Karl von Lobenhoffer

Karl Lobenhoffer , since 1894 Knight von Lobenhoffer (born September 4, 1843 in Erding , † October 19, 1901 in Munich ) was a Bavarian lieutenant general and chief of the army general staff .

Life

origin

Karl was the son of a district judge. His younger brother was the Bavarian artillery general Friedrich von Lobenhoffer (1850-1918).

Military career

After attending the Latin and Trade School , Lobenhoffer joined the 1st Artillery Regiment "Prince Luitpold" of the Bavarian Army on October 1, 1861 . As Junker , he moved in 1863 to the 9th Infantry Regiment "Wrede" and was promoted after finishing the military academy in Munich a year later for a second lieutenant in the 12th Infantry Regiment "King Otto of Greece" . At the beginning of the war against Prussia in 1866, Lobenhoffer was initially an orderly officer in the Reserve Infantry Brigade and took part in the battle at Roßbrunn in the same capacity with the 7th Infantry Brigade .

Lobenhoffer was promoted to first lieutenant on August 1, 1866 and graduated from the military academy from 1868 , which he had to leave prematurely with the mobilization on the occasion of the war against France in 1870. As an orderly officer of the 3rd Infantry Brigade , he took part in the battles at Beaumont and Sedan and was seriously wounded on December 2, 1870 during the advance of his large unit in the battle of Loigny and Poupry . After just six weeks he returned to his brigade outside Paris , not yet fully restored.

Awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Military Merit and the Iron Cross II. Class, he continued his studies at the War Academy after the peace treaty and graduated in 1872 with the qualification for the General Staff and the Higher Adjutantur. This was followed by his commandments to the General Staff of the Army and as adjutant of the 2nd Infantry Brigade . At the same time he taught tactics in 1872/77 and 1879 as well as war history and the history of the art of war at the war academy in 1880 . After his promotion to captain , Lobenhoffer was second general staff officer in the General Command of the 1st Army Corps in 1875/77 and was then commanded as a company commander in the 1st Infantry Regiment "König" under position à la suite of the General Staff . In 1880 he returned to the General Staff of the Army and three years later to the General Staff of the 1st Division . In the following year he was assigned to the Great General Staff of the Prussian Army in Berlin . In this position he was promoted to major in mid-December 1883 and, after completing this command, was employed as a railway line commissioner. From 1887 Lobenhoffer was department head in the general staff of the army, rose to lieutenant colonel and at the same time took on a teaching position (army organization or general staff service) at the war academy in 1889/90. After a year as Chief of the General Staff of the 1st Army Corps, Colonel Lobenhoffer resigned in mid-March 1891 when he was appointed commander of the 10th Infantry Regiment "King Ludwig" . He was then from June 14, 1894 to December 31, 1896 as major general in command of the 3rd Infantry Brigade in Augsburg .

In this capacity, Prince Regent Luitpold awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown on January 20, 1895 . With the award the elevation to the personal nobility was connected and he was allowed to call himself “Ritter von Lobenhoffer” after the entry in the nobility register .

On December 27, 1896, Lobenhoffer was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Army and at the same time entrusted with running the business as the inspector of the military training institutions. At the side of Prince Leopold of Bavaria , he took part in the imperial maneuvers in 1897 , in which the Bavarian troops faced the Prussian army for the first time in peaceful competition. For his careful planning and execution, Kaiser Wilhelm II then awarded him the Crown Order II. Class with a star.

Prince Regent Luitpold paid tribute to him in March 1901 by awarding him the Order of Merit of St. Michael I Class. After completing the General Staff trip, Lobenhoffer took part in a multi-day target practice on the Lechfeld in the summer to personally find out about the effects of the new light field howitzers. Then he went to the large field train exercises of the traffic troops near Berlin, which particularly interested him. As a result of overexertion, Lobenhoffer died of a stroke while doing his job .

family

Lobenhoffer married Elisa Forbes in 1874. The marriage had two children.

literature

• Othmar Hackl : The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-10490-8 , p. 512.
• Lieutenant General Ritter v. Lobenhoffer †. In: Military weekly paper . No. 94 of October 26, 1910, pp. 2477-2480.
• Anton Bettelheim (Hrsg.): Biographisches Jahrbuch und Deutscher Nekrolog. VI. Volume: From January 1 to December 31, 1901. Georg Reimer, Berlin 1904, pp. 315-316.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Othmar Hackl: The Bavarian War Academy (1867-1914). CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-10490-8 , p. 512.