Alexander von Kluck

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Alexander von Kluck (1916)

Alexander Heinrich Rudolph Kluck , 1909 von Kluck , (* 20th May 1846 in Münster ; † 19th October 1934 in Berlin ) was a Prussian colonel general and army commander in the First World War . At the beginning of the First World War, he commanded the 1st Army , which launched the failed attack on Paris in 1914 . Because of his impatient and unauthorized action, which left a gap in the German front, he is made jointly responsible for the failure of the Schlieffen Plan in the Battle of the Marne and thus the German offensive to the west.

Life

family

Alexander Kluck was one of six sons of the architect Karl Kluck (born September 4, 1803 in Minden; † April 11, 1864) and his wife Elisabeth Kluck, b. Tiedemann († 1881). He attended the Paulinum grammar school in his hometown of Munster.

In 1874 he married Fanny von Donop (1850–1938), with whom he had three sons and a daughter. The actress Molino von Kluck was his granddaughter.

Military career

Kluck joined the Prussian Army in 1865 and served the following year in the German War of 1866 and in the Franco-German War of 1870/71. On November 15, 1887, he became major and on July 1, 1888 , he took over the management of the NCO School in Neubreisach . On April 16, 1889 he became battalion leader in the 3rd Magdeburg Infantry Regiment No. 66 . On March 25, 1893, he became a lieutenant colonel and on January 27, 1896, took over the Landwehr district in Berlin for two years. On April 18, 1896, Kluck was promoted to colonel and from June 15, 1898 led the Fusilier Regiment No. 34 in Bromberg . On May 22, 1899 he took command of the 23rd Infantry Brigade in Gliwice and was promoted to major general on September 22, 1899 . On February 18, 1902, he was given command of the 37th Division in Allenstein and, two weeks later, on March 4, was given the rank of Lieutenant General . Since June 13, 1906 he was commanding general of the 5th Army Corps in Poznan and was appointed general of the infantry on October 16, 1906 . On September 11, 1907, he took over the leadership of the I. Army Corps in Königsberg. From October 1, 1913, he was Inspector General of the VIII Army Inspection in Berlin and was promoted to Colonel General on January 27, 1914 . Kluck was also a member of the Neogermania Berlin fraternity .

First World War, role in the Battle of the Marne (1914)

When the First World War broke out, Kluck was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 1st Army on August 2, 1914; In the High Command of the 1st Army (AOK 1) , Major General Hermann von Kuhl served him as Chief of the General Staff, an offensive spirit like himself. The 1st Army had its position on the extreme right wing of the German army in the west, which, according to the "Great Memorandum" of Colonel General Schlieffen ( Schlieffen Plan ), was to carry out the swift turn through Belgium and northern France towards Paris. The aim of the right wing was to roll up the left wing of the French army, to encompass Paris and thus bring the war in the west to a swift end, so that the German armies of the west would be available to fight the Russian Empire in the east. Kluck's 1st Army was targeted at the lower Seine .

The execution of this plan failed in August / September 1914 due to a large number of different moments - due to organizational and logistical weaknesses of the Schlieffen plan:

  • on the operational consequences of subordinating the 1st Army (Kluck) to the leadership of the 2nd Army with Bülow (August 17-27)
  • of Kluck's unauthorized decision (August 29) to change the direction of his army so that it advanced east - instead of west - of Paris
  • at the OHL, Colonel General von Moltke , who let Kluck do it
  • the unexpectedly strong resistance of the opponents, who flexibly reorganized their forces after a series of heavy defeats (August 21-29) and resumed the offensive in early September. The aerial reconnaissance of the Aéronautique Militaire soon noticed Kluck's change of direction.

Although Kluck's army, which also performed the greatest marching efforts on the extreme right wing, was able to fight its way to within a few kilometers of Paris, when the Anglo-French armed forces began to move into the Battle of the Marne (September 6-9) To advance about 40 kilometers wide gap between the 1st Army (Kluck) and the 2nd Army (Bülow), Moltke broke off the advance in the west and let the German armies go back about 80 km, to behind the Aisne . Although this was only supposed to be a temporary, strategic retreat, the German offensive in the west had failed and a positional war of years began.

Kluck was badly wounded by shrapnel during a front inspection near Vailly-sur-Aisne in March 1915 and retired from active service in October of the following year. On the occasion of his departure, Kaiser Wilhelm II appointed him chief of the 6th Pomeranian Infantry Regiment No. 49 on October 15, 1916 .

After retiring from military service

Grave site in Stahnsdorf

Kluck was a member of the exclusive Wednesday Society founded in November 1915 and of the Outlaw Society since 1920 .

Alexander von Kluck was buried in the hereditary funeral in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf , where his grave is still to this day (Heilig Geist block, garden block VI, hereditary burial 12).

Honors

On January 27, 1909, Kluck was raised to the hereditary nobility . For his achievements he was u. a. the Order of the Black Eagle , the Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle and the Order of Pour le Mérite on March 28, 1915 .

Von-Kluck-Strasse is named after him in his hometown of Münster. Magdeburger Strasse in Berlin-Tiergarten was renamed Kluckstrasse in mid-1935, also with reference to the nearby Bendlerblock .

Fonts

  • The march on Paris and the battle of the Marne, 1914. Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, Berlin 1920 (In English: The march on Paris and the battle of the Marne, 1914. Notes by the Historical Section (Military Branch) of the Committee of Imperial Defense Longmans, Green, New York NY 1920; in Spanish: La marcha sobre Paris y la batalla del Marne, 1914. L. Bernard, Buenos Aires 1921; in French: La marche sur Paris (1914). Payot, Paris 1922 ).
  • Wandering years - wars - shaping. R. Eisenschmidt, Berlin 1929.

literature

Web links

Commons : Alexander von Kluck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Weigl: Our leaders in the world war. Kösel, Kempten 1915, p. 184.
  2. ↑ Eugen Wolbe 1917, p. 6 (see literature )
  3. ↑ Josef Pieper : Nobody knew yet. Autobiographical Notes 1904–1945. Kösel, Munich 1976, p. 34.
  4. ↑ Willy Nolte (Ed.): Burschenschafter Stammrolle. Directory of the members of the German Burschenschaft according to the status of the summer semester 1934. Verlag der Deutschen Burschenschaft, Berlin 1934, p. 250.
  5. ↑ Helmut Kraussmüller, Ernst Anger: The history of the General German Burschenbund (ADB), 1883-1933, and the fate of the former ADB fraternities. (= Historia Academica. Issue 28, ZDB -ID 1053627-9 ). Student History Association of the CC, Giessen 1989, p. 102.
  6. ↑ Georg Dünnwald: Alexander von Kluck: On the trail of a famous relative . In: Aachener Zeitung. June 28, 2014.
  7. ↑ Kluckstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Kluck, Alexander von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kluck, Alexander Heinrich Rudolph von (full name); Kluck, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Colonel General and Commander in Chief in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1934
Place of death Berlin