Arthur Philipp Flechtner

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Arthur Philipp Flechtner (born March 24, 1858 in Langenbielau , Reichenbach district ; † June 9, 1936 in Schweidnitz ) was a Prussian major general .

Childhood and youth

He was born the son of the Langenbielau factory owner Ferdinand Gottlieb Flechtner (1811–1867) in Silesia. His father had very successfully introduced the mechanical looms from England to Silesia, which had not been used in Germany until then , and had thus become a respected and wealthy entrepreneur. His mother Agnes Gründler, the second wife of the father, came from the manor Herrenvorwerk near Reichenbach . Flechtner spent a materially carefree childhood with his nine siblings in the Silesian Owl Mountains. He attended elementary school in Langenbielau, later the Magdalenen grammar school in Breslau and a grammar school in Waldenburg .

Military career

German artillery team around 1900
Trench warfare on the Aisne, here German trenches in 1917
German gun crew in the First World War

In 1878 Flechtner joined the Field Artillery Regiment No. 5 of the Prussian Army as a flag junior and was assigned to the Riding Department in Sagan . After promotion to ensign , he attended the war school in Neisse and the artillery school in Jüterbog near Berlin . After completing his training, he was promoted to second lieutenant.

The death of his first wife (Christine Schlittgen) in September 1888 shook him badly. Flechtner asked for a one-year vacation - very unusual at the time - which he used in 1890/91 to travel to North America , East Africa , India and the Far East ( Japan , Hong Kong , China ). Although his superiors disapproved of the project, he received a “large passport letter” for his passport from the emperor , in which it was noted: “... We Wilhelm II, Emperor and King by God's grace ... recommend our Prime Minister Arthur Flechtner to the government in whose country he is staying just stop, for faithful protection and ask to support him if necessary with funds, yes, even if it has to be with armed force ... ”Accordingly, the support abroad was great. In Colombo (at that time Ceylon ) Flechtner was a long guest at the local consul Philipp Freudenberg (* 1843), in Hong Kong he was invited to the then controversial wife of the representative of the German Empire at the Beijing court and writer Elisabeth von Heyking .

After returning from the trip, Flechtner was transferred to Field Artillery Regiment No. 20 in Posen . Around 1893 he became battery chief of the field artillery regiment “Prince August of Prussia” (1st Litthauisches) No. 1 in Insterburg . Further assignments in the field artillery regiment No. 22 and as a major with the staff in the 1st East Prussian field artillery regiment No. 16 followed.

During his time as commander of the 1st division in the field artillery regiment No. 19 in Erfurt , the then government capital of the province of Saxony , in 1906 the regiment was equipped with the newly developed howitzers instead of the cannons previously used .

On March 22, 1913, Flechtner was transferred to Strasbourg , Alsace, as commander of the 2nd Upper Alsatian Field Artillery Regiment No. 51, which was set up in 1899 . This association was part of the 30th Field Artillery Brigade of the 30th Division, also stationed in Strasbourg . The regiment, previously led by Colonel Mohn (1863–1921), was in a poor state of training, as the commander had also been a wing adjutant to the King of Württemberg and had therefore seldom stayed in Strasbourg. When he took up his duties, Flechtner had the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the time up to the outbreak of war, Flechtner trained his regiment intensively and "exemplary". On April 22, 1914, he was promoted to colonel .

First World War

Flechtner went to war with the regiment he had trained and was initially deployed following the course of the war in the war of movement in Alsace-Lorraine , later in the tough, human and material-devastating positional battles on the Aisne , in Ypres and also at the Battle of Verdun .

In many skirmishes and battles, in which the unit was often deployed close to the front or directly in the main battle line, the regiment proved itself. Jentsch notes that Flechtner led the association “near Mulhouse (August 9 and 15, 1914) and Saarburg , on the Chemin des Dames ridge , before Ypres and near Verdun to fame and honor”. The regiment commander was the first member of the regiment to receive the Iron Cross II. Class - for a reconnaissance ride with enemy contact to Raon-l'Étape on August 25, 1914. On October 1, 1914, he was awarded the First Class Cross.

