Georg Wichura

General of the Infantry Georg Wichura

Carl Georg Wichura (* 15. December 1851 in Ratibor ; † 11. December 1923 in Frankfurt (Oder) ) was a Prussian general of the infantry in the First World War .

Life

Wichura occurred on 15 September 1872 as an ensign in the 4th Lower Silesian Infantry Regiment. 51 of the Prussian army in Wroclaw and was on 12 April 1873 Ensign appointed and ten months later, the second lieutenant promoted. As such, he served from November 1, 1876 as an adjutant of the 2nd Battalion. From October 1, 1880 to July 23, 1883, Wichura was commanded for further training at the War Academy . Following this, he was promoted to Prime Lieutenant on August 16, 1883 . On August 15, 1885, he was transferred to Bromberg , where he served as an adjutant of the 8th Infantry Brigade . After Wichura had become a captain on March 22, 1889 , he was transferred to Strasbourg a year later and from April 1, 1890 as a company commander in Infantry Regiment No. 143 . In the same function he worked from September 14, 1893 to June 14, 1898 in Hagenau in Infantry Regiment No. 137. In the meantime, on September 12, 1896, he was major and then commander of III Battalion of the Infantry Regiment No. 143 in Mutzig .

Wichura then took over the 1st Battalion of the 4th East Asian Infantry Regiment on July 9, 1900 , with whom he was involved in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China . For the leadership of his unit Wichura was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, IV class with swords.

After the end of the fighting and return to Germany, Wichura was aggregated to Infantry Regiment No. 132 and on September 2, 1901, he was appointed commander of the III. Battalion in Strasbourg . After he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 18, 1903 , two months later he was transferred to the staff of the 5th Baden Infantry Regiment No. 113 in Freiburg im Breisgau . This was followed by his appointment as commander of the Berlin I district command on April 22, 1905 and his promotion to colonel on April 10, 1906. As such, on December 17, 1908, he was appointed commander of the grenadier regiment stationed in Schweidnitz “King Friedrich Wilhelm II. “(1. Silesian) No. 10 appointed. On February 18, 1910, Wichura handed the regiment over to his successor, Colonel von Blankensee, and was then given the command of the 23rd Infantry Brigade . At the same time he was promoted to major general , he was appointed brigade commander in Gliwice on March 22, 1910 . With the transfer to Frankfurt (Oder) on October 1, 1912, Wichura was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed commander of the 5th division .

First World War

With the beginning of the First World War , his division made mobile and marched in conjunction with the III. Army Corps entered neutral Belgium . On August 18 there was first fighting at Tirlemont , which was followed by the battle of Mons on August 22 and 23 and at Le Cateau on August 26 . After the Battle of the Marne Wichura received the order with his division to retreat the II and III. Army Corps to cover from the left to the right bank of the Aisne . Then the large association went into trench warfare. In January 1915, Wichura's division fought in the Battle of Soissons , which had developed from a breakthrough attempt by the French. For leading his division and bringing in over 5,000 prisoners, 18 heavy and 17 light guns, Wilhelm II awarded him the Cross of the Commander of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords.

In September 1915, already scheduled for transport to the Eastern Front , loading was stopped and the division was thrown into the autumn battle in Champagne as the next available reserve . After the fighting ended, the division remained in Champagne until the beginning of December 1915 and then joined the 5th Army , which was in front of Verdun .

During the Battle of Verdun , which began on February 21, 1916 , the division stormed Bois de Ville, the Walvrille forest, the Louvremont position and the Pepper Ridge within a few days and finally fought over the heavily fortified village of Dounaumont, which was captured on March 2 could. After heavy losses in the Caillette forest, the division was withdrawn from the front to recuperate and refresh. After a four-week break, she then went to Verdun at Fort Douaumont and fought off several counter-attacks before the division was relieved again after heavy losses at the end of May.

It was only used again at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme and Wichura commanded the Longueval- Forest section of Delville from July 20 to August 3, 1916 . Subsequently, he was relocated to Champagne, where Wichura was appointed leader of the VIII Reserve Corps on September 7, 1916 . In this position he was promoted to General of the Infantry on March 22, 1917. For the defensive successes during the Battle of Arras he received the highest Prussian bravery award on April 26, 1917, the Pour le Mérite . From the end of May to August the corps was then in Upper Alsace and then took part in the 7th Army in the battles on the Chemin des Dames and the Ailette . On April 6, 1918, the corps attacked the southern bank of the Oise near Amigny , forcing the river to cross and stormed the suburbs of Chauny . Subsequently, strong enemy positions at Amigny and the northeast part of the forest of Coucy were captured. Then the corps advanced across the Ailette to the Oise-Aisne Canal and, after bitter fighting, were also able to take Coucy-le-Château . After a period of rest, Wichura entered the battle of Soissons and Reims , overcame the Chemin des Dames, broke the enemy's resistance on the plateau of Condé and stormed the fort of the same name . Then Vregny, Missy and the heights west of Cirey on the south bank of the Aisne could be taken and the enemy pushed back over the Vesle to the Marne . In recognition of his services, Wichura was then awarded the oak leaves for Pour le Mérite on June 8, 1918 by AKO .

On July 15, 1918, his corps crossed the river at the beginning of the Battle of the Marne and, after initial successes, got stuck. The counterattack initiated by the French general Ferdinand Foch seriously threatened his situation. Nevertheless, Wichura managed to get his corps to safety on the north bank of the Marne in the morning of July 20, 1918. For this achievement he was honored with the award of the Order of the Red Eagle First Class with Oak Leaves and Swords. At the beginning of August he went back over the Vesle and was in constant defensive battles until the end of the war.

post war period

After returning home and demobilizing the corps, Wichura became the commanding general of the V Army Corps on January 2, 1919 . With the dissolution of the old army , he applied to leave and was put up for disposal on September 20, 1919 with his pension .

family

Wichura married Ellinoe Elisabeth, née von Langenn-Steinkeller (1879–1954) , on December 10, 1913 .

Honors

He had been an honorary citizen of the city of Frankfurt (Oder) since 1916 , and a street in Berlin has been named after him since 1937.

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. 531-532.
• Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume II: M-Z. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 497-500.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ genealogy.net
2. ↑ Wichurastrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
3. ↑ The temporary Frankfurt Rabbi Martin Salomonski mentions Wichura's honorary citizenship as early as 1917 in his war diary Ein Jahr an der Somme (p. 45): “Always and even with the repeated preference, the General of Infantry and honorary citizen of the city of Frankfurt a. O., Excellency Wichura, who, as the leader of his home division and then of a corps, gained great fame throughout France, and especially in Champagne, on the Somme, and now at Arras - the conversation soon abandoned formality and built bridges mutual understanding. "