Gerold von Gleich

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Gerold von Gleich (born March 17, 1869 in Ludwigsburg ; † April 7, 1938 ibid) was a Württemberg major general , author and scholar in the field of theoretical physics .

Life

Origin and family

He came from a family of officials, politicians and officers from Württemberg and was born as Franz Maria Gerold Gleich. His father Alarich von Gleich (1831-1896) was a lieutenant general in Württemberg and in 1890 was raised to hereditary nobility . Whose father was Max Heinrich DC, administrator of the possession of the German Order of Knights located Schlossgut Kapfenburg and member of the first freely elected parliament of the Kingdom of Württemberg . Gerold von Gleich was married to Helene von Gleich († 1935).

Military career

After graduation in 1886 at the Charles-Gymnasium Stuttgart , graduating as valedictorian, DC began in the same year his military career as a cadet in the Dragoon Regiment "Queen Olga" (1 Württembergisches) No. 25 of the Württemberg army in Ludwigsburg , whose He later became commander . After graduating from the Prussian War Academy in Berlin for three years , he was first assigned to the General Staff as a captain in 1900 . In 1902/05 he was squadron chief in the Schleswig-Holstein Dragoon Regiment No. 13 in Metz and then returned to the General Staff. It was there that he began his lifelong friendship with Wilhelm Groener , who later became Quartermaster General of the Army and Minister in the Weimar Republic . This was followed by commandments as a major to the staffs of the 13th Division in Frankfurt am Main and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps in Stuttgart .

In 1912, Gleich was sent by the General Staff as an attaché to the High Command of the Greek Army to follow the course of the First Balkan War . In 1913 he became lieutenant colonel and commander of the Olga Dragoons. At the beginning of the war in August 1914, he took this regiment into the field on the Western Front . After combat operations in Lorraine and Flanders , he became Chief of Staff of the 7th Army Stage Inspection , in this capacity he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Military Merit on March 20, 1915 and promoted to Colonel in mid-August 1915 .

At his own initiative, he was transferred to Baghdad in February 1916 as Chief of Staff of Field Marshal von der Goltz . Here he became Turkish major general and chief of staff of the Ottoman 6th Army with the title of pasha . During this time, the British Army suffered the worst defeat in the Orient, when on April 29, more than 13,000 soldiers under the command of General Townshend at Kut al-Amara had to surrender to the Ottoman 6th Army. A few months later, Gleich fell seriously ill from contaminated water, so that he had to give up his post in Turkey. He later described his experiences there in the book From the Balkans to Baghdad .

After his recovery he commanded the infantry regiment "Kaiser Wilhelm, König von Preußen" (2nd Württembergisches) No. 120 on the western front from January 1917 and took part in the battle of the Somme with them. A little later he commanded the 18th Infantry Brigade in the battles of Arras , Flanders , Cambrai and in the spring in the " Imperial Battle " until he had to return from the front in September 1918 ill. Shortly before the end of the war, he was promoted to major general on October 18, 1918. As garrison commander in his home town of Ludwigsburg, he was responsible for demobilizing soldiers returning from the lost war. At his request, Gleich was made available for disposition in 1919 .

Contributions to contemporary history

Immediately after the end of the war, Gleich began to write down his military and political experiences and assessments on the basis of his detailed diaries. In addition to various publications about the war in the Orient, his book “The old army and its aberrations” attracted widespread attention well into the 1960s. In it he not only relentlessly criticizes the deficits of the military and its leadership before and during the First World War, but also deals constructively with the model of the officer's profession.

Probably primarily for family reasons - his second son Sigismund became an anthroposophist - in the early 1920s he publicly discussed the person and teachings of Rudolf Steiner , which at that time were very controversial in the Stuttgart area. Gleich fended off several calls to become politically active.

Contributions to science

Shortly after the war, Gleich began a second career as a scientist. Even as an ensign at the war school, he had dealt intensively with mathematical and astronomical studies - including works such as the Mecanique celeste by Laplace - which he now deepened and built up a private specialist library. He soon published articles in leading journals such as Annalen der Physik , Zeitschrift für Physik and Astronomische Nachrichten . He wrote around 40 scientific articles on mathematical and astrophysical questions as well as essays on the scientific discussion of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and its weaknesses. This includes his remarks on the perihelion movement of Mercury - a topic to which he devoted several papers. In his book Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Physical Reality , Gleich summarized the results of his research in this regard.

Gerold von Gleich died on April 7, 1938 after a long illness.

Publications (selection)

  • The old army and its aberrations. A critical study. Koehler, Leipzig 1919.
  • From the Balkans to Baghdad. Military-political memories of the Orient. Scherl Verlag, Berlin 1921, reprint 2012.
  • On the public and secret work of Rudolf Steiner, lecture, Verlag Heyder & Zimmer, 1922.
  • Reflections on the warfare in Mesopotamia. In: Yearbook of the Association of Asian Fighters. 1923, pp. 81-105.
  • For deflecting light near the sun , Springer, Berlin 1928.
  • On the basics of Einstein's theory of gravity , Springer, Berlin 1929.
  • The main evidence for the general theory of relativity , Springer, Berlin 1929.
  • Einstein's theories of relativity and physical reality. Barth Verlag, Leipzig 1930, Reprint 2018, ISBN 3-226-03773-0 .

Literature and Sources

  • J. Wodetzky: Gerold von Gleich, obituary . In: Astronomical News. Volume 266, 1938, pp. 63-64.
  • Albrecht von Gleich with the assistance of Fabian von Gleich: Gerold von Gleich. General - chronicler - scholar. Tredition publishing house, Hamburg, 2019, ISBN 978-3-7497-3378-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto von Moser : Die Württemberger in the world wars. 2nd expanded edition, Chr.Belser AG, Stuttgart 1928, p. 113.
personal data
SURNAME In a moment, Gerold von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Immediately, Franz Maria Gerold von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Württemberg major general
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1938
Place of death Ludwigsburg