Hans von Plessen

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Colonel General with the rank of General Field Marshal Hans Georg von Plessen

Hans Georg Hermann von Plessen (born November 26, 1841 in Spandau , † January 28, 1929 in Potsdam ) was a Prussian Colonel General with the rank of General Field Marshal and Canon of Brandenburg .

Life

Origin and family

He came from the originally noble Mecklenburg-Holstein noble family von Plessen and was the son of the later Prussian Lieutenant General Hermann von Plessen (1803–1877) and his wife Pauline Sophie Adelaide, née Meyer (1811–1870).

Hans von Plessen married on January 24, 1874 in Berlin Elisabeth von Langenbeck (1850-1917), the daughter of the real privy councilor and professor of surgery Bernhard von Langenbeck (1810-1887) and Arnoldine Reinbold († 1886). The marriage resulted in five children, two of whom died immediately after birth. The sons embarked on their father's military officer career. The first-born son Hans von Plessen retired from active service as a war participant in 1914/18 and as a Prussian lieutenant colonel . Bernhard became a captain and was also a participant in the war in 1914/18. During the First World War, the youngest child Wilhelm was commanded as a Prussian lieutenant in the reserve in the 1st Guard Regiment on foot to Aviation Replacement Division No. 6 and on April 18, 1916, he fatally crashed in an airplane near Białystok .

Military career

Plessen (front row, third from left) during the imperial maneuver , 1905
Plessen (center) observes the emperor and the victor of Liège, General Otto von Emmich , 1914
Plessen (2nd from left) accompanies Kaiser Wilhelm II into exile in Holland, 1918

On September 21, 1861, Plessen joined the Kaiser Franz Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 2 as a flag junior . In 1862 he was promoted to secondary lieutenant and in 1864 took part in the German-Danish War . In 1866 Plessen fought with Thrush and Königgrätz during the German War . In 1869 he became Premier Lieutenant and as such Plessen took part in the Franco-German War in the sieges of Toul , Metz and Paris as well as in the battles at Orléans , Le Mans , Dreux , Madeleine, Bellême , Meung-sur-Loire , Beaugency and Quesques .

Awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class, Plessen joined the General Staff as a captain in mid-April 1872 after the peace treaty . After his appointment as major in 1879 he became a wing adjutant of the emperor and king Wilhelm I. In 1882 he became a member of the general order commission and commander of the castle guard. In 1885 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel , in 1888 to colonel and in 1891 to major general . In 1892 he was serving general à la suite for the emperor and king and in command of the imperial headquarters. In 1894 he was appointed adjutant general and promoted to lieutenant general.

Plessen belonged to its uses as serving with Adjutant General of the Imperial Headquarters inner circle Emperor and Commander William II. He was, among others, commander of the 1st Guards Regiment of Foot, head of the riding ends Military Police Corps and Head of the Brandenburg Rifle Battalion no. 3 ( previously à la suite ).

On November 17, 1918, he retired from active service as Commander of the Great Headquarters and Colonel General with the rank of General Field Marshal, after he had accompanied Kaiser Wilhelm II in his first Dutch exile at Amerongen Castle . At the time of his retirement from military service at the age of 76, he was the oldest active officer in Germany.

Hans von Plessen's diary, which has been partially preserved, is an important source for the processing of the political history of the First World War and the role of the emperor as supreme warlord .

Awards

In total, Plessen was awarded 88 domestic and foreign orders, including 51 grand crosses.

Trivia

In the British BBC documentary The Somme - From Defeat to Victory (Die Somme ) about the Battle of the Somme , the actor Wolf Kahler took on the role of the Imperial Adjutant General Hans von Plessen on the occasion of his official troop visit to the front in 1916.

literature

  • Hans von Plessen in the German biography
  • M. Naumann: The Plessen. Line from the XIII. to XX. Century. Limburg an der Lahn 1971.
  • Genealogical manual of the nobility . Noble houses A. Volume I, p. 258, Volume 5 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, then Glücksburg, today Limburg (Lahn) 1953.
  • Holger Afflerbach (Ed.): Kaiser Wilhelm II as Supreme Warlord in the First World War. Sources from the military environment of the emperor 1914–1918. Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57581-3 (Plessen's war letters and diary)
  • Biographical sketch in: Kaiser Wilhelm II as Supreme Warlord in the First World War. ed. by Holger Afflerbach, Munich 2005, Akademie Aktuell: Review ( Memento from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 156 kB), issue 1/2007, p. 37f.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pou le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 , pp. 40-41.

Web links

Commons : Hans von Plessen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c compare M. Naumann: Die Plessen. Line from the XIII. to XX. Century. CA Starke Publishing House
  2. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 7, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1939], DNB 367632829 , p. 188, no. 2229.
  3. ↑ 1st Guards Regiment on Foot, Commanders ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.erstes-garderegiment.de
  4. ↑ a b See review Biographical sketch in: Kaiser Wilhelm II as Supreme Warlord in the First World War , ed. by Holger Afflerbach, Munich 2005, Akademie Aktuell, issue 1/2007 ( Memento from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 156 kB p. 5)
  5. ^ The Prussian Machine - Generals | Prussia Hans von Plessen
  6. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Württemberg 1907, p. 50.
  7. ^ Film scene with Colonel General Hans von Plessen on youtube
personal data
SURNAME Plessen, Hans von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plessen, Hans Georg Hermann von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian colonel general with the rank of field marshal in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Spandau
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1929
Place of death Potsdam