Erich Kästner (veteran)

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Erich Kästner (born March 10, 1900 in Leipzig-Schönefeld ; † January 1, 2008 in Pulheim near Cologne ) was a German lawyer and probably the last surviving German participant ( veteran ) of the First World War who had belonged to the army of the German Empire .

Life

In July 1918, Kästner, who was just 18 years old, was drafted into the military and deployed without training. According to him, he served for a short time in a "Special Battalion Hauck" during the First World War, the existence of which cannot be proven at the moment due to the losses of the Reich Archives . He also reported that he had worked with horses there without direct enemy contact and that he marched in a parade for Kaiser Wilhelm II in November 1918 . Kästner also took part in the Second World War.

During the Weimar Republic he completed a law degree in Leipzig . Probably he belonged to the student groups remote from the republic. In 1924 he was with the dissertation The concerning agricultural leases and rent protective order under special lighting conditions of the former Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from the legal and economic sciences faculty of the University of Jena doctorate . Later he joined the justice system in Lower Saxony . Kästner rose to the higher regional court counselor , in the 1960s he was put into retirement. For his work he was awarded the Lower Saxony Cross of Merit 1st Class.

After the death of Rudolf Christmann , Kästner was the last known German veteran of the First World War still alive. In addition, at the time of his death on January 1, 2008, he was the second oldest German man still alive. Kästner was born with Martha Kästner for 75 years. Fischer (1901–2003) married. The couple had six children - four sons and two daughters - and several grandchildren. He died with his family at the age of 107.

See also

Cenotaph in memory of the last two surviving fighters of the First World War, who died in 2008: the French Lazare Ponticelli (110 years) and the German Erich Kästner (107 years)
Memorial plaque attached to the monument.

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)
  • Charles Kuentz (1897–2005), last surviving German soldier from Alsace during the First World War (French citizen from 1919)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The quiet death of the last veteran . one day , January 24, 2008
  2. ↑ Erich Kästner: The agricultural leasing system and the lease protection order with special illumination of the conditions of the former Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. Dissertation, University of Jena , Faculty of Law and Economics, 1924. DNB: [1]
personal data
SURNAME Kaestner, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Schoenefeld (Leipzig)
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 2008
Place of death Pulheim