Charles Kuentz

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Charles Kuentz (born February 18, 1897 in Ranspach , Alsace , † April 7, 2005 in Colmar ) was an Alsatian war veteran of the First World War . Until his death he was probably the oldest surviving member of the German Army. Kuentz served in both the German and French armies and changed nationality four times in his life .

Kuentz was born in 1897 as the son of a railroad worker in Alsace, which had been annexed to the German Empire since the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, and was a high school student in Metz at the beginning of the war . In June 1916 he was drafted to Jüterbog and trained as an artilleryman . Because of his origins in Alsace (at that time the Alsatians were suspected of espionage and infidelity to the imperial army), he and other Alsatians were transferred to Russia on the basis of a secret order from the Prussian War Ministry of March 15, 1915 . In the spring of 1917 he was relocated to France and took part in all major battles until the end of the war, in Flanders , the Marne and Champagne.

After the First World War, Alsace became French again. Charles Kuentz opted for French citizenship and became an inspector at the post office . In 1939, when the Second World War broke out , he was drafted as a Frenchman and served in a telecommunications unit until he was released.

In the autumn of 2004 Kuentz met Harry Patch , the last surviving member of the British Army of the First World War , in Ypres . The meeting was filmed for the BBC documentary The last Tommy .

Charles Kuentz died on April 7, 2005 at the age of 108 years and 48 days in Colmar.

Web links

See also

The last World War I veterans in other countries included:

  • Florence Green (1901–2012), last British veteran of the First World War
  • Frank Buckles (1901–2011), last American veteran of the First World War
  • Claude Stanley Choules (1901–2011), British veteran of the First and Second World Wars (Australian citizen from 1926)
  • Henry Allingham (1896–2009), last veteran of the Royal Navy of the First World War
  • Harry Patch (1898–2009), last British Army veteran of the First World War
  • Louis de Cazenave (1897–2008), last World War I veteran who took part in the fighting as a French citizen
  • Lazare Ponticelli (1897–2008), last veteran of the First World War in the French Foreign Legion (French citizen from 1939)
  • Franz Künstler (1900–2008), last surviving veteran of Austria-Hungary during World War I (German citizen from 1946)
  • Erich Kästner (1900–2008), last surviving German soldier of the First World War

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c www.spiegel.de:The Western Front - The Last Man, accessed July 27, 2009
  2. ↑ Georg Diez: One of ten million , FAZ, July 31, 2004
  3. ↑ Harry, 106, meets Charles, 107. What a German and a British veteran had to say to each other in Flanders in 2004
  4. ↑ 'With a handshake we said more about peace than anything else ever could' The Telegraph UK, November 14, 2004
personal data
SURNAME Kuentz, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German war veteran of the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Ranspach
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 2005
Place of death Colmar