Frithjof von Hammerstein-Gesmold

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Frithjof Ludwig Wilhelm Freiherr von Hammerstein-Gesmold (born August 20, 1870 in Halberstadt , † January 21, 1944 in Hildesheim ) was a German lieutenant general and knight of the order Pour le Mérite .

Life

origin

Frithjof was a son of the Prussian Major General Emil von Hammerstein-Gesmold (1827-1894) and his wife Ingeborg, nee Freiin Marschalck von Bachtenbrock (1845-1910) and belonged to the noble family of the Barons von Hammerstein in Gesmold . His older brother Karl (1866–1932) became district administrator in the Zeven district and a member of the Hanover provincial council .

Military career

After graduating from high school , Hammerstein joined the Queen Augusta Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 4 of the Prussian Army on March 22, 1889 as a flagjunker and was promoted to secondary lieutenant at the end of September 1890 . For further training he graduated from the War Academy in 1897/1900 , in the meantime rose to lieutenant and from mid-December 1902 was commanded as an educator at the cadet house in Potsdam. From mid-September 1904 Hammerstein returned to his regular regiment, was appointed captain on July 18, 1905 and company commander on March 22, 1906 . On January 27, 1913, he was transferred to Cologne as adjutant of the 15th Division . In this position he became major on July 19, 1913 and as such on October 1, 1913 adjutant at the General Command of the VIII Army Corps in Koblenz .

In this capacity, Hammerstein took part in the occupation of the neutral Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the battles at Neufchâteau and Sedan after the beginning of the First World War. With the appointment as commander of the 1st battalion in the infantry regiment "von Goeben" (2nd Rheinisches) No. 28 he returned to the troop service on September 6, 1914. After the Battle of the Marne and the retreat he took part in the trench warfare in Champagne . Hammerstein was wounded twice. In May 1915 his regiment moved to northern France and was used in the battle of Arras . Hammerstein was appointed commander of the 1st battalion in the infantry regiment "von Borcke" (4th Pomeranian) No. 21 on December 1, 1915 , with whom he was involved in the conquest of the Tutrakan fortress in September 1916 during the campaign against Romania . After he had already received both classes of the Iron Cross , he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords.

On October 1, 1916, Hammerstein was appointed commander of the 1st Masurian Infantry Regiment No. 146 . By intervening in the Cerna arch on the Macedonian front , he was able to halt the backward movement of the allied Bulgarian troops in the middle of the month and fend off the attacks of the Entente in the following two months. The official German army report reported on the events of December 6th: “Near Trnava east of the Cerna, the proven Masurian Inf. Rgt. 146 and Bulgarian companies threw the Serbs out of the position in which they had settled the day before yesterday. 6 officers and 50 men were captured ”. After the fighting in his section of the front had decreased, he was able to secure and expand his positions. It was not until April and May 1917 that his regiment was again involved in the fighting west of Monastir . In the spring of 1918, Hammerstein and his regiment were transferred to Palestine to take part in the Second Battle of the Jordan on the local front . Then it was a reserve of the 4th Ottoman Army near Salt and Hammerstein fell seriously ill with typhus in early July . After he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel in the middle of the month , he was able to take over his command again in mid-September and especially prove himself as a rearguard leader in the retreat battles after the battle of Megiddo . His commanding general Otto Liman von Sanders then submitted it to be awarded the order Pour le Mérite. In recognition of this, Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded him the highest Prussian bravery award on November 1, 1918, and in place of Colonel Gustav von Oppen (1867–1918), who died of cholera , Hammerstein took over the leadership of the Asian Corps .

After the armistice of Compiègne Hammerstein returned in February 1919 to Germany and took over first command of the volunteer regiment 59. In June 1919 he became commander of the volunteer corps - Brigade "Olita" in Arys , he at the border guard struggles involved. To 1 October 1919 Hammerstein was in the Provisional Reichswehr adopted and used the staff of Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 12 before him as commander of this in February 1920 the Association appointed. In the course of the reduction in the army, he was promoted to Colonel on October 1, 1920, to the staff of Infantry Regiment 6 and from there on January 1, 1921 to the staff of Infantry Regiment 2 . He was from 1 April 1922 to the 31 March 1923 Commander of the military training area Munster and was subsequently awarded the character adopted as a major general from the service.

He belonged to the paramilitary organization "Stahlhelm" as leader of the Hildesheim district and took part in paramilitary operations in the Ruhr area against the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s . On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg on August 27, 1939, the so-called "Tannenberg Day ", he was given the character of Lieutenant General of the Army of the Wehrmacht .

His estate is in the Federal Archives in Freiburg im Breisgau .

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Brockmann: Die Generale des Heeres 1921-1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 5: v. Haack-Hitzfeld. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2538-3 , pp. 91-92.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 2: HO. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, ISBN 3-7648-2516-2 , pp. 28-29.
  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order "Pour le mérite" in the World War. Volume I: A-L. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1934, pp. 441-442.
  • Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Freiherrliche Häuser. 1910. Sixtieth year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1909, pp. 306–307.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joachim Tautz: Militaristic youth policy in the Weimar Republic. The youth organizations of the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten - Jungstahlhelm and Scharnhorst, Bund Deutscher Jungmannen. Roderer Verlag, Regensburg 1998, fn. 3, p. 500.
  2. ↑ Hand files of the Gaufuhrer, Major General a. D. Fritjof Freiherr v. Hammerstein BArch R 72/2305 R 72/2 Bd. 1 1926–1937 Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten eV (Stahlhelm), 1918–1934 Written material in German Title recording in the archive archive BArch R 72/2306 R 72/3 Bd. 2 1927– 1929 Contains: Gau-Mitteilungen Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten eV (Stahlhelm), 1918–1934; open-data.bundesarchiv.de
personal data
SURNAME Hammerstein-Gesmold, Frithjof von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hammerstein-Gesmold, Frithjof Ludwig Wilhelm Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Halberstadt
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1944
Place of death Hildesheim