Emil Koerner
Emil Körner , in Chile Emilio Körner Henze (born October 10, 1846 in Wegwitz ; † March 25, 1920 in Berlin ), was a Prussian officer who worked as a military advisor in Chile from 1885 , and in 1891 as chief of staff of the rebellious congress troops in the Chilean civil war participated and from 1900 to 1910 was Inspector General and Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army . He is considered to be the main initiator of the reorganization of Chile's armed forces based on the Prussian-German model ( Spanish : prusianización , "Prussianization") in the decades between the Saltpeter War and the First World War .
Prussian Army
Emil Körner was a great-nephew of Karl Theodor Körner , a patriotic poet and war hero from the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon Bonaparte . Many of his cousins and brothers went to the Prussian or Saxon military . He himself joined the Prussian 4th Magdeburg Artillery Regiment as a volunteer after graduating from high school during the German War in 1866 . His regiment was not engaged in combat. On February 25, 1867, he received the ensign's license and in May of the same year began his officer training at the Hanover War School . At the end of February 1868 he was appointed second lieutenant and in October 1869 he was assigned to the artillery training at the United Artillery and Engineering School in Berlin. As a result of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he was able to shorten this training and became chief of a battery in his regiment. On September 1, 1870, he was shot in the leg at the Battle of Sedan , the consequences of which harassed him for life. He was awarded the Iron Cross and, after a short recovery period, took part in the siege of Paris . On the morning of December 27, 1870, at Körner's personal command, the German artillery opened the bombardment of the eastern ring of Paris.
After the war, in the autumn of 1871, Körner was again sent to the United Artillery and Engineering School for a year for further training. From October 1873 he was preparing for general staff training in Berlin , and in the years that followed he worked for regiments of other branches of service . On May 13, 1875 he was promoted to Prime Lieutenant and studied from 1876 at the War Academy . His classmates were Paul von Hindenburg and Jacob Meckel . The General Staff under Helmuth von Moltke sent him on study trips to France, Italy, Spain and Russia. On October 1, 1880, he was assigned as a lecturer at the Berlin Artillery and Engineering School and was appointed captain on March 30, 1881 . At the artillery school he taught tactics , military history and ballistics . From this position he was selected in 1885 for the military mission to Chile.
Army reform in Chile
Recruiting as a military advisor
Under Domingo Santa María González, Chile led the saltpeter war against Bolivia and Peru from 1879 to 1884 . Although the Chilean army emerged victorious from the conflict, the government recognized the need for modernization. For this purpose, the latest military knowledge should be imported from Europe. The successes of the Army of the German Empire in the Franco-Prussian War spoke in favor of importing German military technology into Chile. The influential German community in Chile was also a decisive factor in the decision to “Prussify” ( prusianización ) the Chilean army.
In 1885 the Chilean embassy in Berlin recruited the artillery captain Emil Körner as a military advisor.
As a non-nobleman, Körner had little chance of attaining a higher rank than captain in Germany at that time . The Chilean army offered him the prospect of being hired as a lieutenant colonel and thus about double his previous wages and also paid for the passage.
Military schools
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Körner and the Chilean general Luis Arteaga developed a new curriculum for the Chilean military school Escuela Militar del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins and designed courses for the individual branches of arms. As part of this task, works of military history , fortification and strategy were also translated into Spanish. In 1887 the Chilean government founded the Academia de Guerra del Ejército de Chile on the initiative of Körner . With the reform, command structures were to be created, a task to which Jorge Boonen already devoted himself.
Test shooting in Batuco
From March 1 to 17, 1890, a shooting competition to equip the Chilean army between cannons from competitors Krupp and de Bange took place. The cannons were two Krupp 7.5 cm type 1889 and two de Bange 8 cm type 1877. Körner supplied Krupp's acquirer, Albert Schinzinger, with the internals of the Chilean officer corps . The shooting competition gave the Krupp cannons a twelve-year lead in development. During the competition, Schinzinger was able to conclude a contract for 1.6 million marks for the purchase of eight times two 7.5 cm Krupp sets, six batteries of field cannons and eight mountain cannons.
