Ludwig von Gebsattel

Ludwig Freiherr von Gebsattel

Ludwig Hermann Freiherr von Gebsattel (born January 15, 1857 in Würzburg , † September 20, 1930 in Munich ) was a Bavarian officer , most recently a general of the cavalry and holder of the Military Max Joseph Order .

Life

origin

Ludwig was the son of Victor Emil Freiherr von Gebsattel , court marshal of the queen widow of Greece , and his wife Emma, ​​née Freiin von Guttenberg .

Military career

After completing his schooling in a humanistic grammar school , he was accepted as a pupil in the pagerie . On August 7, 1875 he joined the 1st Uhlan Regiment of the Bavarian Army as a portepéefähnrich , in which he was promoted to second lieutenant on November 23, 1877 .

During his assignment to the War Academy (1887 to 1890) he was promoted to Prime Lieutenant on October 31, 1888 . On November 1, 1891, he was given a command of the General Staff for a year, but on May 6, 1892 he was appointed Adjutant of the 1st Cavalry Brigade and assigned to the Staff of the IV Army Inspection. Promoted to Rittmeister on August 25, 1892 , he was appointed squadron chief in the 1st Uhlan Regiment on September 20, 1892 . On February 4, 1897, he was transferred to the central office of the General Staff. On October 28, 1897 Freiherr von Gebsattel was promoted to major and transferred to the 2nd division . On October 1, 1899, he was assigned to the Prussian General Staff for two years . On August 12, 1900, he received a command as a General Staff Officer at the Army High Command of the East Asian Expeditionary Corps under Colonel Maximilian Graf Yorck von Wartenburg in Beijing . On August 8, 1901, he was returned to the Central Office of the General Staff and he was transferred to the General Staff of the II Army Corps . On February 11th, he received explicit recognition from the War Ministry for his notes on the allied contingents in the China campaign . On June 8, 1902 he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the III. Army Corps and promoted to lieutenant colonel in this capacity on July 14, 1902 . From March 3, 1904, Gebsattel was active as a military representative in Berlin and as an authorized representative at the Federal Council of the German Empire. On September 21, 1904 he was promoted to colonel . In August 1906 he took part in the Kaiser maneuvers of the XIII. and XVIII. Army Corps. On August 15, 1906, he was awarded the rank and fees of brigade commander, and on March 8, 1907, he was actually appointed major general and brigade commander. Promoted to Lieutenant General on April 22, 1910 , he took command of the 2nd Division on December 15, 1911. On March 19, 1914 was appointed General of the Cavalry and Commanding General of III. Army Corps appointed.

First World War

Until August 2, 1914, Gebsattel had his III. Army Corps deploy south-east of Metz near Remilly and Falkenberg. On August 16, 1914, he led the corps back to the western bank of the German Nied as ordered. In the course of the Battle of Lorraine , he advanced south on August 20, 1914, pierced the lines of the French 68th Reserve Division at Delme and reached the Delme-Fresnes line by August 21 in the evening. From the 6th Army he received orders to pursue the enemy against the Meurthe and to cover the army's right flank against Nancy . After he was able to penetrate to Maixe and over the Rhine-Marne Canal , he was initially by a counterattack of the French XX. Army Corps and parts of the French IX. Army Corps brought to a standstill. Then he let his troops go into position. On September 12, 1914, he and his corps moved east of Nancy from the enemy unnoticed and reached Metz (→ Metz Fortress ) by September 19, 1914 . Here he was subordinated to the Strantz Army Division and was commissioned to advance from Champley via the Côtes Lorraines to St. Bénoit. With a focus on the right, he let his 6th Infantry Division advance quickly over the Maashee to St. Mihiel . After a French attack on the northern flank was parried from the movement, he ordered the removal of the eastern bank of the Meuse and the Camp des Romains fort on September 24, 1914. On the afternoon of September 24th, St. Mihiel was in German hands, the bridge over the Maas to Chauvoncourt taken in one stroke and a bridgehead formed. Although the Fort Camp des Romains was not yet completely ready for attack by the heavy artillery, he dared to attack the fort, which was stormed on September 25, 1914. For this he received the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order No. 27 "because of his courageous and determined action in the removal of the Camp des Romains fort", especially since his neighboring large associations did not succeed in penetrating as far as the Maas.

On October 8, 1914, he took up the replacement division and ordered it to dig itself into the Ailly forest. He was able to repel all of the French attacks carried out in October and November 1914 without losing ground. From the end of March 1915 on, the French tried to push in the promontory and took action against the German positions in the forests of Ailly and Apresmont using saps and mine tunnels . With a concentrated attack of the 6th Infantry Division he was able to thwart the enemy maneuvers and improve his own situation even further, so that no more French attacks came about in this section of the front for the next few months.

In the course of the autumn battle in Champagne from September 22nd to November 3rd, 1915 he was able to prevent the loss of the positions south of Tahure through the deployment of the Corps Reserve (5th Infantry Division) on September 24th, 1915 and maintain all positions but the division lost 2000 men. During the summer battle, Gebsattel and his corps were introduced to the front at Flers from September 8, 1916, in order to initially strengthen the already badly damaged II Army Corps and to replace it from September 18, 1916. On September 25, 1916, he was still able to repel the English attacks, when the British rolled over the 6th Infantry Division with tanks the following day, he was only able to hold the line with the help of non-Bavarian troops. On October 4, 1916 he was awarded the Pour le Mérite order . Until October 12, 1916 he withstood the attacks of the British and ended them in front of the Ligny-Le Transloy line. After that, the I. Army Corps took over the front section. After the difficult weeks for the III. Army corps appointed King Ludwig III. Gebsattel to the commander of the Military Max Joseph Order “because of his outstanding achievements as leader of the III. b. Army Corps in the war years 1914-1916 ”. On January 12, 1917, he handed over command of the III. Army Corps to Lieutenant General Freiherr von Stein and was soon put up for disposition . He was given the position of Deputy Commanding General of the II Army Corps. In 1919 he was relieved of his war posting and honored from the army.

family

Gebsattel married Sophie Olsufieff on February 26, 1883 in Moscow . The marriage resulted in a son, Hans (1884–1926), and a daughter, Maria (1885–1958).

literature

• Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: The royal Bavarian military Max-Joseph-Order. Self-published by the kb Military Max Joseph Order. Munich 1966.
• Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen , Friedrichfranz Feeser : The Bavaria book of the world wars 1914-1918. Belser. Stuttgart 1930.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ludwig von Gebsattel in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted from Rudolf v. Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order . Self-published by the kb Militär-Max-Joseph-Order, Munich 1966.
2. ↑ quoted from Rudolf v. Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Self-published by the kb Militär-Max-Joseph-Order, Munich 1966.