Ernst von Sommerfeld (General, 1850)

Ernst Otto Friedrich von Sommerfeld

Ernst Otto Friedrich von Sommerfeld (born July 31, 1850 in Koblenz , † February 28, 1917 in Eberswalde ) was a Prussian major general .

Life

origin

His parents were the Prussian major general Ernst von Sommerfeld (1795–1863) and his second wife Juliane, née von Geisler (1803–1883).

Military career

When Sommerfeld was 13 years old, his father died in Wernigerode and the son grew up with his single mother. He attended the Wernigerode high school and passed the Abitur there. After graduating from school, he joined the Guard Jäger Battalion of the Prussian Army as an avantageur on April 1, 1870 . With this battalion he took part at the beginning of the war against France in the heavy fighting in August 1870 at St. Privat. The conquest of this city contributed significantly to the success of the Battle of Gravelotte under the then Colonel General Moltke at the French Army at in consequence of Metz encircled and in September decisively in Sedan was beaten. Sommerfeld was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class for his lines . With his promotion to Second Lieutenant he was transferred to the Guard Rifle Battalion on November 15, 1870 .

After the peace treaty, Sommerfeld was commanded from August 1871 to February 1872 for an academic war school course in Berlin. On January 2, 1878, he was transferred to the 4th Guards Regiment on foot and on March 13, 1879, he was promoted to Prime Lieutenant . As such, Sommerfeld graduated from the War Academy from October 1880 to July 1883 and, from May 1, 1884, was assigned to serve with the Great General Staff for two years . There, on 11 February 1886, for the captain promoted, he was on 20 October 1886 position à la suite of his regiment to the teacher at the Military Academy named Metz. Here he taught tactics for the following years . While remaining in this command, Sommerfeld had meanwhile been transferred to the 2nd Nassau Infantry Regiment No. 88 on May 16, 1891 . As a major he resigned on May 14, 1894 in the troop service. He became battalion commander in the 1st Nassau Infantry Regiment No. 87 in Kassel and in this capacity on September 13, 1899, Lieutenant Colonel . From October 1, 1899, this was followed by a position in the staff of the infantry regiment "von Wittich" (3rd Hessian) No. 83 . From April 22, 1902 to September 14, 1904, Sommerfeld was colonel in command of this regiment. Subsequently appointed to commandant of Neu-Breisach , he was given the character of major general on April 10, 1906 in this position . In approval of his resignation request, Sommerfeld was put up for disposal on March 22, 1910 with the statutory pension .

After his departure he lived with his wife in Eberswalde until his death in 1917.

German aristocratic association

On January 15, 1908, in the hotel "Rotes Haus" in Strasbourg, on the initiative of Sommerfeld, the "Baden-Alsace-Lorraine Regional Department" of the nationally organized " German Aristocratic Association " was founded. He was elected first chairman. A story of the cooperative says: “ Although only 18 of the 67 members of the class who were invited appeared, most of the rest let it be known that they were fundamentally interested (...) the first chairman, the 68-year-old officer, major general and fortress commander came from a 1676 Family ennobled in Bohemia (...) as a result of his departure, the royal Prussian lieutenant general Georg Conrad von der Goltz (1852-1930) was elected as the new chairman . "

family

On September 22, 1874 he married Anna Elisabeth von Nathusius, a daughter of Heinrich von Nathusius . The daughter of her cousin Gottlob Engelhard , Gisela Luise Elisabeth von Nathusius, was later to marry his cousin Ernst Wilhelm Ludwig von Sommerfeld (1847–1922).

The couple had seven children, including Anna-Elisabeth (called Annlies), who married the later Chief Consistorial President of Koblenz, Hans Alexander Freiherr von der Goltz (1864–1941) in 1918 .

literature

• Alfred von Besser : Master list of officers and medical officers of the Guard Rifle Battalion. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1914, p. 130.
• Lilly von Nathusius: Johann Gottlob Nathusius (1760–1835) and his descendants as well as his nephew Moritz Nathusius with his descendants. Detmold 1964. pp. 195 f.
• Wolfgang Ollrog (arrangement): Johann Christoph Gatterer, the founder of scientific genealogy. In: Archives for kin research and all related areas with practical research assistance. 47th year. Issue 81/82. February 1981. CA Starke Publishing House. Limburg 1981. No. 3.4.7.6, p. 57 and 3.4.7.6.1-7, p. 83.

References and comments

1. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility. (GHdA) No. 786 from 1985. first line of the von Sommerfeld family. Publisher CA Starke, Limburg 1895.
2. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 6, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1938], DNB 367632810 , p. 486, no. 2106.
3. ^ CH Bill: The aristocratic association in the Reichslanden Alsace-Lorraine. On the history of a two-fold border region of the Westmark from 1888 to 1918. Nobilitas (magazine), 10th year, episodes 48 and 49, Sonderburg 2007, pp. 195–236, see also Institut Deutsche Adelsforschung
4. ↑ a typo, it should read "58 years old"
5. ↑ not to be confused with the older, Prussian Major General Georg-Conrad von der Goltz