Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke

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Helmuth von Moltke (around 1910)

Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke , called Moltke the Younger (d. J.) (born May 23, 1848 in Gersdorf ; † June 18, 1916 in Berlin ), was a Prussian Colonel General and from 1906 to September 14, 1914 Chief of the Great General Staff .

Life

family

Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke came from the old Mecklenburg noble family Moltke . His father Adolf von Moltke , a Danish civil servant, was a deputy of the Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg chancellery in Copenhagen and from 1867 worked as the first Prussian district administrator in Pinneberg . His mother Auguste (1814–1902) was born from Krohn and came from the nobility of Anhalt-Bernburg . He was named after his uncle, Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke . The paternal grandfather was Friedrich Philipp Victor von Moltke , a Prussian officer and Danish general.

In 1878 he married Eliza von Moltke-Huitfeldt (* May 20, 1859; † May 29, 1932). Like his wife, who saw herself  cured of an illness through the prayers of a practitioner of Christian Science -  Frances Thurber Seal - Moltke also became a follower. After the turn of the century, both were in contact with Rudolf Steiner , whose esoteric student Eliza was. He was close to the early nudist movement, was honorary president of the Berlin Association for Physical Culture and thus u. a. 1908 patron of a masked ball for the naked.

Career

The Kaiser welcomes officers during maneuvers in 1905. Von Moltke on horseback on the right-hand side of the picture.

During the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871 he fought in the Grenadier Regiment "King Wilhelm I." (2nd West Prussian) No. 7 . In 1880 he became a member of the Great General Staff and in 1882 an adjutant to his uncle. From September 21, 1897 he was sent to Vienna as a military attaché to the German embassy. He held this post until April 18, 1899. From 1902 to 1904 he was in command of the 1st Guard Division of the Guard Corps . In 1904 he became Quartermaster General and in 1906 Alfred von Schlieffen's successor as Chief of the General Staff in Berlin . His appointment arose from the wish of Kaiser Wilhelm II to have "his own Moltke". There was a close relationship of trust between Moltke and Wilhelm II, which culminated in the fact that the Kaiser awarded him the Order of the Black Eagle in 1909 . When Schlieffen resigned from office in 1906, he left Moltke a memorandum that contained the main features of the Schlieffen Plan . Although Schlieffen updated his concept several times as a civilian, the actual elaboration of the operational campaign plans came from Moltke, who, unlike Schlieffen intended, reinforced the left wing of the army to the disadvantage of the right.

In 1912, during the second German Antarctic expedition, Wilhelm Filchner named a group of ice-free rock cliffs in Antarctica Moltke-Nunataks in honor of Helmuth and his brother Friedrich von Moltke .

Moltke's behavior when war broke out

Already at the “military-political discussion” on December 8, 1912 with the Kaiser, he had urged the war to begin with the words “the sooner, the better”. At the end of May 1914, Moltke said that Russia would have armed in two to three years; then Germany would no longer be able to cope with the Triple Entente (France, United Kingdom and Russia). There was no other option "than to wage a preventive war in order to defeat the enemy while we can reasonably survive the fight". Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg saw it the same way. After Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28th , Russia mobilized part of its troops on July 28th and the entire army on July 30th . Now, towards the end of the July crisis , at the time of the greatest political tension, Moltke personally intervened: On the night of July 30th to July 31st, he sent a telegram to the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , in which he wrote the demanded immediate mobilization against Russia. He also demanded the rejection of British mediation attempts and assured that he would force Italy into an alliance obligation. He expressly guaranteed the support of Austria-Hungary in the event of war by the German Reich:

“For the preservation of Austria-Hungary, holding out the European war is the last resort. Germany is definitely going too. "

In doing so, he exceeded his competencies and assured Vienna of Germany's military support. As a military officer with no decision-making power, he had signaled to Austria-Hungary that Germany would fulfill its alliance obligations, regardless of what Austria-Hungary would do with Serbia. Moltke is therefore seen by some historians as a warmonger who used brutal language to launch the campaign against the Russians.

Despite new strategic considerations, Moltke continued to regard the deployment plan of his predecessor, Alfred von Schlieffen, as the right strategic idea. He pushed ahead with the planning for its implementation. Among other things, he wanted to bring the invasion of Belgium forward by a week. He created the draft for an ultimatum to Belgium , which was sent to the Foreign Office on July 26th. On the morning of August 3, he informed Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg that German troops would march into Belgium the next day, and recommended that the Belgian government be informed of this, but without a declaration of war, because he hoped it could with the Belgian government ( Prime Minister was Charles de Broqueville ) yet to come to an agreement.

