Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten

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Hermann Kusmanek , from 1913 Kusmanek von Burgneustädten (born September 16, 1860 in Sibiu , † August 7, 1934 in Vienna ) was an Imperial and Royal Privy Council , Colonel General of the Imperial and Royal Army , called the Lion of Przemyśl .

Hermann von Kusmanek as FML and fortress commander of Przemysl in 1914

Life

Coat of arms Kusmanek von Burgneustädten , awarded in 1913.
Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten as major general
Vienna Central Cemetery - grave of Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten

He was the son of the Police Council Josef Kusmanek and his wife Juliana geb. Wiehner. Kusmanek graduated from the military high school in Mährisch-Weißkirchen , the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and then from 1882 to 1884 the war school. As a first lieutenant he was assigned to the general staff and deployed in Budapest , Foča and Ljubljana . From 1888, the current general staff captain became the staff of III. Corps to Graz and worked as a concept officer at the Ministry of War in Vienna from 1889 to 1893 . He was then transferred to the troop service and served two years as a company commander in the Kuk infantry regiment "Albrecht von Württemberg" No. 73 in Eger . Promoted to major in the General Staff Corps in 1894 , he took up a two-year service at the country description office of the General Staff in Vienna and in the war history department of the War Archives. In 1895 he came back as a lieutenant colonel in the service of the infantry regiment No. 63 in Bistritz and from there in 1899 back to the war ministry, where he had acted as chairman of the presidential office since March 1903. In 1903 he was promoted to colonel , then on November 1, 1906 (rank of November 22 of that year) to major general.

In October 1908 he became commandant of the 65th Infantry Brigade in Raab and in April 1910 division commander in Innsbruck . On November 1, 1910 he was promoted to field marshal lieutenant and in January 1911 commander of the 28th infantry division in Ljubljana . At the beginning of World War I he was appointed Przemyśl fortress commander. Kusmanek was ennobled by Emperor Franz Joseph I on October 3, 1913 and, in grateful memory of his former training facility, the Theresian Military Academy in the castle in Wiener Neustadt , chose the title “von Burgneustädten”. In his coat of arms he adopted one of the two towers of the Wiener Neustadt city coat of arms.

After the summer campaign of 1914, the Austro-Hungarian army had to retreat to the west again without abandoning the Przemyśl fortress. The division commander of the fortress Árpád Tamásy von Fogaras and his 23rd Honvéd infantry division and four land storm brigades were surrounded by strong Russian forces. The fortress was already out of date; of the 38 beltworks of the defensive ring, only twelve had been modernized and provided with reinforced ceilings. Of the 988 existing fortress guns, only 28 were state-of-the-art at the time. Kusmanek also complained that the intervals were too large and pointed to the inadequate fortifications in the 8th Defense District.

A first siege of Przemyśl from September 16 to October 9, 1914 was repulsed by Austrian troops after successful relief. Before the start of the second siege, on November 1, 1914, he was promoted to general of the infantry . The second siege, however, which lasted from November 5 to March 22, 1915, was successful for the attackers. Since the fortress could no longer be held as a result of insufficient equipment and food, Kusmanek asked the emperor to approve an honorable surrender, which the monarch approved. After a last, unsuccessful, very lossy breakout attempt on March 19, the general decided to hand over the fortress to the Russian siege army. After all weapons, fortifications and all other war material had been destroyed, he finally had Russian units march into the city on the 22nd of the month. He himself, wearing his Imperial Russian Order of St. Anne on his chest, went with 2,500 officers and 117,000 NCOs and soldiers into Russian captivity for almost three years. During this time he lived in Nizhny Novgorod , later he lived in four rooms in the Kiev general governor's building . After his return, he was decorated with the Order of the Iron Crown, 1st class by Emperor Karl I on February 18, and on March 1, 1918 (with the rank of May 15, 1917) appointed Colonel General.

In recognition of his services in the two-time defense of Przemyśl, Kusmanek was awarded the Knight's Cross on March 10, 1921 (186th doctorate) by the Chapter of the Maria Theresa Order under the chairmanship of Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, who represented the exiled emperor as Grand Master. Maria Theresa Order awarded.

Kusmanek was Catholic and had been married to Johanna Zeschko since 1890. The couple had two daughters. He is buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery .

  • Fortress commander Hermann von Kusmanek with his staff in 1914

  • The destroyed Przemyśl fortress, 1915

  • Colonel General Kusmanek with his family, February 18, 1918

Awards (selection)

Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

Fonts

  • with H. v. Hoen: The medical service in the war. 1897.

Museum reception

His field blouse with the rank of Colonel General is exhibited in the Vienna Army History Museum . In addition, his officer's cap, exit bayonet and his knight's cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order are open to the public.

literature

Web links

Commons : Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz47203.html
  2. ↑ Arno Kerschbaumer, Nobilitations under the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I. / I. Ferenc József király (1914–1916) . Graz 2017, ISBN 978-3-9504153-2-2 , pp. 125–127.
  3. ^ Franz Forstner: Przemyśl in Volume 7 of Military History Dissertations of Austrian Universities. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1987, p. 148
  4. ↑ a b Kurt Dieman-Dichtl: "Niederösterreichischer Fenstergucker", Berger Verlag, Horn 2002, p. 68 f.
  5. ↑ Richard Lein: “Duty or High Treason? The Czech soldiers of Austria-Hungary in the First World War ”. Lit, Vienna 2011, p. 68 f.
  6. ↑ http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=rus&date=19150406&seite=1&zoom=33&query=%22Kusmanek%22&provider=P02&ref=anno-search
  7. ^ Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: The kk or kuk generality 1816-1918. Austrian State Archives, 1907, p. 98.
  8. ↑ Dr. Géza Kövess von Kövessháza: "The military knights of the Maria Theresa Order of the World War 1914–1918, in the VKEIÖ yearbook, Vienna 1937
  9. ↑ a b http://archiv.oeog.at/offizier/1-00/01-00-loewe.php
  10. ↑ Field Sheet No. 1232, from Saturday, March 16, 1918, p. 3
  11. ↑ Political Chronicle of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, Vienna 1918, p. 130
  12. ^ Stenographic minutes of the meeting of the delegation of the Reichsrathes, Verlag der k.-k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1910, p. 51
  13. ^ Army History Museum / Military History Institute (ed.): The Army History Museum in the Vienna Arsenal . Verlag Militaria , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-69-6 , p. 111
  14. ↑ or Rudolf Kiszling
personal data
SURNAME Kusmanek von Burgneustädten, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Colonel General of the KuK Army
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Sibiu
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1934
Place of death Vienna