Adam Brandner

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Adam Brandner Edler von Wolfszahn 1914

Adam Brandner , since 1906 Brandner Edler von Wolfszahn (born April 3, 1857 in Franzfeld , Banat , Austrian Empire , † August 8, 1940 in Weidling / Klosterneuburg ) was an Austro-Hungarian Lieutenant Field Marshal in World War I , commander of the 46th Austro-Hungarian Landwehr Infantry Division, kuk military commander of Krakow and one of the most decorated generals of the Austro-Hungarian army .

Life

During the uprising in the Krivošije in 1882, the kk military was confronted with the difficult terrain of the Orjens and its freedom-loving mountain dwellers. The previous uprising of the Krivošije in 1869 had led to the defeat of the kk military.
Adam Brandner took over the honorary title Edler von Wolfszahn from "Vucji zub", the former tri-border point of Dalmatia, Bosnia and Montenegro

Adam Brandner was born in the Protestant community of Franzfeld in the Banat, a Danube Swabian village in Austria-Hungary , as the son of a farmer. His great-grandfather emigrated from Langensteinbach near Pforzheim , in the margraviate of Baden , in 1790 .

Adam Brandner in 1878 as a lieutenant

From 1867 to 1874 he first attended the military secondary school, then the military training school in Pančevo , from 1874 to 1878 he completed the military cadet school in Vienna , which he graduated as a lieutenant in 1878 .

During his military service he was stationed at the following locations:

In 1878, as a young lieutenant, he took part in the battles of occupation in Bosnia and earned the "highest honorable recognition". In the period 1882/83 he took part in the insurrection fighting in the southern occupation area of Herzegovina , including the battles on the Jastrebica and Vučji zub on 9/10. May 1882 (in German "Wolfszahn". Based on this, Brandner chose the predicate "Noble von Wolfszahn" in 1906). He received the Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with war decoration for special bravery in front of the enemy, as well as promotion to lieutenant .

Adam Brandner in 1884 as first lieutenant in Debreczin

In 1889 he became captain 2nd class, in 1892 captain 1st class, in 1898 major and in 1904 lieutenant colonel . In 1906 he received the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order . In the same year he was also raised to hereditary nobility for his 30 years of meritorious military service - at his request on the basis of an officer's privilege - and rewarded with the nobility title “ Noble von Wolfszahn”.

In 1907 he was promoted to colonel , regiment commander of the kuk Landwehr Infantry Regiment "Klagenfurt" No. 4 in Klagenfurt . Under his leadership, this regiment was transformed into a regiment of the Austro-Hungarian mountain troops , which earned him great merit. In 1911 he received the Order of the Iron Crown 3rd Class for officers and was appointed commander of the kuk 92nd Landwehr Infantry Brigade. The following year he was promoted to major general.

In the world war

At the end of July 1914, his brigade was transferred to the Galician Front as part of the 46th Rifle Division ( FML Karl Nastopil) and marched in the Sandomierz area . In the following battles from August 22nd, his troops advanced towards Lublin as part of the 1st Army (under General Viktor Dankl ) and were able to push back a superior Russian force to the north in the Battle of Kraśnik . Brandner's troop leadership distinguished himself in the association of the I. Corps ( Gen. der Kav. Von Kirchbach ) by strategic skill. For this he was appointed commander of the kuk 46th Rifle Division on September 17, 1914 and received the Knight's Cross of the Leopold Order with war decoration on September 30 , shortly afterwards the Military Merit Cross, 2nd class. From the German army command he received the Iron Cross 2nd class and a little later that of the 1st class for the assistance he gave to a German battalion located in the neighboring front section.

During the Battle of the Vistula at the end of October 1914, his division advanced on Ivangorod on the western bank of the Vistula . Since the simultaneous offensive of the 2nd and 3rd Army at San failed and the lines of communication of the 1st Army were increasingly overstretched, the entire Austro-Hungarian army in early November on the front line had to Krakow - Neusandez -Karpatenpässe retreat. At the beginning of December 1914, an Austro-Hungarian offensive in the Limanowa-Lapanow area stabilized the wavering front, which, like on the German western front, froze to trench warfare.

