Franz Kalser von Maasfeld

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Franz Kalser von Maasfeld

Franz Xaver Heinrich Kalser Edler von Maasfeld (born August 7, 1860 in Gorizia , † September 4, 1942 in Vienna ) was an Austro-Hungarian general of the infantry .

Life

origin

The family coat of arms awarded to the grandfather by Emperor Franz in 1826

The great-grandfather, Michael Kalser, was born in the Kalser Valley and was initially a cleric with the Jesuits . But after the order was abolished he went to the artillery , became a captain, fought in the Turkish War under Laudon , attended the conquest of Belgrade and succumbed to the rigors of the war. His son, Franz Kalser's grandfather Johann Nepomuk Kalser (1779-1851) was also an Austrian officer, was ennobled for his services in 1826 with the title of Maasfeld and was married to Baroness Friederike Honrichs zu Wolfswarffen from 1824 , from which marriage Franz Kalser's father Heinrich emerged who was a captain in the Archduke Sigmund No. 45 infantry regiment in 1857 and captain in the Haugwitz infantry regiment No. 38 in 1863.

The father's sister Camilla was a novelist who worked under the pseudonym "C. Cressieux ”published. She was married since 1865 to the military writer August Graf von Seyssel d'Aix (1812–1872), the eldest son of Count Carl Theodor von Seyssel d'Aix .

Early military career

Franz Kalser, a native of the coastal region , attended the military high school in Mährisch Weißkirchen from 1875 . He joined the imperial army in 1879 and was made a lieutenant in 1882 . He first served in the Infantry Regiment No. 27 "Belgians" in Graz and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1888 . After attending the war school (1887-89), he came to the 5th Infantry Troop Division in Olomouc in 1890 as a general staff officer and was appointed captain in the general staff in 1893 . Between 1895 and 1898 he worked as a teacher at the cadet school in Trieste and was promoted to major in 1899 . From 1902 he served as a teacher at the war school, in 1903 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and used again in the general staff. He then moved as a battalion leader to Infantry Regiment No. 87, where on December 12, 1906 he was promoted to colonel . In 1908 he was appointed commander of the Infantry Regiment No. 47 "Graf von Beck-Rzikowsky" stationed in Marburg on the Drau . In 1911 he took command of the 12th Mountain Brigade stationed in Sarajevo and on May 3, 1912 he was promoted to major general.

Commands in World War

At the beginning of the First World War , during the Serbian campaign in 1914 , he led the 12th Mountain Brigade as part of the 48th Infantry Troop Division under FML Eisler in the Battle of the Drina . On September 17 , the Serbian counterattack against the superior kuk XVI began near the mountain Mačkov . Corps, which failed until September 22nd after several days of fighting for the Jagodnja. From the 3rd, 15th and 16th Mountain Brigade, the 50th Infantry Troop Division was formed in Bosnia-Herzegovina in October 1914 , and its command was transferred to Major General Kalser. During the battle on the Romanja planina, the 50th Division with the 3rd and 15th Mountain Brigades from the Foča area pushed forward against the Montenegrin Plevlje Division. In cooperation with the 50th Infantry Troop Division of FML Trollmann , the Serbian Division-Sumadija II was pushed back to the Kitak-Babljak-Vratar contour line by October 21. The then fixed overflowed troops were from the upper Drina after Srebrenica withdrawn and from 5 November through Ljubovija moved to the Drina to the southern flank of the towards Valjevo previous 6th Army to cover. During the Battle of the Kolubara , the 50th Division was advancing near Galič on December 3, directly hit by the main thrust of the Serbian 1st Army under General Živojin Mišić and badly beaten. During the positional warfare against the Serbs that followed, Kalser was promoted to Lieutenant Field Marshal on March 1, 1915 (patent from February 14) . After Italy declared war in May 1915, Kalser's division was part of the XV. Corps (General of the Infantry Vinzenz Fox ) relocated to Italy and deployed in the Tolmein area. From October 1915 to February 1916, Kalser commanded the newly formed 62nd Infantry Troop Division in the campaign in Montenegro in the group of the FML Sorsich and in December 1915 advanced over the Tara section towards the heights of Pljevlja . In January 1916 he fought against the Montenegrin Sanjak Division during the Battle of Mojkovac .

In March 1916 he took over the leadership of the 50th Infantry Troop Division on the Isonzo Front for a second time, a position he exchanged in July 1916 with command of the 13th Rifle Division on the Eastern Front . After operations during the Brusilov offensive in Volhynia , the 13th Rifle Division was moved to Italy. After the 12th Battle of the Isonzo, the division reached the Piave near Nervesa on November 10, 1917 and developed across the entire width of the eastern bank. In February 1918 Kalser took over the leadership of the kuk XX as part of the 10th Army . Corps, which held the front in the southwest of South Tyrol on both sides of the Riva fortress with the 49th Infantry Division and the Schiesser group. On May 19, 1918, Kalser achieved the rank of general of the infantry. After the lost war, Kalser was bid farewell on January 1, 1919 and retired to Vienna to take up his pension.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: The KK or KuK Generalität 1816–1918 ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Austrian State Archives, Vienna 2007 (PDF). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oesta.gv.at
  2. ^ Pierer's Universal Lexikon , Volume 8, Altenburg 1859, p. 522
  3. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Kalser Edler von Maasfeld, Johann Nepomuk . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 10th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1863, p. 405 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Seyssel d'Aix, Camilla Countess . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 196 ( digitized version ).
  5. ↑ Austria-Hungary's Last War Volume I, p. 648 f
personal data
SURNAME Kalser von Maasfeld, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kalser von Maasfeld, Franz Xaver Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian infantry general
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Gorizia
DATE OF DEATH September 4, 1942
Place of death Vienna