Chilean civil war and promotion to general
In 1891 , after a dispute over the constitution, the Chilean civil war broke out in Chile between the supporters of parliament, the Congresistas , and the supporters of President José Manuel Balmaceda , the Balmacedistas . Koerner had meanwhile married the daughter of the German honorary consul , Mathilde Junge; his brother-in-law and father-in-law were congresistas . This contributed significantly to the fact that Körner took the side of parliament, although the German ambassador had forbidden him to intervene in this conflict. However, Körner acted decisively, even though Kaiser Wilhelm II criticized him and accused him of betraying the legitimate government of his host country. After Körner's flight to the opposition camp in Iquique , he was promoted to general and appointed chief of the general staff of the congress troops. Thanks to his efforts, the Chilean civil war ended with a victory for the Congresistas , and President Balmaceda committed suicide. The emperor then forgave Körner and awarded him the Order of the Crown .
In 1892 Albert Schinzinger was transferred to Montevideo and later to Buenos Aires . In the Chilean-Argentine crisis of September 1895, Körner arranged the purchase of 48 heavy and 30 light mountain cannons, 24 rapid-fire field cannons and 50,000 grenades for 3.75 million marks. As usual, Krupp had submitted the highest offer, but since Deutsche Bank contributed a quarter (20 million marks) to a loan from Rothschild & Son in London, Krupp received the order.
Inspector General of the Chilean Army
In 1895, President Jorge Montt Álvarez sent 30 training officers to the German Reich for further training on the recommendation of Körner. On Körner's initiative, conscription was introduced in Chile .
In 1900 he replaced Adolfo Holley Urzúa as Inspector General and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and remained in this position until the end of his mission.
After 25 years in Chile, Emil Körner returned to Germany in 1910 and lived in Berlin. He maintained good contacts in Chile and was involved in the German war propaganda in Latin America during the First World War, which is seen as one of the reasons for Chile's neutrality in the conflict. After his death in 1920, his body was transferred to Chile and buried in the cemetery of Santiago in a mausoleum built especially for him.
literature
- Werner Haupt: Körner, Emil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 382 ( digitized version ).
- Stefan Rinke: A spiked bonnet doesn't make a Prussian. Prussian-German military adviser, military ethos and modernization in Chile. 1886-1973. In: Sandra Carreras, Günther Maihold (Hrsg.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture. Münster 2004, pp. 259–283.
- William F. Sater, Holger H. Herwig : The Art of the Deal. In: Donald J. Stocker, Jonathan A. Grant (Eds.): Girding for Battle: The Arms Trade in a Global Perspective, 1815-1940. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport / London 2003, pp. 53-96.
- William F. Sater, Holger H. Herwig: The Grand Illusion. The Prussianization of the Chilean Army. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln / London 1999. ISBN 0-8032-2393-5 .
- Gerd Wunder : Hauptmann Körner and the civil war in Chile 1891. In: Ibero-American Archives, New Series , Vol. 9 (1983), Issue 2, pp. 225-240.
- Jürgen Schäfer: German military aid to South America. Military and armaments interests in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile before 1914. Düsseldorf (Bertelsmann-Universitätsverlag) 1974, ISBN 3-571-09148-5 .
- Frederick M. Nunn: Emil Körner and the Prussianization of the Chilean Army. Origins, Process, and Consequences. 1885-1920 . In: Hispanic American Historical Review , Vol. 50 (1970), Maiheft, pp. 300-322.
Web links
- Newspaper article about Emil Körner in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ William F. Sater, Holger H. Herwig: The Art of the Deal. In: Stocker / Grant (ed.): Girding for Battle. Westport 2003, p. 53 in the Google book search
- ^ William F. Sater, Holger H. Herwig: The Grand Illusion: The Prussianization of the Chilean Army. Lincoln 1999, p. 46 in Google Book Search
- ^ William F. Sater, Holger H. Herwig: The Art of the Deal. In: Stocker / Grant (ed.): Girding for Battle. Westport 2003, p. 63 in the Google book search
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Körner, Emil |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Grains Henze, Emilio; Grains, Emilio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German military advisor, Chilean general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 10, 1846 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wegwitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 25, 1920 |
| Place of death | Berlin |