Max von Gallwitz

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Max von Gallwitz

Max Karl Wilhelm Gallwitz , since 1913 of Gallwitz (* 2. May 1852 in Breslau , † 18th April 1937 in Naples ) was a Prussian general of the artillery , which in the First World War as army and army group commander on the eastern and western front and on the Balkans acted. After the war he was politically active as a member of the Reichstag for the DNVP .

Life

family

Gallwitz came from a middle-class Catholic family. He was the son of the Prussian district tax collector Karl Gallwitz (1823–1875) and his wife Elisabeth, née Buchwald (1824–1895). In 1891 he married Friederike, née Englerth (* 1871). The marriage resulted in a daughter and son Werner (1893–1944). Werner also embarked on a military career and made it to lieutenant general in World War II .

Military career

After graduating from high school during the Franco-Prussian War on August 13, 1870, he volunteered in the field artillery regiment No. 9 of the Prussian Army . In 1877 he began a three-year training course at the War Academy . In 1883 he was transferred to the General Staff . From 1886, he was employed in various General Staffs, in the War Ministry and in commanding posts. On January 16, 1890 he became the commander of the field artillery regiment "Oranien" (1st Nassauisches) No. 27 in Mainz. Promoted to major on May 23, 1890 , he became General Staff Officer of the 9th Division in Glogau on March 22, 1891 . On July 15, 1893, he became a staff officer in the VII Army Corps in Münster. From October 18, 1895 he was a general staff officer of the 1st Kurhessischer Feldartillerie-Regiment No. 11 in Kassel and on December 9, 1896 became a lieutenant colonel . On June 17, 1897, another move to the War Ministry in Berlin followed. On March 23, 1899 he was promoted to colonel and from October 1, 1899, he was used as commander of the 5th Baden Field Artillery Regiment No. 76 in Freiburg. On May 18, 1901 he became the commander of the 29th Field Artillery Brigade in Karlsruhe and on October 18, 1902 he was appointed major general . On January 27, 1903, he became director of the Army Administration Department in the War Ministry and deputy plenipotentiary to the Federal Council . On October 16, 1906, he was promoted to lieutenant general . From October 3, 1906 to April 2, 1911 he was commander of the 15th Division in Cologne. On March 4, 1911 he was appointed inspector of the field artillery, on April 4, 1911 he received the rank of general of the artillery . In 1913, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II , Gallwitz was raised to the hereditary Prussian nobility .

First World War

Max von Gallwitz, 1915

Gallwitz was appointed commanding general of the Guard Reserve Corps at the beginning of the war on August 2, 1914 and took part in the invasion of neutral Belgium on the western front on the left wing of the 2nd Army under Colonel General Karl von Bülow . As an artillery specialist, Gallwitz was commissioned to conquer the strong Namur fortress on the Meuse crossing . Thanks to the very concentrated and consistent use of heavy artillery promoted by Gallwitz, the fortress was captured within a few days, much faster than initially feared based on the experience of the siege of Liège . The corps was then transferred to East Prussia and participated in the battle of the Masurian Lakes on the left wing of the 8th Army under Paul von Hindenburg . In October 1914, during the Battle of the Vistula , his corps advanced with the newly formed 9th Army as far as Ivangorod , but had to withdraw to the west by the end of the month before the overwhelming Russian forces. In February 1915 he took over command of the "Army Group Gallwitz", which was formed with a few additions and was later renamed the 12th Army . From February 20 to 24, Gallwitz pushed the Russian army under General Pawel Plehwe back in the First Battle of Przasnysz , but then had to retreat to its starting position in March. In the Second Battle of Przasnysz during the summer campaign, he achieved the general breakthrough on the Narew between July 13 and 15, 1915 .

On September 30, 1915 Gallwitz commander was the newly formed 11th Army to under the Field Marshal conveyed August von Mackensen the campaign against Serbia to lead. On October 6, 1915, the Danube was crossed at Semendria . Together with the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army under General Kövess , the conquest of Belgrade succeeded on October 9th . By the beginning of December his troops reached Monastir in cooperation with the allied Bulgarians , after which most of the German troops were withdrawn again, but the army high command remained in Macedonia. For his services in the East and the Balkans, Gallwitz was awarded the Order of Pour le Mérite on July 24, 1915 and the Pour le Mérite on September 28, 1915 with the oak leaves.

