Alexander Szurmay

Alexander Szurmay

Alexander Szurmay , since 1917 Baron Szurmay de Uzsok (Hungarian Sandor Szurmay ) (born December 19, 1860 in Boksánbánya ; † February 26, 1945 in Budapest ) was an Austro-Hungarian general of the infantry, Hungarian national defense minister , most recently the royal Hungarian colonel general .

Life

Szurmay was the son of the railway official Michael Szurmay and Josefa Schäfer; from 1895 married to Erna Szenóner. He was born in Caraș-Severin County in 1860 . From 1871 to 1874 he attended secondary school in Szegedin and from 1882 the Ludovika Academy in Budapest.

Military career

He began his military career in 1882 as a common soldier in Honvéd Infantry Battalion No. 18 in Lugosch . In 1884 he was retired as a lieutenant after completing his officer training . From 1886 to 1887 he attended officer courses at the Ludovika Academy and from 1887 to 1889 he graduated from the war school in Vienna . After completing his training as a general staff officer , he was appointed first lieutenant in the staff service of the IV Corps in 1889 . From 1890 he served in the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Defense , in 1891 he took over a department in the Railway Office. Appointed captain in 1892, he served as a major and battalion commander in Honved Regiment No. 4 in Oradea from 1898 . Appointed again to the Ministry of Defense in 1899, he worked the following year as head of the General Staff Department. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1903 and to colonel in 1905 , he was given command of Honved Regiment No. 20 in Nagykanizsa . From autumn 1907 he worked again in the Ministry of Defense, where he rose to head of section and was promoted to major general on December 18, 1910 . When he was appointed field marshal lieutenant on May 11, 1914, after the beginning of the First World War, from October 1914 , he acted as State Secretary in the Honved Ministry of Defense.

In the first World War

Szurmay as General of the Infantry, 1917

In November 1914, after the withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian troops from Galicia to the Carpathian ridge , Szurmay was entrusted with the leadership of the 38th Honved Infantry Division. From December 5, 1914, the unit strengthened to Szurmay Corps prevented the Russian 8th Army from breaking through at the Ushok Pass . On December 8, the 3rd Army under Boroević received the order to attack to the north with the aim of relieving the besieged Przemyśl fortress . As a result of attacks between Limanowa and Lapanow their left was - the group Surmay the command from the south flank and rear of at Neusandez erupted Russians to push and the broken connection with the right wing of the 4th Army restore. The attack on Brusilov on December 28th resulted in the loss of the Ushok pass on New Year's Day, but not the hoped-for breakthrough to northern Hungary. At the beginning of 1915 the group was strengthened with the 53rd Honved Division under General Ronay-Horvath, and command of the 38th Honved Division was transferred to General Stephan Bartheldy. On January 22nd, 1915, the Austrian counterattack from the Ungtal took place, which led to the recapture of the pass on the 27th. Szurmay's attack then stopped in front of the Borynia- Ostry line, where the intervention of the German southern army on the right prevented another crisis. In March 1915, General Brusilov intensified his attempts to break through against the Austro -Hungarian Second Army , which was now defending at the Uschok Pass, and on March 14th the Szurmay Corps was close to collapse. On April 2, Szurmay's troops were directly subordinated to the Southern Army and this reinforcement strengthened the defensive front. At the end of May 1915, the breakthrough at Gorlice-Tarnow led to the withdrawal of the Russians from the Carpathian front. Then deployed as part of the 1st Army , the Szurmay Corps with the 7th and 40th Divisions across the old border at Sokal was destined to advance on Swinjuchi. For the defense of the Uschok pass, he received the addition of "von Uzsok" to his name when he was raised to the baron class.

The Brusilov offensive began on June 4, 1916 , when the front of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army broke up at Lutsk , and Surmay's corps (70th Honved and 7th Infantry Divisions) was also replaced by the Russian XL. Army corps overrun by June 7th and thrown back on the Ikwa. On September 15, the Russian 8th Army launched new attacks, Szurmays Corps was pushed back more than 30 kilometers. His corps remained under constant pressure until October, when the intervention of German reinforcements could cope with the situation. Szurmay remained in his position until February 1917, when he was decommissioned. His large unit, now unnamed as the kuk XXIV Corps, received a new commanding general in FML Lukas .

180th doctorate of the Military Maria Theresa Order on August 17, 1917 in the Villa Wartholz , where Szurmay received the Knight's Cross of this order

Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

In August 1917 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order and in 1918 was appointed holder of the Honvéd Regiment No. 20. On February 19, 1917 he was appointed Royal Hungarian Minister of Defense and on August 21, 1917 he was promoted to General of the Infantry . In October 1918 he resigned from the position of Honved Minister.

After the war

After the revolution in Hungary on February 23, 1919, Prime Minister Karolyi instructed the interior minister to arrest Szurmay because of the threat to the achievements of the bourgeois revolution. In February 1919 he was interned in St. Gotthard (Szentgotthárd) at the behest of the Berinkey government . During the rule of the Soviet Republic he was imprisoned in Budapest together with József Szterényi von Brassó. After the end of the council government , Szurmay served as a liaison officer for the French military mission in Hungary until the end of 1919.

He retired in 1921 and then lived in Budapest, most recently as a military writer. In addition to military-historical works, he worked on writings on hunting, reptiles and most recently dealt with occultism . In 1929 he received the title of vitéz and joined the Vitézi Rend Knight Order, from 1927 he was also a member of the House of Lords. In 1941 he was appointed Royal Hungarian Colonel General , and died in 1945 at the age of 85. He was buried at the Kerepesi cemetery in Budapest.

literature

• T. Balla:  Szurmay von Uzsok, Sándor (Alexander) Frh. (1860–1945), officer and politician. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 14, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2012–, ISBN 978-3-7001-7312-0 , p. 178.

Web links

Commons : Alexander Szurmay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Alexander Szurmay at weltkriege.at