Hermann von François

Hermann Karl Bruno of Francois (* 31 January 1856 in Luxembourg ; † 15. May 1933 in Berlin light field ) was a Prussian general of the infantry in the First World War .

General Hermann von François

Life

origin

François was the son of the future Prussian Major General Bruno von François (1818-1870) and his wife Marie Amalie Helene, born von Wentzel (1829-1909). The younger brother Hugo was killed in German South West Africa during the fighting against the Herero . The older brother Curt played a leading role in acquiring and mapping the colony of German South West Africa.

Military career

François attended the cadet schools in Wahlstatt and Berlin . He acted as the page of Kaiser Wilhelm I and joined the 1st Guard Regiment on foot of the Prussian Army on April 15, 1875 as a Second Lieutenant . On October 1, 1884, he was sent to the military academy for further training . After three years he left them as a captain in the general staff . As a professional soldier, François then went through the typical ladder of military commands. From April 18, 1901, he was a lieutenant colonel , on April 18, 1903, he became a colonel, and from August 24, 1904 , he led the Queen Elisabeth Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 3 in Charlottenburg. On November 18, 1907, he was assigned to lead the 49th Infantry Brigade and on January 27, 1908, François was promoted to major general and commander of this large unit . This was followed by his promotion to lieutenant general on March 20, 1911, his appointment as commander of the 13th division in Münster. On August 19, 1913, he was promoted to general of the infantry and took over on October 1, 1913 as commanding general of the I. Army Corps in Königsberg .

Hermann von François on the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg

When the First World War broke out, the 1st Corps was part of the 8th Army in East Prussia. Even in the first days of the war, François caused a sensation through idiosyncratic decisions that often came close to denying orders . So he posted his corps against the express instructions of his superior von Prittwitz directly at the border and took up the fight at Stallupönen . Against the orders, he initiated the battle of Gumbinnen by attacking his corps , which, as a tactical stalemate, turned into a kind of propaganda success for the Russians.

During the Battle of Tannenberg at the end of August 1914, he refused direct orders from the Commander-in-Chief of the 8th Army , Hindenburg , and his Chief of Staff, Ludendorff . On the one hand he delayed the attack of his corps in the battle of Usdau by two days, on the other hand he ignored any order to limit the attack that was then launched in the course of a consolidation. The opinions of military historians on François' contribution to the victory in East Prussia differ. Some see in his behavior a favorable "accident" within the command system of the 8th Army, others like Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his novel August Vierzehn see him as a strategic visionary. After the Battle of the Masurian Lakes on October 8, 1914, he was given the command of the 8th Army for a month, as he had impressed the emperor with his brisk approach . It is unclear to what extent his behavior burdened his relationship with Major General Ludendorff, who was the “de facto commander” of the Eastern Front.

On December 24, 1914, he took over the management of the newly established XXXXI. Reserve Corps , after deployments in Picardy , his unit was relocated to Galicia in April 1915 and took part in the breakthrough battle of Gorlice-Tarnów in early May as part of the 11th Army . Here he was awarded the order Pour le Mérite for the performance of his units . After the reconquest of Lemberg, he gave the XXXXI. Reserve Corps left the Eastern Front and on June 29, 1915 took over the command of the VII Army Corps in the west . This corps was used in the 5th Army in the Battle of Verdun from June 1916 . General Francois also took over the leadership of the western attack group on the Meuse in mid-July 1916. Because of his achievements before Verdun and the use of his corps in the second Aisne battle , he was awarded the Pour le Mérite with oak leaves in July 1917.

At the end of May 1918 his corps took part in the 7th Army's offensive in the section between Soissons and Reims, but after the allied counter-offensive he had to withdraw his corps to Noyon in mid-June. On July 6, 1918, he relinquished the command of the VII Corps and was put up for disposition à la suite of Queen Elisabeth's Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 3 and on October 14, 1918, when he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Red Eagle Order with Oak Leaves and Swords .

After his departure, François wrote a number of war studies, including the military biography of the former German Crown Prince Wilhelm , who had commanded the 5th Army during World War I and, from November 1916, the German Crown Prince Army Group , to which François belonged. On May 20, 1925, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Tübingen for his scientific merits .

family

He married Elisabeth Emma Olga von Besser (* 1859) on January 5, 1878 in Potsdam . The couple had a son:

Bernhard Hermann (Hardy) (1879–1956), German actor and director

⚭ 1902 (divorced) Hedwig Wagner

⚭ 1926 Gerda Falke (* 1899)

Awards

Order of the Crown, 1st class
Prussian service award cross
Honorary Commander Cross of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern
Commander II class of the House Order of Albrecht the Bear
Commander 1st class of the Order of the Zähringer Lion
Bavarian Military Merit Order II. Class
Commander first class of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Philip
Cross of Honor 1st Class of the Lippe House Order
Cross of Honor 2nd class of the Reussian Cross of Honor
Commander II class of the Duke of Saxony-Ernestine House Order
Cross of Honor from Schwarzburg II class
Chilean Order of Merit 1st Class
Commander of the Order of the Redeemer
Commander of the Knightly Order of Saints Mauritius and Lazarus
Black Eagle Order
Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class

Works

The German Crown Prince: The Soldier and Army Leader (Leipzig, Max Koch Verlag, 1926). (Note: The volume forms a two-volume complete work together with the political-biographical second volume written by Georg Freiherr von Eppstein : Der Deutsche Kronprinz: Der Mensch / der Staatsmann / der Historschreiber. )

literature

Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: AL. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 320-324.
Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: AG. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 , pp. 420-422.

Web links

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

Literature by and about Hermann von François in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 8, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1941], DNB 367632837 , p. 243, no. 2580.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Prussian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914, p. 52.

personal data
SURNAME	François, Hermann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	François, Hermann Karl Bruno von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Prussian general of the infantry in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH	January 31, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH	Luxembourg
DATE OF DEATH	May 15, 1933
Place of death	Berlin-Lichterfelde

[1] Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 8, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1941], DNB 367632837 , p. 243, no. 2580.

[Rangliste1914-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ Prussian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914, p. 52.