Oskar Stein von Kaminski

Oskar Wilhelm Stein von Kaminski (born December 21, 1820 in Breslau , † May 24, 1894 in Menton , France ) was a Prussian lieutenant general .

Life

origin

Oskar was the son of the Prussian Lieutenant General Karl Stein von Kaminski (1789–1872) and his wife Maria Aurora, née Gordack (1793–1885). The later Prussian major general Rudolf Stein von Kaminski (1818–1875) was his older brother.

Military career

Kaminski graduated from high school in his hometown and then visited the cadet houses in Potsdam and Berlin . On August 15, 1838 he was transferred to the Prussian Army as a Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot . For further training he was assigned to the General War School for three years from October 1842 . Since Kaminski graduated as the best graduate of his year, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV awarded him a sword of honor . In May 1847 he was assigned to the topographic office . As part of the March Revolution , Kaminski was seriously wounded on March 18, 1848 when the Berlin barricade fighting was suppressed . After his restoration, he was assigned to the Guard Landwehr Battalion in Düsseldorf at the beginning of May 1849 .

During the suppression of the Baden Revolution , Kaminski was deployed in the battles near Kuppenheim and Kirchheimbolanden in 1849 . After commanding as a general staff officer of the mobile 3rd Guard Landwehr Division and for border regulation to Schleswig and Holstein , he rose to prime lieutenant in mid-March 1852 . In June of the same year Kaminski was in command as a company commander in the Guard Landwehr Battalion. From April 1, 1854, he was sent to Paris for two years to learn the French language . During this command he became a captain in mid-August 1858 . After his return, Kaminski was initially active in the General Staff of the General Command of the Guard Infantry. This was followed by assignments in the General Staff of the 1st Guard Division and in the General Staff of the VIII Army Corps in Koblenz . For a short time Kaminski was also in charge of regulating the border to Montenegro as the Prussian commissioner . With his promotion to major , he was transferred to the General Staff on January 18, 1859 . From January 10th to July 30th, 1860 he was again a member of the General Staff of the VIII Army Corps. Subsequently, Kaminski was aggregated to the General Staff of the Army and commanded as a military attaché to the legation in Paris. In 1862/63 he took part under General Bazaine in the French army in Mexico in the battles near Santa Cruz, Mexico City , San Lorenzo and the siege of Puebla .

After his return from Mexico, Kaminski was assigned to the General Staff as a lieutenant colonel in mid-November 1863. The French government recognized him by awarding him the Commander's Cross of the Legion of Honor and his king awarded Kaminski the Order of the Red Eagle III. Class with swords. He took part in the war against Denmark in 1864, was assigned to the General Staff in April 1865 and two months later was appointed commander of the Fusilier Battalion in the 1st Magdeburg Infantry Regiment No. 26 . From April 3, 1866, Kaminski was in command of the 2nd Upper Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 23 , became a colonel on June 8, 1866 and led his unit in the same year during the war against Austria in the battle of Königgrätz and the blockade of Josephstadt . After the war, on July 20, 1867, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the 1st Army Corps in Königsberg . Since he did not harmonize with the commanding general von Manteuffel , Kaminski was appointed XI on January 13, 1870, on the basis of a positive assessment by the chief of staff of the von Moltke army as chief of the general staff . Army corps transferred to Kassel .

After mobilization on the occasion of the war against France , Kaminski advanced to major general in July 1870 and took part in the battles at Weißenburg , Wörth and Sedan , the bombardment of Pfalzburg and the siege of Paris . Awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , he was appointed commander of the newly established 61st Infantry Brigade in Strasbourg after the preliminary peace at Versailles at the end of March 1871 . In the following months Kaminski received the Commander's Cross of the House Order of the White Falcon , the Grand Commander of the Bavarian Military Merit Order , the Commander First Class with Swords of the Saxony-Ernestine House Order and the Commander First Class of the Albrecht Order for his work during the war . With his promotion to lieutenant general on September 24, 1875, he was transferred to Munster as commander of the 13th division . Due to illness he had to give up this command, was transferred to the officers of the army on December 22, 1877 and was given ten weeks' leave to restore his health with full salary in Nice . Since there was no improvement, Kaminski was put up for disposal on August 27, 1878 with the award of the Order of the Red Eagle First Class with oak leaves and swords on the ring with the statutory pension .

Burial site in the Menton cemetery

Kaminski died unmarried in Menton on the Côte d'Azur .

literature

• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 8, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1941], DNB 367632837 , pp. 216-218, no. 2569.