Karl von Rettberg (Lieutenant General)

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Karl von Rettberg

Karl von Rettberg (born March 10, 1870 in Jauer , † March 26, 1945 in Bensberg ) was a German lieutenant general .

Life

On March 24, 1890, Rettberg joined the 1st Baden Leib Grenadier Regiment No. 109 in Karlsruhe as a second lieutenant from the Cadet Corps . Here he served in the first company in the coming years and was promoted to lieutenant on June 15, 1898 and to captain on September 15, 1905 . As such, he was transferred to Berlin on December 19, 1905 and was appointed company commander in the Emperor Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 . Rettberg held the same position from June 19, 1909 to October 17, 1911 with the 1st Guards Regiment on foot . He then went over to the marine infantry and became company commander in the I. Seebataillon in Kiel .

First World War

After the outbreak of the First World War , the marine infantry also made mobile . Rettberg was promoted to major on August 19, 1914 and shortly thereafter battalion commander in Sailor Regiment 1. In association with the Marine Division , it took part in the siege and conquest of the fortress of Antwerp . He then came with his regiment for the next two years to protect the coast of Flanders . During the battles there he suffered a knee injury and after his recovery was used from November 10, 1916 to January 1, 1917 as leader of the Sailor Infantry Spare Battalion 1 in Bruges . He then returned to his old regiment, which at that time was on the Somme - Ancre front. During the fighting near Bapaume , he was entrusted with the command of the 1st Sailor Infantry Regiment for four weeks.

On April 23, 1917, Rettberg returned to the Prussian Army and at the same time was appointed commander of the Leibgarde Infantry Regiment (1st Grand Ducal Hessian) No. 115 . At that time the regiment was in the Siegfried position on the western edge of St. Quentin . From September 21, 1917 it was used in the Third Battle of Flanders . During the fighting there, on October 4, Rettberg was also subordinated to the combat troops of the 25th Division , consisting of Infantry Regiments No. 116 , 117 and Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 78 . With these he succeeded in repelling the British units that had invaded north of the division and preventing the strategically important Zandvoorder Höhe from being taken away . At the same time, he was able to counter-attack and regain lost ground. After the heavy and loss-making battles, he and his regiment were withdrawn from the front on October 7th and relocated to the vicinity of Moerbeke to refresh .

On November 14, 1917, Rettberg had to surrender command of the regiment to his successor Eduard von Westhoven due to severe typhoid fever and was therefore transferred to the army officers at the same time.

For his achievements during the Battle of Flanders on October 4, 1917, Wilhelm II awarded him the highest Prussian valor award, the Order Pour le Mérite , on November 24, 1917 .

After Rettberg was able to work again, on April 13, 1918, he was given command of the infantry regiment "Grand Duke of Saxony" (5th Thuringian) No. 94 . In the following years he fought at Armentières , Chaulnes and Péronne . During the Battle of Mont St. Quentin , von Rettberg was wounded in the left shoulder when he personally intervened in the face-to-face fight. Despite being wounded, he stayed with his troops and then retreated to the Siegfried Line with them. After four weeks of defensive battles between Cambrai and St. Quentin, they returned to the Hermann position and then took part in the battles on the Deûle Canal and the Scheldt in the last weeks of the war .

Post-war years

From there Rettberg led his regiment after the ceasefire in the garrison to Weimar back to where it on 18 December 1918 demobilized was. Rettberg was then reappointed commander of the Leibgarde Infantry Regiment (1st Grand Ducal Hessian) No. 115 on December 23, 1918. After the demobilization, the Hessian Freikorps was formed, with Rettberg acting as its commander.

Due to his experience, Rettberg was taken over into the provisional Reichswehr and was first battalion commander in Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 22 from May 16 to September 30, 1920 and then until September 19, 1921 in the same position in Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 15, the later 15th Infantry Regiment . In the meantime he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 18, 1920 .

On September 20, 1921, he was accepted into the Army Peace Commission and on January 1, 1922, he was appointed head of the Frankfurt am Main liaison office, based in Darmstadt , which acted as the German liaison office to the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission . After he had been given the character of a colonel on March 20, 1922 , Rettberg received the patent for this rank on December 1, 1925 . On July 31, 1926, Rettberg was retired from active service while being awarded the status of major general .

Rettberg received the character of Lieutenant General on August 27, 1939, the so-called Tannenberg Day. Shortly before the end of World War II, he was wounded by an American grenade . On March 26, 1945, he succumbed to his injuries in Bensberg near Cologne .

Awards

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 978-3-7648-2586-7 , pp. 112-114.
  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume II: M-Z. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 190–191.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ranking list of the Imperial German Navy , Ed .: Marinekabinett , Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1916, p. 89.
  2. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Deiß: The Hessians in World War 1914-1918 according to reports and records of fellow combatants with the support of the Hessian State Archives. Dr. Wilhelm Glaß & Co. Verlaganstalt Charlottenburg, p. 27.
  3. ^ Jürgen Kraus: Handbook of the units and troops of the German army 1914-1918. Part VI: Infantry. Volume 1: Infantry Regiments. Verlag Militaria, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902526-14-4 , p. 167.
  4. ^ Matthias Graf von Schmettow, Ingrid Grafin von Schmettow (ed.): Memorial book of the German nobility: supplement. CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1980, p. 41.
  5. ↑ a b c Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg Army Corps for 1914 , Ed .: War Ministry , Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Son , Berlin 1914, p. 1343.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag , Berlin 1924, p. 106.
personal data
SURNAME Rettberg, Karl von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Yeah
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1945
Place of death Bensberg