In February 1915 Brandner had to leave the front because of an injury and, after recovering, became the inspecting general of the replacement troops, responsible for the recruitment and training of new troops for the Eastern Front. On May 21, 1915 he was promoted to Lieutenant Field Marshal and designated as a division commander for the South-West Front. In autumn he was appointed kuk military commander of Krakow . Krakow was the largest and most important military district in the east at that time, as it was the hub for the complete supply of all material and troops for the entire Austrian eastern front.

The establishment of adequate military cemeteries was a matter close to his heart. For this he received in 1917 the medal of honor 1st class with war decoration for services to the Red Cross. In May 1918 he was retired for health reasons. In recognition of his services, he received the Commander's Cross of the Franz Josef Order with a star and war decoration and the Grand Cross of the Saxon Albrecht Order with swords from the King of Saxony .

retirement

After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , Adam von Brandner lived as a respected and highly decorated retired war veteran, initially in Vienna at Rennweg 4 at Belvedere Palace. He spent the last two years of his life in Weidling near Klosterneuburg . When he died on August 8, 1940 (from the consequences of a severe stroke that he suffered from sheer joy when France had to surrender to the German Wehrmacht in May 1940 ), he did not receive a state funeral from the German Reich , which he was granted by military rank because he was against the annexation of Austria to the German Reich before 1938 .

His grave is in the Protestant cemetery in Vienna's 10th district.

Generals, from field marshal lieutenant upwards, were addressed with the title "Excellency" until 1918.

The "Excellency Brandner Edler von Wolfszahn-Marsch" dedicated to him (Op. 66, Vienna, undated) was written by Franz Lakomy, Kapellmeister in Infantry Regiment No. 57.

family

Adam Brandner with his family in Olomouc in 1917

His wife Alice von Brandner geb. Bauer, was the daughter of a Viennese kuk civil servant who had been transferred to the provinces, to Kronstadt (Transylvania). Her brother, Moritz Bauer, was a highly decorated Vice Admiral in the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

His eldest son Wilhelm (1895–1979) served as a frigate lieutenant on various torpedo boats of the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the First World War . His two younger sons were still cadets and cadet students at the end of the war .

Military awards

Field Marshal Lieutenant Adam Brandner in gala uniform 1918

photos

  • Adam Brandner as a young lieutenant in Großbetschkerek in 1878

  • Adam Brandner as Lieutenant 1882 in Ragusa (Dubrovnik)

  • First Lieutenant Adam Brandner 1884 (seated far right) in Herrmannstadt

  • First Lieutenant Adam Brandner 1888 (seated far right) in Kronstadt

  • Adam Brandner as a hunter 1887

  • Adam Brandner as captain in Vienna in 1892

  • Captain Adam Brandner with his wife Alice geb. Farmer in Pola / Trieste in 1894

  • Adam Brandner as captain in Pola in 1896

  • Adam Brandner as major in Pilsen in 1898 with son Wilhelm

  • Colonel Adam Brandner, commander of the 4th Landwehr Mountain Rifle Regiment Klagenfurt in 1909

  • Adam Brandner in 1910 with Wilhelm Brandner

  • Major General Adam Brandner 1912

  • A Russian company of Major General Adam Brandner is captured while exploring the Galician Eastern Front

  • Major General Adam Brandner on the Galician front in autumn 1914, during an assault by his division.

  • Adam Brandner as major general at the front in 1914

  • Field Marshal Lieutenant Adam Brandner (2nd from right), military commander of Krakow, in 1916 with a guard of honor in front of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II.

  • Adam Brandner in 1916 as military commander

  • Field Marshal Lieutenant Adam Brandner, Military Commander of Cracow, on December 16, 1917 in Olomouc, with Emperor Karl I in the carriage

  • Field Marshal Lieutenant Adam Brandner Military Commander of Krakow in 1917

  • Adam Brandner as field marshal lieutenant in Olomouc in 1917

  • Field Marshal Lieutenant Adam Brandner in Poland in 1917

swell

literature

  • Memories of his son Erich Brandner. Typescript. Moosburg, Carinthia, Austria.
  • Memories of his son Wilhelm Brandner. Typescript. Vienna, Austria.

Web links

Commons : Adam Brandner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Brandner, Adam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brandner Edler von Wolfszahn, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian field marshal lieutenant
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Franzfeld, Banat
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1940
Place of death Weidling (municipality of Klosterneuburg)