Hans von Pranckh

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The Styrian district leader Hans von Pranckh (back right), the federal leader of the Austrian Heimwehr Richard Steidle (center), the deputy Styrian leader Reinhart Bachofen von Echt (left), photo on the Heimwehr grandstand at the Heimwehr meeting on the Neuklosterwiese during the deployment of the Heimwehr and the Schutzbund in Wiener Neustadt on October 7, 1928

Baron Johann Ludwig Gottlieb von Pranckh , also Johann Ludwig Gottlieb von Prankh , (born April 23, 1888 in Reichenhall , † January 24, 1945 near Kajžar (Kaisersberg), Lower Styria ) was a German officer as well as castle owner and home guard in Austria .

Life

Hans came from the old Styrian noble family von Pranckh . He was the son of the chamberlain and district administrator Sigmund Freiherr von Pranckh (1856–1952) and his wife Klara, nee Freiin von Malsen (1866–1955). In 1922 he married Franziska Countess von und zu Eltz called Faust von Stromberg at Tillysburg Castle , with whom he had 5 children. His older brother Sigmund (1887–1914), like him, started a career in the military and was also awarded the Military Max Joseph Order.

After graduating from the Wilhelm Gymnasium München Pranckh occurred on July 5, 1906 as an ensign in the Infantry Regiment body of the Bavarian army in Munich one. There he was promoted to lieutenant on April 9, 1908 . In 1911 he was transferred to the Reich Colonial Office and was sent to the Göttingen observatory for training in the border survey service. After the end of his training, he then took part in the Cameroon South Border Expedition in 1912/13 and surveyed the coast of Cameroon and Togo .

As a member of his regular regiment, Pranckh took part in the First World War and was honored several times for his bravery, including the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order on September 18, 1918 . Before he as Major a. D. moved to Styria in 1921 to manage the family property of Schloss Pux in the Murau district, and from 1919 to 1920 he was still a member of the Epp Freikorps .

In his new home he soon emerged as the organizer of the Styrian Home Guard, initially on behalf of or in contact with the Bavarian Resident Guard . In the following years Pranckh advanced to become one of the main military organizers of the Heimwehr. In 1927 he had become district leader, soon afterwards also Landessturmführer, and since 1929, as Bundessturmführer, he was a member of the closer leadership of the Austrian Home Guard movement. In 1931 he became an inspector of the Jäger Battalions , the mobile formations of the Styrian Homeland Security , which represented the largest and most important segment of the Austrian Home Guard movement. In the same year he was also involved in the Pfrimer putsch and took up position with six battalions on the Gaberl , where he waited for the order to advance to the Styrian capital Graz . As part of the preparation for the coup he had tried in vain to get the armed forces to participate in the coup.

When the Styrian Homeland Security came to a dispute about whether it should continue to support the Austrian Federal Government in the future or whether it should go together with the NSDAP , Pranckh resigned from Homeland Security and joined the "government-loyal" wing of the Home Guard movement around Starhemberg . In 1933 Pranckh was again a district military leader and thus military chief of the home guard in the Murau district. After that, however, he no longer appeared in public.

During the Second World War , Pranckh was reactivated at his instigation and used in the staff of the 3rd Mountain Division . With this he took as part of the occupation of Norway on operation weserübung part and was instrumental in the capture of Trondheim . In 1944 he retired from active service and returned to his family estate. With the formation of the Volkssturm towards the end of the war, however, Pranckh experienced a military comeback as the commander of a Volkssturm battalion. In this position he fell on January 24, 1945 near Kajžar (Kaisersberg) in what was then Lower Styria.

Works

  • The lawsuit against Count Anton Arco-Valley , the Bavarian. Prime Minister Kurt Eisner shot dead . JF Lehmann, Munich 1920.

literature

  • Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: VIRTUTI PRO PATRIA. The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Acts of War and Book of Honor 1914–1918. Self-published by the Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Munich 1966. pp. 378-380.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Annual report on the K. Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Munich. ZDB ID 12448436 , 1905/06
  2. ^ Bruce F. Pauley: Cocktail and Swastika. Styrian Homeland Security and Austrian National Socialism 1918–1934. Europa Verlag, Munich-Vienna-Zurich 1972, ISBN 3-203-50383-9 , p. 120. The author uses the notation Prankh and describes him as a “ military specialist in the Austrian Heimwehr ” (p. 243).
  3. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, all data on Pranckh's life come from Walter Wiltschegg: Die Heimwehr. An irresistible popular movement? (= Studies and Sources on Austrian Contemporary History, Volume 7), Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7028-0221-5 , pp. 51, 54, 176ff., 182, 196f., 276 and 358.
personal data
SURNAME Pranckh, Hans von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pranckh, Johann Ludwig Gottlieb von; Prankh, Johann Ludwig Gottlieb von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer as well as castle owner and home guard leader in Austria
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenhall
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1945
Place of death near Kajžar (Kaisersberg), Lower Styria