In March 1916, Gallwitz was transferred back to the Western Front, where he was used as commander of the "attack group West" of the 5th Army in the Battle of Verdun . After the beginning of the Battle of the Somme , he received the supreme command of the 2nd Army from July 19 to December 16, 1916 , at the same time he was commander in chief of the temporary " Heeresgruppe Gallwitz", which shortly thereafter joined the new " Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht ”was convicted and coordinated the defense south of the river. In December 1916 he took over the 5th Army in the Verdun area, which he led until shortly before the end of the war. Since January 1918, he also commanded a newly formed "Heeresgruppe Gallwitz", to which Army Division C also belonged in addition to the 5th Army . With this he fought among other things in the battle of St. Mihiel and then during the Meuse-Argonne offensive against the American expeditionary corps .

For the defensive successes during the Battle of the Somme , Gallwitz also received the Grand Cross of the Red Eagle Order and on December 23, 1917 the Black Eagle Order . In 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II also ordered that one of the eight defense towers of the old Marienburg Order Castle should be named after General von Gallwitz.

post war period

After his retirement, Max von Gallwitz was a member of the Reichstag from 1920 to 1924 as a member of the German National People's Party . In October 1931 he took part in the founding meeting of the Harzburg Front . According to the historian Holger Afflerbach , he was “[a] ls representative of a political Catholicism to the right of the center (...) a pronounced anti-Semite.” He died during a vacation trip to Italy. He is buried in the main cemetery in Freiburg im Breisgau .

Grave of Max von Gallwitz.

Quote

According to tradition, Gallwitz is said to have made the following remark about the bravely fighting British soldiers after the Battle of the Somme : "Nowhere else have I seen such brave lions led by such lambs." This statement found its way into the title of the 2007 published Feature films of lions and lambs .

This alleged quotation can not be found in Gallwitz's published memoirs ( Experiences in the West 1916–1918 ) or in his diaries and is therefore probably part of the realm of legend.

Honors

Honorary doctorate

Honorary doctorate from the University of Freiburg for Max von Gallwitz.

Other honors

Barracks in Aachen (Gallwitz-Kaserne, since 2014 Dr.-Leo-Löwenstein-Kaserne ), Bonn ( Gallwitz-Kaserne , closed since 2004), Freiburg (today Breisacher Hof) and Hildesheim (closed since 2003) were named after Max von Gallwitz . Gallwitzallee was named after him in the Berlin district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf .

Gallwitz was made an honorary citizen of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau in 1915 . The street named after him in Freiburg was renamed in 2018 on the proposal of the commission to review the Freiburg street names .

Fonts

  • My leadership in the world wars 1914-1916. Belgium – East – Balkans. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1929.
  • Experience in the West 1916-1918. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1932.

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: AG. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 , pp. 465-467.
  • Jakob Jung: Max von Gallwitz (1852-1937). General and politician (= soldier fate of the 20th century as a historical source . Volume 12). Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1995, ISBN 3-7648-2435-2 .
  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: A-L. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Berlin 1935, pp. 355–359.
  • Hanns Möller:  Gallwitz, Max von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 56 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Max von Gallwitz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Military weekly paper . No. 81 of June 19, 1913, p. 1863.
  2. ↑ New Prussian Cross Newspaper . No. 234, October 11, 1931, p. 5; Forward . No. 477 of October 11, 1931, p. 2.
  3. ↑ Holger Afflerbach : Art. Gallwitz, Max von. In: Gerd Krumeich , Gerhard Hirschfeld , Irina Renz u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia First World War. 2nd edition (UTB study edition), Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, p. 519.
  4. ↑ Commentary by Jakob Jung, author of the biography Max von Gallwitz. General and politician. Osnabrück 1996.
  5. ^ Gallwitzstrasse will in future be called Matthias-Erzberger-Strasse. - Unterwiehre International. Retrieved March 19, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Worldcat evidence : Memories of General der Artillerie Max von Gallwitz: My leadership in the world wars 1914/1916: Belgium-East-Balkans. With a cover picture and 37 text sketches. Berlin, Paris a. a. 1929.
personal data
SURNAME Gallwitz, Max von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gallwitz, Max Karl Wilhelm von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian artillery general and politician (DNVP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1937
Place of death Naples