Moltke's warfare

Grave in the Invalidenfriedhof , Berlin

When the war finally broke out, Moltke naturally had to bear decisive responsibility for carrying out military operations with the aim of winning against several European powers - a tremendous burden that he clearly felt as such. So he urged the Ottoman Empire to immediately enter the war , which was to attack Russia immediately and incite the Islamic world against the Entente .

During the first few weeks of the war, Moltke collapsed nervously. The emperor had played a decisive role in this, and on the eve of the first fighting , he called for the cessation of military actions against Belgium due to an inaccurate report from the German ambassador in London, according to which the British would guarantee France's neutrality if Germany left Belgium unmolested the planned development of the German forces had stopped for hours. Moltke was never able to fully recover from what was perceived as amateurish intervention at a crucial hour.

Due to poor connections to the army leaders, he lost track of the operational situation in the west in September 1914. So he had to give the army leaders a free hand and subsequently approved the direction of advance changed by the 1st Army . After the German troops had no longer advanced on the line of the Schlieffen Plan as a result of Kluck's swing and were standing east of Paris , he had to order a retreat in the course of the Battle of the Marne and allegedly reported to the Kaiser: “Your Majesty, we have lost the war! “The correctness of the saying is doubtful, however. Significantly, the hasty German retreat began on September 9th by order of Moltke's envoy, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch , for which, however, Moltke was responsible.

Recall

Another humiliation followed after the Battle of the Marne, when the Emperor left Moltke in office, but de facto already sidelined. On September 14, 1914, he had to give way to Erich von Falkenhayn in the position of Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army . The change in leadership remained a secret for the time being to cover up the admission of failure. He was reproached for watering down the Schlieffen Plan, staying too far away from the front and sending soldiers to the east when they were not yet needed there, but were still needed for the attack in the west.

Moltke was appointed Chief of the Deputy General Staff in Berlin in November 1914. In the winter of 1914/15 he took part in the campaign against his successor Falkenhayn, which was largely run by the staff of the Commander-in-Chief under Erich Ludendorff . However, this did not lead to the intended dismissal of Falkenhayn as Chief of the General Staff, but only to the termination of his dual role as Minister of War and Chief of the OHL.

Moltke died of a stroke in Berlin in 1916 during the state act for Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz .

literature

In his consideration of the July crisis , Fromkin comes to the conclusion that Moltke was the main person responsible for the beginning of the First World War.
  • Thomas Meyer (Ed.): Helmuth von Moltke 1848–1916. Documents on his life and work. Perseus 1993, ISBN 3-907564-15-4 , 2 vol.
Volume 1 contains Moltke's work The Guilt for War.

Web links

Commons : Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Moltke, Helmuth Graf von , deutsche-biographie.de
  2. ↑ http://biographien.kulturimpuls.org/detail.php?&id=1158
  3. ↑ Festschrift for the costume party. Berlin: Kraft und Schönheit, February 13, 1908, p. 4. cf. Arnd Krüger : There Goes This Art of Manliness: Naturism and Racial Hygiene in Germany, in: Journal of Sport History 18 (Spring, 1991), 1, 135–158. http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1991/JSH1801/jsh1801i.pdf
  4. ↑ Olaf Jessen : The Moltkes. 2nd Edition. Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-60499-7 , p. 270.
  5. ↑ Georg Alexander von Müller : Notes on the era of Wilhelm II. Ed. By Walter Görlitz (Göttingen, 1965), p. 124 f.
  6. ↑ Volker Ullrich : Germany's Reach for the Crimea (ZEIT Story No. 3/2015). See also Annika Mombauer : The July Crisis: Europe's Path to the First World War . Beck Paperback 2014, ISBN 978-3406661082 .
  7. ↑ Janusz Piekalkiewicz: The First World War , 2007, ISBN 3-8289-0560-9 (p. 28)
  8. ^ Manfred Nebelin : Ludendorff - dictator in the First World War. Siedler, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88680-965-3 , pp. 173-185.
personal data
SURNAME Moltke, Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Colonel General
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Gersdorf , Mecklenburg-Schwerin
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1916
Place of death Berlin , German Empire