Kurt Kruge

Konrad Kurt Kruge (born March 20, 1857 at Gut Auhof, Braunsberg district , † August 29, 1926 in Goslar ) was a Prussian lieutenant general .

Life

At the age of ten he joined the cadet corps in Wahlstatt on May 1, 1867 and moved to the cadet institute in Berlin on May 1, 1871 . As portepee - ensign he was transferred to the 1st Posenen Infantry Regiment No. 18 of the Prussian Army in Glatz on April 23, 1874 and promoted to second lieutenant on November 12, 1874 . As such, he was assigned to the military gymnasium from 1877 and in the following years for the period from October 1 to February 28 . From 1878 he was an assistant teacher there . After Kruge returned in 1880, he was assigned to the Hauptkadettenanstalt as an educator on November 16, 1880 . As a teacher of gymnastics and drawing plans, he worked there from April 2, 1881. By order of March 17, 1883, he became an educator again from April 1. When he was promoted to Prime Lieutenant on July 12, 1884, he was placed à la suite of his regiment . He was released from his command of the Hauptkadettenanstalt on May 1, 1885 and returned to his regiment. On September 16, 1885, he was again assigned to the main cadet institute as an educator, and on March 11, 1886, he was assigned à la suite of the regiment and transferred 14 days later to the cadet corps.

Transferred to the 8th Company of the 4th Grand Ducal Hessian Infantry Regiment (Prince Carl) No. 118 in Worms on April 1, 1888. While being promoted to captain , on March 24, 1890, Kruge was appointed leader of the 4th company at the non-commissioned officers' school in Potsdam , à la suite of the regiment . With the transfer to the 1st Westphalian Infantry Regiment No. 13 in Münster , he was appointed chief of the 12th Company on August 18, 1894 . As such, he took part from July 27 to August 7, 1897 in a training trip of the General Staff of the VII Army Corps .

With his promotion to major on September 13, 1899, he was aggregated to Infantry Regiment No. 163 in Neumünster as a staff officer and surplus major . To the commander of the III. On October 18, 1900, Kruge was appointed battalion in the Infantry Regiment "Graf Bose" (1st Thuringian) No. 31 in Altona . On April 22, 1905, Kruge was appointed the highest-ranking officer of the Lauenburg Jäger Battalion No. 9 in Ratzeburg and thus its commander. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 10, 1906. Kruge was promoted to colonel on March 24, 1909 , and on April 2, appointed commander of the 2nd Lower Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 47 in Poznan . The Bavarian King Ludwig III. , who was the head of this regiment, awarded Kruge in 1911 the Cross of Honor of the Order of Merit of St. Michael and the Officer's Cross of the Order of Military Merit . With the rank and fees of a brigade commander, Kruge was then commissioned on April 22, 1912 to lead the 71st Infantry Brigade in Danzig . While he was promoted to major general on May 2, 1912, he became their regular commander.

With the mobilization on the occasion of the outbreak of the First World War , he was given command of the 36th Reserve Division , which was used by the 8th Army under Prittwitz and Gaffron on the Eastern Front . Kruge commanded his large unit in the battles near Gawaiten-Gumbinnen , Tannenberg , the Masurian Lakes and near Göritten . By September 14, 1914, he had been awarded both classes of the Iron Cross for his achievements . Kruge took Insterburg and was involved in the trench warfare of Wirballen before his division on November 9, 1914 came to the 9th Army under Mackensen . He commanded his division in the battles near Włocławek , Łódź , Łowicz - Sanniki , Humin and Wola Szydłowiecka .

His division was subordinated to the Army Group "Gallwitz" on February 15, 1915 and was in the trench warfare at Ślubowo , north of Przasnysz and at Jednorożec . Subordinated to the group "Lauenstein" since May 2nd, she took part in the battles for Rossienie before advancing to Lithuania and Courland . In mid-May 1915, his division became part of the Nyemen Army Kruge, who had been promoted to Lieutenant General on June 18, 1915, and took part with his division in the battles for Schaulen , Schimanzy-Ponedei and Dünaburg . During the latter, his division was subordinated to the "Scholtz" army division from November 1st . After four weeks, the large unit returned to the Nyemen Army, which was to become the 8th Army again from December 30, 1915. This was followed by the battle in Kekkau and trench warfare in front of Riga . The Southern Army was assigned its division from September 18, 1915 and fought at the end of the Brusilov Offensive in the Battle of Brzezany and the Third Battle between Narajowka and Zlota Lipa .

On December 22, 1916, Kruge was appointed commander of the 22nd Infantry Division fighting in Army Group Linsingen . With her he fought in the trench warfare on the upper Styr to the Stochod , east of Zloczów , in the breakthrough battle in eastern Galicia and the trench warfare on the Sereth .

On August 25, 1917, Kruge was appointed governor of Cologne with the award of the star to the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class with oak leaves and swords . With the approval of his resignation request , he was put up for disposal on November 24, 1917 with the statutory pension .

Kruge spent his old age in Goslar, where he died on August 29, 1926.

His only son, a lieutenant in the Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 1 , was killed in action near Sieradz on September 21, 1914 at the beginning of the war .

Fonts

• Contribution to teaching about arrests and the use of weapons. 1908.

literature

• GStA PK , I. HA Rep. 92 estate of Kurt von Priesdorff , (copy BA-MA) N-556 / 8-78
• Julius von Basse: Stammliste of the infantry regiment "Herwarth von Bittenfeld" (1st Westphalian). Westfälische Vereindruckerei, Münster 1913.
• Ehrenreich von Nussbaum: Addendum to the history of the Infantry Regiment Graf Bose (1st Thuringian) No. 31. Lütke & Wulff, 1912.
• Richard Nesselhauf: History of the Grolman Infantry Regiment (1. Posenschen). Berlin 1913, ES Mittler & Sohn .
• Wilhelm von Voss: The 2nd Lower Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 47. Verlag R. Eisenschmidt, Berlin 1910.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Up to May 26, 1915, the Nyemen Army was still called “8. Army".
2. ^ Military weekly paper . No. 34 of September 18, 1917, p. 909.
3. ^ Military weekly paper. No. 66 of December 1, 1917, p. 1681.
4. ↑ The tombs of historicism and reform art ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.