Ferdinand von Quast (General)

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Ferdinand von Quast

Ferdinand von Quast (* 18th October 1850 in Radensleben ; † 27. March 1939 in Potsdam ) was a Prussian general of infantry and army commander in the First World War .

Life

family

Manor house in Radensleben

Ferdinand came from an old Anhalt noble family . He was the son of the Prussian state curator Ferdinand von Quast and his wife Maria, born von Diest (1818–1885). She was the daughter of the Prussian Lieutenant General Heinrich von Diest .

Quast married on June 21, 1877 in Brunne with Alexandrine Freiin von Paykull (1857-1930).

Military career

Quast joined the Emperor Franz Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 2 of the Prussian Army on July 19, 1870 , with whom he took part in the war against France . He was promoted to Second Lieutenant on January 12, 1871 and awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class. On September 23, 1879 he was promoted to prime lieutenant . In 1887 he was promoted to captain and appointed company commander in his regiment , then (1894) staff officer ( major ) and battalion commander in the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot . In 1901 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and joined the staff of the Emperor Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 . He became the commander of the Emperor Franz Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 2 after he had been promoted to colonel on April 18, 1903 . As major general he took command of the 39th Infantry Brigade in Hanover on May 21, 1907 . In the following year he was first commander of the 3rd Guard Infantry Brigade in Berlin and then the 2nd Guard Infantry Brigade in Potsdam . On July 27, 1910, Quast was briefly assigned to command the 36th Division in Danzig . After he was promoted to lieutenant general on September 10, 1910 , he was appointed commander of the 6th Division in Brandenburg an der Havel . From March 1 to 21, 1913 he was with the leadership of the IX. Army Corps in Altona before Quast was subsequently appointed Commanding General from March 22, 1913 to January 23, 1917 .

First World War

General v. Quast and Major Gross at the anchoring of the Zeppelin III.

After the Battle of Tirlemont in August 1914, Quast was promoted to General of the Infantry. In 1916 he was deployed on the Somme south of Péronne . Here he commanded a group of the 2nd Army and was noticed by the Abwehr and its organization . In recognition of his services, Wilhelm II awarded him the order Pour le Mérite on August 11, 1916 . On January 24, 1917, he was appointed commanding general of the Guard Corps, whose general command was at Reims . On September 9, 1917, the Kaiser appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the 6th Army . During the Great Battle of France , the troops subordinate to him were able to cross the Leie and conquer Armentières , Bailleul and Merville . For this Quast received the oak leaves for the order Pour le Mérite on April 10, 1918. For the leadership performance of the Saxon troops subordinate to him in this battle, King Friedrich August III entrusted him . on May 7, 1918 with the Commander II class of the Military St. Heinrich Order . In November the army was in the Hermann position .

post war period

After the end of the war and the demobilization of the high command, Quast resigned the command on December 27, 1918 and was transferred to the officers of the army. On January 18, 1919, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the AOK " Grenzschutz Nord " in Königsberg , later Bartenstein . After signing the Versailles Peace Treaty , he submitted his resignation , which was approved on July 7, 1919.

Awards

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 , pp. 82-83.
  • Otto Dziobek: History of the Infantry Regiment Lübeck (3rd Hanseatic) No. 162, first edition 1922.
  • Hanns Möller: The history of the knights of the order “pour le merite” in World War 1914–1918. Volume II: M-Z. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 155–157.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Freiherr von Bock: list of the officers' corps of the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot June 19, 1813-15. May 1913. Verlag R. Eisenschmidt, Berlin 1913, p. 244.
  2. ↑ 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. 105.
  3. ↑ http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0a1/sch/sch1p/kap1_2/kap2_56/para3_1.html#d8e165_rueck
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Prussian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914, p. 81.
personal data
SURNAME Quast, Ferdinand von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Radensleben
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1939
Place of death Potsdam