Oskar Haevernick

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Lieutenant General Oskar Haevernick, here with the Military Merit Cross 1st Class (under the Iron Cross 1st Class) and the Lübeck Hanseatic Cross

Oskar Theodor Haevernick (born November 26, 1854 in Nienhagen , † May 15, 1924 in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe ) was a Prussian lieutenant general in the First World War .

Life

origin

Oskar was the son of Theodor Louis Johann Haevernick (1826–1899), a land tenant and horse breeder in Nienhagen near Lalendorf and Schwiggerow and the temporary owner of the Magdalenenlust estate near Güstrow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. His mother was Helene Beate, née Staudinger (1832–1909). Haevernick had two younger sisters, Bertha (1860-1943) and Magdalene (1861-1945), who remained unmarried.

Military career

After training in cadet corps in Plön (1871) and Berlin (1874), Haevernick joined the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Fusilier Regiment “Kaiser Wilhelm” No. 90 in 1876 , where he was promoted to second lieutenant in 1877 . During that time he wrote a book on the history of this regiment. In 1884 he became a battalion adjutant. From 1887 to 1890 he graduated from the War Academy in Berlin. His tactics teacher there was the later President Paul von Hindenburg . In 1892 he was promoted to captain . In 1894 he was assigned to the military school in Neisse as a captain à la suite of his regular regiment and teacher .

In 1899, the movement occurs as a company commander in the Infantry Regiment "Prince Maurice of Anhalt-Dessau" (5th Pomeranian) no. 42 in the 6th Infantry Brigade ( 3rd Division ). At this point he was already a major . From 1903 to 1904 he was ordered as a surplus major to the 1st Upper Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 167 in Kassel. In 1904 he became battalion commander in the Lübeck infantry regiment (3rd Hanseatic) No. 162 in Lübeck .

During the time he was in command of its 2nd Battalion, he took a lively interest in the issues affecting the city, which were devoted to the promotion of art-historical property and the redesign of the museum . In the spring of 1907 he was for the retiring John Nöhring the Board of Trade Museum chosen.

In 1908 Haevernick was appointed commander of the Hersfeld War School. Since June 30, 1912 he was the commander of the fusilier regiment "von Steinmetz" (West Prussian) No. 37 in Krotoschin of the 77th Infantry Brigade ( 10th Division ). In 1913 he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Order of the Griffins.

The 10th Reserve Division was used from August 22 to 27, 1914 in the battle of Longwy-Longuyon and the Othain Sector. During the fierce fighting, Haevernick went ahead of his troops and was shot in the lung. Fort Longwy was the first French fortress to be captured by German troops during the First World War . In other skirmishes, too, such as north of Bazailles, Haevernick led the regiment from the front.

In 1915, Haevernick was promoted to major general and served as commander of the 17th Landwehr Infantry Brigade. On August 10, 1915, he was wounded on missions in Russia and did not return to his unit until March 23, 1916. From January 2, 1917, he was commander of the 223rd Division and remained in the position until the end of the war. Under him, the division was used in the spring of 1918 against British troops in the battles at Tergnier and Quessy.

In September 1918, Haevernick was promoted to lieutenant general and passed in that rank in April 1919. He was wounded six times in the war. As a pensioner, he lived in Kassel and died there at the age of 69, despite an operation, from the long-term effects of serious lung injuries from the war.

The grave of Oskar Haevernick in the Mulang cemetery in Kassel.

Family and private

Haevernick was married to Elisabeth, née von Maltzan Freiin zu Wartenberg and Penzlin. He had two children. His son, Borwin Havernick (1896–1945), was an infantryman and later a fighter pilot in the First World War. In 1921 he had been dismissed from the Reichswehr as a first lieutenant , but in 1935 he was reactivated as a captain at the military replacement inspection in Berlin-Tempelhof . From 1940 he was active in the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris , in 1943 he became head of the Wehrweldamt in Rathenow . Most recently he was deployed as a lieutenant colonel in the battle for Berlin and fell there in the last days of the war. The daughter Thea Elisabeth was a well-known prehistorian who specialized in research on prehistoric glass finds.

Haevernick was friends with the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin , whom he had met through Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen , a relative of his wife. He also socialized with Fritz Reuter (they knew each other from an association for the maintenance of the Low German language), Haevernick also wrote Low German texts himself. Throughout his life he was interested in local and art-historical connections. During his stationing in Rostock, he suggested the expansion of the monastery church to the Holy Cross and was able to convince Duke Johann Albrecht to finance the project. He was also committed to the expansion of the St. Anne's Monastery in Lübeck for museum purposes. Finally, he supported the preservation of the ruins of the monastery in Bad Hersfeld.

Publications

  • Brief description of the history of the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Fusilier Regiment. 1788-1892. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1899.
  • From the ceramic collection of the Neiss Museum. in: Neisser annual reports. 1904.

Awards

Haevernick held the following awards:

For the care of a Siamese prince who stayed in Germany for a while, he received the command of the White Elephant Order of the Kingdom of Siam .

literature

  • Lilly von Nathusius: Johann Gottlob Nathusius (1760–1835) and his descendants as well as his nephew Moritz Nathusius with his descendants. Detmold 1964, p. 166.
  • Georg Steinhausen: A Mecklenburg from real meal and grain. Dedicated to the memory of General Haevernick. Obituary in: Mecklenburg newspaper. 20, 1925, p. 22ff.

References and comments

  1. ^ Government Gazette for Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Ed.), Bärensprungsche Hofbuchdruckerei, 1899, p. 253
  2. ↑ Notices to the members of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies, Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies (ed.), Gebr. Schönhoven, Kassel 1897, p. 4
  3. ↑ General Haevernick at the Battle of Longwy. In: Father-city sheets . Born 1915/16, No. 10, issue of December 5, 1915.
  4. ^ Military weekly paper . Volume 98, Part 2, ES Mittler & Sohn . 1913
  5. ↑ 10th Reserve Division, Calendar of battles and engagements at Militaerpass.net
  6. ↑ Colonel a. D. (signature illegible), memories of a personal kind of my Rgt.Kdr. from the time of the First World War. September 1970, Haevernick Family Archives, British Columbia
  7. ↑ Armand Léon von Ardenne , Hans Ferdinand Helmolt: The book of the great war. Volume 1, Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1920, p. 63.
  8. ↑ Wilhelm Heye : The history of the Landwehr corps in the world wars. 1914/1918. Volume 2, WG Korn, 1935, pp. 186, 341.
  9. ^ Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German armies, 1815-1939. The higher command posts, 1815-1939. Volume 1: Formation History and Staffing of the German Armed Forces, 1815-1939. Biblio-Verlag, 1990.
  10. ^ Gustav Goes: The great battle in France. (The day X), Under the steel helmet, individual fonts from the world wars. Kolk, 1933, pp. 67, 91.
  11. ↑ Richthofen was the brother of Haevernick's mother-in-law
  12. ↑ Ut de irst Tid from dat Kriegsjohr 1914. Breiw from a Meckelbörgeran sinen ollen Fründ in Güstrow. Opitz, Güstrow 1916, acc. Journal for German dialects. Deutscher Sprachverein (Ed.), Volume 12-14, 1917, p. 65 and Volume 15-18, 1920, p. 51
  13. ↑ War Ministry, Secret War Chancellery (ed.): Ranking list of the active service status of the royal Prussian army and the XIII. Royal Wuerttemberg Army Corps. Berlin 1901, p. 202.
personal data
SURNAME Haevernick, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haevernick, Oskar Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Lieutenant General in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Nienhagen
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1924
Place of death Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe