Felix von Bothmer

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Felix Graf von Bothmer
Felix Graf von Bothmer

Felix Ludwig Graf von Bothmer (* 10. December 1852 in Munich , † 18th March 1937 ) was a Bavarian colonel general in the First World War .

Life

family

Felix came from the Bothmer family . He was the son of the later Bavarian Lieutenant General and Quartermaster General Max Graf von Bothmer (1816–1878) and his wife Laura, née von Reichert. Bothmer married Auguste von Baldinger on July 22, 1882, with whom he had two daughters.

Military career

After graduating from the Royal Pagerie he entered on February 12, 1871 as Junker in the Infantry Regiment body of the Bavarian army one. On November 28, 1871, he was promoted to lieutenant in the 14th Infantry Regiment . From January 1, 1873, he returned to the infantry body regiment. Bothmer graduated from November 1, 1875 to 1878 the military academy , which pronounced him the qualification for the general staff, the adjutantage and the subject. From November 3, 1880 to December 1, 1882 he was used as a battalion adjutant, where he was promoted to prime lieutenant on November 23, 1882 . On December 1, 1882, he was in command of the General Staff for a year . On March 24, 1885, he was deployed as an adjutant in the 1st Infantry Brigade under the position à la suite of the Infantry Body Regiment. On October 31, 1888, he was promoted to captain and at the same time appointed company commander in the infantry body regiment. On April 24, 1890, he was transferred to the General Staff of the II Army Corps in Würzburg and on April 25, 1891 to the Central Office of the General Staff. After his promotion to major (September 20, 1893), he was posted to the General Staff until October 1, 1895 . On September 20, 1895, the order was issued for use in the General Staff of the 1st Division . On July 20, 1896, he was appointed battalion commander in the infantry body regiment. From March 17, 1897, he was appointed lieutenant colonel and regular staff officer of the infantry regiment. On January 24, 1899, he took up the post of department chief in the Army General Staff. Promoted to Colonel on July 21, 1900 , Count von Bothmer was appointed Commander of the Infantry Leib Regiment on August 14, 1901 . Meanwhile, on September 26, 1901, he was appointed royal chamberlain . He gave the regiment on May 18, 1903 to Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein . On the same day he was promoted to major general and took command of the 2nd Infantry Brigade . With the promotion to lieutenant general on September 15, 1905, he was appointed commander of the 2nd division in Augsburg . From December 4, 1909, he was the captain general of the Hartschiere life guards . On March 26, 1910, he was put up for disposition while retaining his position . On May 4, 1910 he was appointed General of the Infantry . From October 28, 1912 he was à la suite of the Infantry Body Regiment.

First World War

Felix Graf von Bothmer in the magazine Die Woche , 1915

Due to an illness, Bothmer was unusable at the beginning of the First World War. On December 2, 1914, he took over the 6th Reserve Division . On December 26, 1914, he became the commanding general of the II Reserve Corps and led its general command (without Bavarian troops ) at the beginning of March 1915 as the first Bavarian troop unit in the eastern war zones. On March 23, 1915 he took over, or rather founded the Bothmer Corps . He quickly took the initiative and stormed the Zwinin , a very well developed base , on April 9, 1915, in snow and ice . This was mainly due to his precise strategic preparation and command of the attack as well as the deliberate use of all forces of the infantry, artillery and pioneers. For this he received the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order No. 60 (number during the First World War) “because of the storming of the Zwinin, which was prepared with excellent expertise and successfully managed”. In the course of the southern army advancing through the Carpathian Mountains, he and his corps broke through the Russian positions at the Stryi / Lemberg traffic junction on May 31, 1915 and advanced east of the Dniester on June 6, 1915 , which was the prerequisite for the further advance towards Lemberg was created. For this he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order “because of his extraordinarily proven leadership ability in the breakthrough of the Russian positions in the Battle of Stryi”. On July 1, 1915, he was also awarded the order Pour le Mérite .

On July 6, 1915, he was given command of the Southern Army. The German and Austro-Hungarian units he took over carried the designation "Corps Bothmer" from July 7, 1915. During the offensive of the Russian general Brusilov at Lutsk-Brody in early June 1916 he succeeded in holding the position with the southern army ; on the other hand the Russian army broke into its Austrian neighbors. On October 18, 1916, General Field Marshal von Hindenburg presented the Bavarian King Ludwig III. the proposal to award the Grand Cross to the Military Max Joseph Order. Among other things, Hindenburg stated that the army under Bothmer's leadership resisted enemy troops in June 1916, while southern parts of the Eastern Front collapsed. Hindenburg praised the Count by giving him “recognition of his courage and perseverance in these difficult days”. On November 5, 1916, King Ludwig III. the Grand Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order in Galicia . In August 1916 he held the position again, but then had to move his troops back from the Strypa to the Zlota Lipa . Because of his persistence in this situation, it was found that he had prevented the collapse of the entire section of the front. In the summer of 1917, the Southern Army prevented the Russian army from advancing further (whose Kerensky offensive failed), which led to numerous war casualties, especially on the Russian side. On July 19, 1917, he was successfully involved in the counteroffensive. As Commander-in-Chief of the German Southern Army, he received the oak leaves for the order Pour le Mérite on the battlefield of Buczacz from Kaiser Wilhelm II .

On February 4, 1918, he was given command of the 19th Army that was newly established in Lorraine (section from Metz to Elfringen (Avricourt)) . He was able to hold this section until the armistice . With effect from April 9, 1918, he was promoted to Colonel General. At the end of the war and after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army , he was supposed to help secure the German southern border, but this was no longer implemented. On November 8, 1918, he was relieved of army command and made available to the Bavarian Ministry for Military Affairs . After the army high command was demobilized on December 18, 1918, he retired from active service.

In addition to the medals mentioned, he was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown and the Military Cross of Merit 1st Class by Emperor Franz Joseph, and by Emperor Karl with the large gold medal on the ribbon of the medal of bravery . He also received from the Saxon King Friedrich August III. on August 30, 1917 the commander of the 2nd class of the Military Order of St. Henry .

post war period

In December 1918 he took over the post of Deputy Grand Master of the Military Max Joseph Order. The Ludwig Maximilians University made him an honorary citizen on December 10, 1927 . On his 75th birthday, the bronze plaque for the years 1914 to 1918 was unveiled on the Feldherrnhalle , on which his name was also engraved. Colonel General a. D. Graf von Bothmer died on March 18, 1937 in Munich. Against his and the family's wishes, Hitler ordered a state funeral. It was agreed with the family that the coffin should only be decorated with flags of the Imperial and Royal Bavarian Army. In fact, the flags were brought from the National Museum especially for the occasion. During the funeral service in the courtyard of the Prince Arnulf barracks in Munich, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria was among the numerous guests .

literature

Web links

Commons : Felix von Bothmer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Othmar Hackl : The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck´sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-10490-8 , p. 411.
  2. ↑ Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: The royal Bavarian military Max Joseph order. Self-published by the kb Militär-Max-Joseph-Order, Munich 1966, p. 104.
  3. ↑ Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: The royal Bavarian military Max Joseph order. Self-published by the kb Militär-Max-Joseph-Order, Munich 1966, p. 108f.
  4. ↑ Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: The royal Bavarian military Max Joseph order. Self-published by the kb Militär-Max-Joseph-Order, Munich 1966, p. 161.
  5. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 79
personal data
SURNAME Bothmer, Felix von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bothmer, Felix Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian Colonel General
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1937
Place of death Munich