Hermann von Eichhorn (Field Marshal General)

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Hermann von Eichhorn, 1917

Emil Gottfried Hermann von Eichhorn (born February 13, 1848 in Breslau , † July 30, 1918 in Kiev ) was a Prussian field marshal in the First World War .

Life

Hermann von Eichhorn ( Reinhold Lepsius )

origin

Hermann was a son of the later district president of Minden Hermann von Eichhorn (1813-1892) and his wife Julie, born von Schelling (1821-1885). He was a grandson of the Prussian minister of education Johann Albrecht Friedrich von Eichhorn and on the maternal side of the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling .

Military background

After attending high schools in his hometown and Opole, Eichhorn joined the 2nd Company of the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot of the Prussian Army on April 1, 1866 as a three-year-old volunteer and took part in the battles of Soor , Königinhof and in the German War Königgrätz part. After the peace agreement, Eichhorn was promoted to second lieutenant on September 6, 1866 . In the Franco-Prussian War he came as an adjutant of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Guard Landwehr Regiment a. a. used in the sieges of Strasbourg and Paris and received the Iron Cross 2nd class after the battle of Mont Valérien .

From 1872 to 1875 Eichhorn attended the War Academy , where he came into contact with Paul von Hindenburg , Karl von Bülow and Friedrich von Bernhardi . For a short time he was then regimental adjutant of the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot, was then commanded to the General Staff and from 1877 was adjutant of the 60th Infantry Brigade in Metz . After being promoted to captain on June 8, 1878, Eichhorn remained at this post for a year and a half, before serving as chief of the 12th Company in the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot. Eichhorn gave up this command on January 22nd, 1883, which was followed by various general staff assignments. For example in the Great General Staff, the 30th Division , the 5th Army Inspection , the 2nd Division and the XVII. Army Corps . As a lieutenant colonel (since May 16, 1891), he was reassigned to the General Staff on September 19, 1891 and shortly thereafter was appointed head of department. Here he was significantly involved in the development of new drill regulations . On May 17, 1892, Eichhorn came to the XIV Army Corps in Karlsruhe as Chief of the General Staff and was promoted to colonel after two years . From October 18, 1895 to February 15, 1897 Eichhorn was then commander of the Leib Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich Wilhelm III." (1st Brandenburg) No. 8 . Then he held a general staff assignment again. This time as Chief of the General Staff of the VI. Army Corps . Here on July 20, 1897, he was promoted to major general and as such Eichhorn was commander of the 18th Infantry Brigade from October 8, 1898 .

When he was promoted to Lieutenant General on May 18, 1901, Eichhorn was assigned to represent the commander of the 9th Division in Glogau and then took over command from his predecessor Louis Hahn on June 4, 1901. In 1904 he became the commanding general of the XVIII. Army Corps appointed in Frankfurt am Main . During this time he made a big impression on the Frankfurt "society", which was still skeptical about Prussia. Even after he had not been in Frankfurt for a long time, the Frankfurt newspapers still reported positively about "their" old commanding general. Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig paid tribute to Eichhorn on September 8, 1905 by awarding him the Grand Cross of the Hessian Order of Merit with a crown. In 1912 he was appointed General Inspector of the VII Army Inspection in Saarbrücken.

In the same year Eichhorn was made Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle and promoted to Colonel General on January 1, 1913 . In May 1914 he fell from his horse while visiting the troops and was seriously injured. In addition, there was pneumonia. After his recovery, at the end of 1914, with the approval of the Kaiser, he first went to his old Leibgrenadier Regiment No. 8.

Eichhorn was from January 26, 1915 to March 5, 1918 leader of the 10th Army on the Eastern Front . In February 1915, his troops were significantly involved in the winter battle in Masuria , as a result of which the enemy had to completely evacuate the occupied parts of East Prussia . Wilhelm II then awarded Eichhorn the order Pour le Mérite on August 18, 1915 and the oak leaves on September 28, 1915 for this high honor. Since June 30, 1916, the Army High Command was also Army Group Command of Army Group "Eichhorn". The German armies in Lithuania and Courland were subordinate to the newly formed Army Group . On December 18, 1917, he was promoted to Field Marshal General. In March 1918 Eichhorn was appointed Army Group Commander ( Heeresgruppe Eichhorn -Kiew) in Kiev , which had been occupied by German troops in Operation Faustschlag shortly before the signing of the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk . There he fell victim to a bomb attack by the left Social Revolutionary Boris Donskoy on July 30, 1918, together with his adjutant, Captain Walter von Dreßler, and succumbed to his injuries. He was buried on August 6, 1918 in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof .

Honors

Eichhorn's grave

Wilhelm II decreed that one of the eight defense towers of the Marienburg should bear Eichhorn's name. Eichhornstrasse in the Marzahn-Hellersdorf district of Berlin was named after him during his lifetime .

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Institute for City History Frankfurt. FSA S2 / 1.982 - Personal history of Herrmann von Eichhorn.
  2. ↑ Erich Limpach : Hermann von Eichhorn. In: Ernst Jünger (Ed.): The Unforgotten. Justin Moser Verlag, Munich 1928, pp. 54–55.
  3. ↑ Field Marshal von Eichhorn murdered in Kiev , FAZ.net August 1, 2018
  4. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 83.
  5. ↑ http://maps.mapywig.org/m/City_plans/Central_Europe/STADTPLAN_KIEW_25K_Sonderausgabe_A_Geheim_I.1943.jpg
personal data
SURNAME Eichhorn, Hermann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eichhorn, Emil Gottfried Hermann von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian field marshal in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1918
Place of death Kiev