Otto von Below

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Otto von Below, 1917
General von Below

Otto Ernst Vincent Leo von Below (* 18th January 1857 in Gdansk ; † 9. March 1944 in broom Hausen ) was a Prussian general of the infantry in the First World War . He became particularly well-known for his function as Commander-in-Chief of the 14th Army, consisting of German and Austro-Hungarian troops, at the Battle of Karfreit in 1917.

Life

origin

Otto came from the old noble family von Below . He was the eldest son of the later Prussian Lieutenant General Hugo von Below (1824-1905) and his wife Alexandra Ludowika Friederike, born von Lupinski (1827-1898). His two younger brothers Hans and Günther Friedrich Wilhelm also embarked on a military career.

Military career

Below graduated from high schools in Wiesbaden and Weilburg . He then visited the cadet institutions in Oranienstein and Berlin and was transferred on April 15, 1875 as a second lieutenant to the Fusilier Regiment "von Gersdorff" (Kurhessisches) No. 80 of the Prussian Army in Wiesbaden. He attended the War Academy from 1884 to 1887 and joined the General Staff in 1889 . After working for the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Grenadier Regiment No. 89 in Schwerin , Below was appointed First General Staff Officer (Ia) of the 27th Division (2nd Royal Württemberg) in Ulm in 1894 . In 1897 he became a major battalion commander in the fusilier regiment "Prince Heinrich of Prussia" (Brandenburg) No. 35 . In 1902 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the regimental staff of the infantry regiment "Margrave Karl" (7th Brandenburg) No. 60 , which was located in Weißenburg . Shortly after his promotion to colonel , he took over the infantry regiment "von Courbière" (2. Posensches) No. 19 in Görlitz in April 1905 , and in March 1909 the 43rd infantry brigade of the 22nd Division in Kassel under promotion to major general . His last pre-war position from April 1912 was that of the commander of the 2nd division with headquarters in Königsberg , for which he was promoted to lieutenant general.

When mobilizing for World War I , Below was appointed Commanding General of the I. Reserve Corps on August 2, 1914 . After the battles at Gumbinnen and Tannenberg , he was promoted to General of the Infantry on August 30, 1914. As such, he led the corps into the battle of the Masurian Lakes in East Prussia . On November 8th he became commander in chief of the 8th Army , which from May to December 1915 was known as the Nyemen Army .

From October 11, 1916 he was Commander-in-Chief of the German-Bulgarian troops on the Salonika Front , which were combined as the Army Group "Below".

"In the presence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Group, General von Below, who was himself in the combat area, Lauenburg hunters stormed the height of 1212, the key point of the German and Bulgarian positions in the Cerna Arch, in freezing cold and blowing snow, and wrested this important height from the Serbs"

- from the army report of November 18, 1916

Crown Prince Boris III, who is also staying with his troops . from Bulgaria reported this act to Sofia , from there it came to Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria , who forwarded it directly to the Emperor at the Great Headquarters . The latter immediately appointed von Below to be chief of the Lauenburg Jäger Battalion No. 9 in Ratzeburg .

On April 23, 1917, he temporarily assumed the 6th Army on the Western Front and on September 9, 1917, for use on the Italian front contracted 14th Army . With this army, composed of nine Austro-Hungarian and six German divisions , he achieved his most important military success in the Battle of Karfreit (Italian: Caporetto), the 12th and last Isonzo battle , in October and November 1917 against the Italian army under the command of General Luigi Cadorna . The battle ended in a catastrophic defeat for the Italians, who lost more than 300,000 men (including about 270,000 prisoners of war) and half of their heavy artillery . The Italian front could only be stabilized on the Piave with Allied military aid .

On February 1, 1918, Below was given command of the newly formed 17th Army , which was one of the three shock armies in the German Michael Offensive in March 1918. On October 12, 1918, he was still Commander-in-Chief of the 1st Army before, a few days before the armistice, on November 8, he was commissioned with the organization of Homeland Security West .

After the November Revolution, Below was on December 28, 1918 Commanding General of the XVII. Army corps with which he was deployed at the Eastern Border Guard in West Prussia . After the German acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles , he retired on June 27, 1919.

Below was a member of the Pan-German Association and the German National People's Party . He was active in the Patriotic Associations of Northern Germany, which he temporarily chaired, and was involved in several putsch plans against the republic until 1923. He spent his old age in Kassel .

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto von Below  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto von Below in the online version of the edition files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic
  2. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 10, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1942], DNB 986919810 , pp. 453-454, no. 3323.
  3. ↑ Curt Badinski : From a great time. Reminder sheets of the Jäger-Feld-Battalion No. 9. World War 1914–1918. Vol. 2 ; Ratzeburg 1933, Lauenburgischer Heimatverlag, HHC Freystatzky's printing house
  4. ^ Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: VIRTUTI PRO PATRIA. The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order of War Deeds and Book of Honor 1914–1918. Self-published by the Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Munich 1966. p. 448.
personal data
SURNAME Below, Otto von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Below, Otto Ernst Vinzent Leo von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1944
Place of death Besenhausen