Bernhard Bronsart von Schellendorff

Bernhard Bronsart von Schellendorff (born March 1, 1866 in Berlin , † January 10, 1952 in Bockhorn , Plön district ) was a German general staff officer who had numerous assignments at high command levels on the western front during the First World War, and above all through his role as chief of staff of the commanding general Max von Gallwitz became known in the Battle of Verdun . He was dismissed as major general in 1919 and was last characterized (1939) as lieutenant general .

Life

origin

Bernhard Bronsart von Schellendorff, lord of Greater and Little Ticino, came from the old Prussian noble and officer family Bronsart von Schellendorff and was the eldest son of the Prussian general and Minister of War (1893-1896) Walther Bronsart von Schellendorff and his wife Harriet Helene Donner (1841-1917).

Military career

Bronsart von Schellendorff joined the 2nd Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Dragoon Regiment No. 18 in Parchim in 1886 as a one-year volunteer and became second lieutenant the following year . From 1888 he was assigned to the Magdeburg Cuirassier Regiment "von Seydlitz" No. 7 in Halberstadt, initially for reserve service, then from 1893 in the rank of Prime Lieutenant (since November 14, 1892) as adjutant and from 1896 as general staff officer. In 1899 he became the staff of the XI. Army corps transferred to Kassel and promoted to Rittmeister in 1900 . From 1901 to 1903 he commanded a squadron of his regiment of origin in Parchim and from September 1903 worked for the Great General Staff in Berlin. In the following years he went through the stations of a general staff officer in various command structures, namely in the command of the XVI. Army Corps in Metz (1903/04), the VII. Army Corps in Münster (1904–1906), the 20th Division in Hanover (1906–1908), with the III. Army inspection also in Hanover (1908–1911) and from March 20, 1911 at the General Inspection of the Military Transport System in Berlin. Since the Emperor's birthday on January 27, 1907, he held the rank of major. In April 1912 he took over the troop command, which is indispensable for the continuation of the general staff career,   and was commander of the Kurmärkische Dragoon Regiment No. 14 in Colmar . On June 16, 1913, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

At the beginning of the war in August 1914, he was assigned as Chief of Staff to the General Command of the XIV Reserve Corps , which was initially subordinate to the 7th Army and operated in Alsace , but at the end of September was transferred to the Somme and subordinated to the 2nd Army . In the 2nd Army Bronsart worked from January 1915 as chief of staff of the " Army Department Gaede " and from May 1915 of the VII Reserve Corps under General Johann von Zwehl . In this position he became a colonel on July 24, 1915 .

On March 28, 1916 he became Chief of Staff of General Max von Gallwitz , who as artillery strategist and commander of the "West Attack Group" played an essential role in the 5th Army in the Battle of Verdun and then the "Heeresgruppe Gallwitz" in the Battle of the Somme “And was given supreme command of the 2nd Army. For his work as the "right hand man" under von Gallwitz near Verdun and in coordinating the defense south of the Somme, Bronsart von Schellendorff was awarded the military order Pour le Mérite on September 16, 1916 . In October 1916 Bronsart went to the " Strantz Army Department " as chief of staff , which belonged to the 5th Army and held the promontory of Saint-Mihiel south of Verdun , which Gallwitz recognized as particularly endangered in the aftermath of the battle. In December 1916, Max von Gallwitz himself returned to Verdun for the 5th Army, whose command he held until shortly before the end of the war.

Bronsart von Schellendorff took over on March 26, 1918 during the spring offensive 1918 for a month in command of the 16th Infantry Brigade, which was part of the 8th Division with the " Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria " (the former Gallwitz group) as part of the (new) 1st Army was used in trench warfare in Flanders. On September 20, 1918, Bernhard Bronsart von Schellendorff was promoted to major general and one week later took command of the city of Kiev in the Ukraine and the newly formed 93rd Reserve Infantry Brigade there. As Chief of Staff of the "Army Group Kiev" under Colonel General Count von Kirchbach , Bronsart von Schellendorff remained in service until February 1919 and then received command of the 32nd Infantry Brigade in Hanover until the end of September 1919. On October 27, 1919, he left the army.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War and the Battle of Tannenberg , he was awarded the character of Lieutenant General on August 27, 1939 .

family

Bernhard Bronsart von Schellendorff married Gisel (l) a Countess von Hardenberg (1869–1933) on July 10, 1889; The three sons Walter (* 1890 in Quedlinburg), Albrecht Achilles (* 1893 in Halberstadt ) and Carl (* 1897 in Berlin) come from this marriage .

