Walter von Hülsen

Walter von Hülsen (born May 20, 1863 in Kosel , † March 13, 1947 in Lindhorst ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Infantry of the Reichswehr .

Life

family

He came from the noble family von Hülsen and was the son of the Prussian lieutenant colonel Hermann von Hülsen (born December 2, 1816 in Breslau , † February 5, 1867 in Berlin) and his second wife Helene, born von Clausewitz. The later Lieutenant General Bernhard von Hülsen (1865–1950) was his brother.

Hülsen married Irmgard von Keudell on March 1, 1893 in Dresden . From the marriage u. a. the later major general Heinrich-Hermann von Hülsen (1895–1982) emerged.

Military career

Hülsen joined the 4th Guards Regiment on foot in the Prussian Army on April 16, 1881 from the Cadet Corps as a Second Lieutenant . December 4, 1886 to February 13, 1888 he was Adjutant of the Fusilier - battalion , was then transferred to the Queen Augusta Grenadier Guards Regiment 4th added and here on September 19 in 1888 first lieutenant promoted. From October 1889 to July 1892 he was assigned to the War Academy and, after brief service in the troops, from April 1, 1893 to the General Staff . When he was promoted to captain on September 14, 1893, Hülsen was transferred to the 3rd Guards Regiment on foot as a company commander . From October 18, 1901 to June 15, 1905, he was adjutant at the General Command of the X Army Corps in Hanover . In the meantime promoted to major , Hülsen then acted as commander of the 2nd Battalion in the 2nd Foot Guards Regiment and joined the staff of Queen Augusta Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 4 on October 27, 1908, followed on September 13, 1911 his promotion to colonel and as such he was finally appointed commander of the 4th Guards Regiment on Foot on February 20, 1912. In June 1914, Hülsen received the Order of the Crown, 2nd class, for his achievements . Relieved of his command shortly afterwards, he was promoted to major general on July 4, 1914 and appointed commander of the 43rd Infantry Brigade in Kassel .

First World War

After the outbreak of the First World War , Hülsen marched with this brigade on August 4, 1914, in conjunction with the 22nd Division into neutral Belgium . There the 38th Infantry Brigade was subordinated to him, with which he, forming the south wing, was to take part in the conquest of Liège . During a night fight from August 5 to 6, 1914, Hülsen was bayonet stabbed and left behind by his troops. Belgians took him to Tilff during the day , from where he escaped after a few days, fought back and took command of his brigade again. With her, Hülsen took part in the conquest of Namur from August 22 to 25, 1914 , before it was relocated to the east. Here he fought first in the battle of the Masurian Lakes and in October near Opatów , Ivangorod and the Rawka . After the Battle of Łódź his troops went in December 1914 in the trench warfare over and were able to successfully repulse an attempt to break through the Russian forces in March 1915th He stayed with the brigade on the Eastern Front and was finally appointed commander of the 19th Division on July 30, 1916 . Following the fighting on the upper Styr and Stochod , Hülsen moved back to the Western Front in November 1916 . Here he took part in the fighting on the Aisne . Then withdrawn from the front, the large unit was from December 23, 1916 to mid-January 1917 as a reserve of the OHL with the 3rd Army and was then engaged in trench warfare in Champagne . During the Battle of the Aisne , his troops maintained their assigned section of the front against repeated French attacks. This was followed by trench warfare in front of Reims and in Champagne before the division was deployed in September 1917 in front of Verdun . From the beginning of March 1918, Hülsen's major unit in the 2nd Army was preparing for the German spring offensive . One day after the offensive began, Hülsen was promoted to Lieutenant General on March 22, 1918 and was able to cross the Somme south of Péronne and advance to Amiens . The English 50th division was overrun and sixty guns , seven tanks and 1,000 prisoners were brought in. For this achievement, Hülsen was awarded the highest Prussian bravery award, the Order Pour le Mérite , by Wilhelm II on April 9, 1918 . After the end of the German attack efforts, his division was in permanent defensive battles from April 7, 1918, most recently in the Antwerp-Maas position .

Reichswehr

After the end of the war , Hülsen led the remains of his division via Linz on the Rhine to Marburg and from there to the garrison in Hanover. He remained for some time as the commander of the demobilized large unit and was commissioned in May 1919 to lead Reichswehr Brigade 10 of the Provisional Reichswehr . He retained this position after the merger and reclassification with the Reichswehr Brigade 36 in October 1919. During the Kapp Putsch , Hülsen was loyal to the Ebert government . On October 1, 1920 he was appointed commander in chief of Group Command II in Kassel. In this position he was promoted to General of the Infantry on June 16, 1921 with seniority from October 1, 1920. As a result of the London Utimatum of May 5, 1921 and the implementation regulations of the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission , which led to changes in the organization of the Reichswehr, Hülsen was dismissed from active service on August 3, 1921.

Civil life

After his departure, Hülsen acted as honorary chairman of the Warrior League for Kurhessen and Waldeck and was one of the founders of the Kurhessisches Army Museum in Kassel in 1934/35.

literature

• Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: A-L. Bernard & Graefe publishing house. Berlin 1935. pp. 515-517.
• Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Army 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 5: v. Haack-Hitzfeld. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1999. ISBN 3-7648-2538-3 . Pp. 185-186.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Freiherr von Bock: list of the officers' corps of the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot June 19, 1813– May 15, 1913. Publisher R. Eisenschmidt. Berlin 1913. pp. 215, 268.
2. ^ Military weekly paper . No. 84 of June 20, 1914. pp. 1883-1884.
3. ↑ Harold J. Gordon Jr .: The Reichswehr and the Weimar Republic. Defense Publishing House Bernard & Graefe. Frankfurt am Main 1959. p. 141
4. ^ Edgar Graf von Matuschka: Organization of the Imperial Army. In Handbook of German Military History 1648–1939. Ed. Military History Research Office , Freiburg (Breisgau), Part VI: Reichswehr and Republic (1918–1933). Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1970, p. 256.