Flechtner was appointed commander of the 30th Field Artillery Brigade on September 12, 1915, to which, in addition to his previous regiment, the Strasbourg Field Artillery Regiment No. 84 belonged. His successor as regimental commander was Lieutenant Colonel von Griesheim. This post of brigade commander was also linked to the temporary exercise of the duty general . In addition to artillery, infantry units were subordinate to the general on duty. On July 25, 1916 Flechtner was appointed Deputy General Command at the XV. Army Corps transferred.

Wounding and retirement

In November 1916, after a gunshot wound, Flechtner was transferred by hospital train to Berlin's Elisabeth Hospital in Lützowstrasse. There he was treated by Professor Sauerbruch . On May 1, 1917, he was transferred to the army officers (later such a time off was referred to as a reserve leader ) and his retirement from active service with promotion to major general. Flechtner, however, was re-used as a zD -Offizier and took over the command of the substitute departments of the XIV. And the XV. Army Corps . In recognition of his services, he received the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class with swords, on December 17, 1917 . Until the end of the war, Flechtner was still the inspector of the replacement artillery in Karlsruhe.

After the war he retired to his Silesian homeland and retired in Schweidnitz. He died there and was later buried in Langenbielau / Silesia.

family

Flechtner was married twice. On August 15, 1885, he married Wilhelmine Christine Schlittgen (1857-1888), daughter of Anton Gustav Schlittgen, an ironworks owner and councilor from Kotzenau , with whom he had two sons. Egon Arthur Flechtner (1886–1914), First Lieutenant at Sea , fell on November 4, 1914 when his ship, the large cruiser SMS Yorck , ran into a minefield in the Jade Bay near the war port Wilhelmshaven in the fog . The second son, Edgar Arthur Flechtner (1888–1968), later became a partner in his grandfather's GF Flechtner textile factory.

After Christine Flechtner died at the age of 31, in 1896 he married Franziska (Fanny) Eckard (1875–1963), daughter of senior government councilor Viktor Eckard and Juliane Witte from Lüneburg . There were three children from this marriage: the singer Ilse Flechtner (1897–1980), Anne Katrin Flechtner, married Baroness von Dobeck (1900–1978), and Eckard Flechtner (1905–1991), head forester in Göttingen and Wennigsen / Deister . The latter married Ingeborg von Thaer, daughter of the governor of Silesia, Georg von Thaer .

literature

  • Ilse Flechtner: The Flechtner in Langenbielau / Silesia. Self-published, Mühlheim / Baden 1962.
  • Ilse Flechtner: Major General Arthur Flechtner, Festschrift for the 100th birthday. Mühlheim / Baden, March 18, 1936.
  • Karl Essich (former captain and adjutant of Arthur Flechtner at FAR No. 51): Obituary for major general ret . D. Flechtner. Pforzheim, Wartberghof, June 1936.
  • Regimental history of the 2nd Upper Alsatian Field Artillery Regiment No. 51 in the World War 1914/1918. Bernard & Graefe publishing house, Berlin 1936.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In contrast to the mobile departments or batteries, in which the operating teams did not have their own riding horses, but had to sit on wagons or carriages , the numerically smaller riding units were equipped with a large number of horses and were accordingly faster to use.
  2. ↑ a b according to Ilse Flechtner: Major General Arthur Flechtner . P. 2, see bibliography
  3. ↑ a b c according to Botsch (deputy leader of the officers' association of the former 2nd Upper Alsatian Field Artillery Regiment 51), obituary. P. 3.
  4. ↑ a b according to Lieutenant Colonel a. D. Jentsch, obituary, p. 2.
  5. ^ Military weekly paper . No. 57/58 of April 26, 1914, p. 1239.
  6. ↑ a b c according to Regimental history. Bernard & Graefe, see bibliography
  7. ↑ according to Karl Essich, Lieutenant Colonel ret. D., certificate , Pforzheim, August 13, 1953
  8. ↑ Botsch also speaks of the fact that Flechtner, before using it with the XV. Army Corps was still commander of Field Artillery Brigade 8, according to Botsch (Deputy Leader of the Association of Officers of the former 2nd Upper Alsace Field Artillery Regiment 51), obituary p. 3.
  9. ^ Military weekly paper. No. 75 of December 22, 1917, p. 1901
personal data
SURNAME Flechtner, Arthur Philipp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian major general
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenbielau , Reichenbach district (Eulengebirge)
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1936
Place of death Schweidnitz