Bernhard Bronsart von Schellendorff had several male relatives of about the same age who were also staff officers in World War I and in some cases held prominent positions. His younger brother Walter Siegfried Bronsart von Schellendorff (1871-1963), who, like Bernhard, was awarded the Pour le Mérite during the course of the war , commanded the Guard Reserve Rifle Battalion during the march through Belgium in mid-August 1914 and was in the run-up to the bombardment of the Fortress Namur under General von Gallwitz largely responsible for the cruel attacks against the Belgian civilian population after alleged fire attacks in Andenne , which took place on 20./21. August 1914 more than 250 people were killed. He left the army after the war as a lieutenant colonel . A second brother was Hans Heinrich Bronsart von Schellendorff (1874-1938), who as a major on October 25, 1918 also received the Pour le Mérite .

Two years older than Bernard was his cousin (from 1887 at the same time Schwager) Friedrich Bronsart of Schelldorf (called Fritz), a childhood friend and later supporters Erich Ludendorff , who from 1914 to 1917 Chief of Staff of the Ottoman army and right hand of the Young Turk army chief and war minister Enver Pasha was . Bernhard's sister Veronica Bronsart von Schellendorff (1867–1968) was married to him. Friedrich's brother Wilhelm Bronsart von Schellendorf, born in 1861, the senior among the cousins, fell as major and commander of the III. Battalions in the Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 59 at the beginning of the war on September 11, 1914 near Osnagorow in Russian Poland ; Georg Paul Heinrich Bronsart von Schellendorf (1869–1933), another brother of Friedrich, was also an officer and left the army as a lieutenant colonel.

Walter Heinrich Diomed Bronsart von Schellendorff (1873–1942), a common cousin of all named, was like Bernhard a Prussian general staff officer and made it major. He was the father of 1944 as commander of a tank brigade in the Second World War at the age of 38 years killed in France Knight cross carrier colonel Heinrich Walter Bronsart of Schellendorff , who was promoted posthumously to major general.

literature

• Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War . Volume 1: A-G. Biblio Verlag, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 .

Web links

• Bernhard Bronsart von Schellendorff's military curriculum vitae (based on the ranking and quarter lists), accessed on November 2, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holger Afflerbach : Kaiser Wilhelm II as Supreme Warlord in World War I: Sources from the military environment of the Kaiser 1914–1918. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2005, p. 1012 ( limited preview on Google Books ).
2. ↑ Photos of the family grave at the Wankendorf cemetery in Plön; Main series ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Kaestner & von Urach's Genealogical Aristocratic Database , accessed on November 2, 2016. 
3. ^ Manfred Nebelin : Ludendorff: Dictator in the First World War. Siedler Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 99 f.
4. ^ German Werth : Verdun. The battle and the myth. Lübbe Verlag, Cologne 1979, p. 179 ff .; 277 ff. And ö.
5. ^ German Werth: Verdun. The battle and the myth. Cologne 1979, p. 279.
6. ↑ Gisella Adelheid Sophie Oskara, Countess von Hardenberg on Geneall.net , accessed on November 2, 2016.
7. ↑ John Horne, Alan Kramer: German war horrors 1914: The controversial truth. Hamburg 2003, pp. 56-59.
8. ↑ Annika Spilker: Gender, religion and ethnic nationalism: The doctor and anti-Semite Mathilde von Kemnitz-Ludendorff (1877–1966). Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2013, p. 208.
9. ^ German loss lists of the First World War: Edition 94 of October 11, 1914 (Prussia 48), p. 1035.