Gaffron (1726–1793) was a Prussian officer credited with saving the life of Frederick the Great at the Battle of Kunersdorf.

In 1851, Prittwitz was included on the panels of the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great as one of the key figures in the establishment of the Prussia state.

[1] As a 36-year-old on 16 December 1762 in Berlin, he married the widowed Eleanor of Paczensky and Tenczin, born Freiin von Seherr-Thoß (12 January 1739 on the estate at Schönfeld, Kr.

Short of cash, though, in 1758 he asked his king for money in a long poem, and he answered: "Wer dieses so artig in Verse gebracht, dem werden 500 Dukaten vermacht.

At a critical point in Battle of Kunersdorf, he saw Frederick standing on a small hill with the remnants of his body-guard—the Leib Cuirassier—determined to either hold the line or to die trying.

After the Treaty of Hubertusburg, Frederick II granted these fortunes to the two officers toward whom he had particular gratitude: Lieutenant Colonel Hans Sigismund von Lestwitz, who had proven instrumental at the Battle of Torgau,[6] received the estate of Friedland, and Prittwitz, who had led the King from the battlefield at Kunersdorf, received the estate at Quilitz (present-day Kwielice).

")[7] In the years after 1763, Prittwitz carried out special assignments for the King: in 1765, he investigated the suitability of a proposed canal for shipping, and in 1767, he examined irregularities in the casting of Berlin coin.

In the years 1779–1783, Prittwitz founded the colony "Prittwitzdorf" at his Rudelstadt estate near Kupferberg, whose inhabitants were predominantly weavers and miners.

A lithograph by Georg Schöbel shows Prittwitz, together with other generals, at the deathbed of Frederick on 17 August 1786, at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam.