Ewald von Lochow

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General Ewald von Lochow
Kaiser Wilhelm and his army leaders (postcard from 1915):
Ewald von Lochow (4th row, left)

Ewald Constantin Ferdinand Friedrich von Lochow (born April 1, 1855 in Petkus , † April 11, 1942 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ) was a Prussian infantry general .

Life

family

He was the son of the manor owner Ferdinand von Lochow († 1865) on Petkus and Kaltenhausen and his wife Agnes, née von Schlieben . His older brother was the well-known seed breeder Ferdinand von Lochow . Ewald von Lochow married Cäcilie Bilharz in 1895.

Military career

Coming from the cadet corps, Lochow joined the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot in Potsdam in 1873 as a second lieutenant . After attending the military academy , he was transferred to the General Staff as a captain . He also worked as a general staff officer of the II Army Corps in Stettin and the 16th Division in Trier before he was appointed company commander in the 5th Westphalian Infantry Regiment No. 53 in Cologne .

In 1893 he was reassigned to the General Staff. In 1897 he took over as commander of the Magdeburg Fusilier Regiment No. 36 . Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was first entrusted with the management of a department head in the War Ministry in 1900 and was appointed head of the army department the following year. In this position, Lochow was promoted to colonel on April 22, 1902 , and on October 24, 1903, appointed commander of the 4th Guards Regiment on Foot . On February 13, 1906 initially charged with the command of the 19th Infantry Brigade in Posen , Lochow was on June 14, 1906 with simultaneous promotion to major general commander of this brigade . When he was assigned to the War Ministry, he gave up this large unit again after only three months, and on October 3, 1906, was appointed director of the Army Administration Department. With the promotion to lieutenant general Lochow became commander of the 2nd Guard Division in Berlin.

In 1912 he became the commanding general of III. Army Corps and promoted to General of the Infantry on June 16, 1913 .

First World War

After the beginning of the First World War, Lochow led his corps within the 1st Army through neutral Belgium . After first contact with the enemy at Tirlemont , the advance on St. Quentin followed. On August 24th, his corps carried the brunt of the battle against the British in the battle of Mons . This was followed by the advance via Le Cateau to the Marne, where his corps formed the right flank of the 1st Army on September 8th. After the retreat of the Marne began for his corps trench warfare on the Aisne . On January 12, 1915, the III. Corps returned all French attacks north of Soissons . On January 14, he was awarded the order Pour le mérite in recognition of this by Wilhelm II . From May to July 1915 he led an army group consisting of several corps between La Bassée and Arras and prevented the French General Foch from attempting a breakthrough in the direction of Douai .

In October 1915 the III. Army Corps moved to the Southeast Front for the campaign against Serbia. In the so-called Serbian campaign it fought at Rajka , Palanka position , Rača and Lepenica . In recognition of the achievements of the corps, the general received the oak leaves for Pour le mérite on November 13, 1915.

From February 21, 1916, his corps was used again on the western front in front of Verdun . Exhausted from the heavy attacks, the corps was withdrawn from the attack front in mid-March. Leaving his position as commanding general of III. Army Corps, Lochow was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Assault Group East in front of Verdun on April 15, 1916 . When Crown Prince Wilhelm took over the command of the Army Group named after him on November 25, 1916 , Lochow was his successor as Commander-in-Chief of the 5th Army . On December 15, 1916, the general led a long-prepared, but unsuccessful attack, which ended with the heaviest defeat of the 5th Army to date. The enemy retook Vacherauville , part of the “Pfefferrück”, the “Höhe 378” and Bezonvaux .

When Lochow was therefore to be relieved of his position and transferred to the army officers, he submitted his resignation and was put up for disposition in its approval on January 29, 1917 . At the same time, Wilhelm II recognized his merits with the award of the Grand Cross of the Red Eagle Order with Swords on January 29, 1917 and the position à la suite of the Leib Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich Wilhelm III." (1st Brandenburg) No. 8 in Frankfurt (Oder) .

Awards

The National Socialists named Lochowdamm in Berlin-Wilmersdorf after him in 1937 ; a newly laid road along the newly built army site administration (military district command) on Hohenzollerndamm ; according to the earlier III. Army Corps Berlin. The designation lasted until the end of 1968; today Fritz-Wildung-Strasse .

literature

  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: A-L. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 686–688.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 2: HO. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2003, ISBN 3-7648-2516-2 , pp. 359-361.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Zimmer-Vorhaus: 1813/1913. Officer tribe list of the Infantry Regiment von Lützow (1. Rheinisches) No. 25 and his tribe, the Kgl. Pr. Von Lützow Free Corps. Otto Beckmann Verlag, Berlin 1913, p. 186.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. Ed .: Prussian War Ministry. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1914. p. 59.
  3. ↑ Lübeck city archives in terms of Senate files: Directory of the owner of the Lübeckischen Hanseatic Cross.
  4. ↑ Lochowdamm . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
personal data
SURNAME Lochow, Ewald von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lochow, Ewald Constantin Ferdinand Friedrich von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Petkus
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1942
Place of death Berlin-Charlottenburg