Ludwig von Falkenhausen

General von Falkenhausen

Ludwig Alexander Friedrich August Philipp Freiherr von Falkenhausen (born September 13, 1844 in Guben , † May 4, 1936 in Görlitz ) was a Prussian Colonel General and Governor General in Belgium during the First World War .

Life

Tomb for Ludwig von Falkenhausen

origin

Ludwig was the son of the later Prussian Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Eduard Alexander Freiherr von Falkenhausen (1821-1889) and his wife Katharina, born von Rouanet (1825-1907).

Military career

Falkenhausen first attended a private school in Berlin and then from May 1856 the cadet institution in Potsdam. In 1859 he moved to the Hauptkadettenanstalt in Berlin. In May 1862 he was transferred to the 1st Guards Regiment on foot . Between October 1865 and the end of July 1868, Falkenhausen was assigned to the War Academy , and in May 1866 he was also adjutant in the replacement battalion. He later became a regimental adjutant of the Combined Guard Reserve Infantry Regiment. In 1866 he took part in the campaign in the Main Army. Between October 1868 and the end of May 1869 he was in service with the Guard Field Artillery Regiment and in September 1869 he became a regimental adjutant.

In the Franco-Prussian War he took part in the battles near Gravelotte-St. Private , Beaumont and Sedan and took part in the siege of Paris . At the end of 1870 he was released from his position as regimental adjutant. From July 1871 he served as an adjutant of the 28th division in Karlsruhe .

In the following years he was transferred several times: from the Fusilier Regiment "Prince Karl-Anton von Hohenzollern" (Hohenzollernsches) No. 40 to the General Staff of the Army, later to the General Staff of the 16th Division in Trier and to the General Staff of the 8th Army -Corps to Koblenz . In 1885 he was transferred to the 5th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 65 as commander of the 1st Battalion in Cologne . In March 1887 Falkenhausen became Chief of the General Staff of the Guard Corps . In June 1890 he commanded the Queen Augusta Guards Grenadier Regiment No. 4 in Koblenz, two years later led the 29th Infantry Brigade in Cologne and in 1893 became Chief Quartermaster of the Chief of the Army General Staff. Between 1893 and 1895 he was also a member of the study commission of the War Academy.

After working in the War Ministry , he became director of the General War Department in January 1895. In February 1895 he was appointed deputy representative in the Federal Council. In January 1897 he was commander of the 2nd Guard Division in Berlin and finally in 1899 commanding general of the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps . In March 1902 he retired and began studying war science.

First World War

In August 1914, as part of the mobilization , Falkenhausen became the commanding general of the replacement corps of the 6th Army with three replacement divisions. As Commander-in-Chief of the Falkenhausen Army Department , he commanded the German troops in 1914/15 during the fighting for the Delmer Ridge and in 1915/16 during the trench warfare in Lorraine . For his services, Falkenhausen was awarded the highest Prussian bravery award, the order Pour le Mérite on August 23, 1914 and the oak leaves on April 15, 1916. Furthermore, on September 15, 1915, he received the Cross of Knights of the Military Order of St. Henry from the King of Saxony .

After a short time as commander of the German coastal defense in the Hamburg area between April and September 1916, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 6th Army on September 28 and commanded them during the retreat to the Siegfriedstellung and in the spring battle near Arras in April 1917. Da Falkenhausen could not stop the British advances, he was replaced in April 1917 by General of the Infantry Erich Ludendorff as commander of the 6th Army. On April 22, 1917 he succeeded Moritz von Bissing as Governor General for the General Government of Belgium .

Falkenhausen died on May 4, 1936 in Görlitz. He is buried in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin. The grave is preserved.

family

Falkenhausen married on September 17, 1868, their first marriage to Helene von Waldow and Reitzenstein (1847–1886) and their second marriage on March 10, 1902, to Alice Petzold (1863–1947). From his first marriage he had the son Friedrich , who became an administrative lawyer. The daughter Katharina Helene Margarete Elsa (1872–1949) married Adolf von Deines (1845–1911) in 1898 .

Awards

• Knight of the High Order of the Black Eagle

Others

Falkenhausen has been namesake of the Falkenhausenschule in Kehl, which was founded in the same year, since December 1915 . The Kehler municipal council wanted to honor him for his services in sparing the city from a French attack.

literature

• Hermann Gackenholz:  Falkenhausen, Ludwig von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 11 ( digitized version ).
• Genealogical handbook of the baronial houses. Series B, Volume 4 (= Genealogical Handbook of the Adels , Volume 39), CA Starke, Limburg an der Lahn 1967, p. 228.
• Benoit Majerus: From Falkenhausen to Falkenhausen. The German administration of Belgium in the two world wars . In: G. Kronenbitter, M. Pöhlmann, D. Walter (Ed.): Occupation. Function and shape of foreign military rule from antiquity to the 20th century , Paderborn, Schöningh, 2006, pp. 131-145.
• von Falkenhausen, Freiherr: The great war of the present time. A study of the movement and struggle of the mass armies of the 20th century , Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, Berlin, 1909.
• von Falkenhausen, Freiherr: Training for the war: Part I: The basis for the higher leader; Part II: The Troops ' Exercises , Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin, 1902.
• von Falkenhausen, Freiherr: 'Memories from the World War' (unpublished copy in the military archive of the Federal Archives, BArch, N 21/1)

Web links

Commons : Ludwig von Falkenhausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ludwig von Falkenhausen . In: East German Biography (Kulturportal West-Ost)
• Newspaper article about Ludwig von Falkenhausen in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 9, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1941], DNB 986919780 , pp. 479-480, no. 3023.
2. ↑ Homepage Pour Le Mérite
3. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrich Order. 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 224.
4. ↑ Inauguration of the Falkenhausenschule without Wurst und Wecken ( memento of the original from July 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Kehler city news 

predecessor	Office	successor
Moritz von Bissing	Governor General of Belgium 1917–1918	-