Paul Stern (Major General)

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Paul Stern

Paul Carl Reinhard Stern (born August 15, 1844 in Hamm , † November 25, 1912 in the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck ) was a Prussian major general .

Life

Paul was the son of a professor at the grammar school in Hamm and his wife Amalie, née Döring.

Military career

Stern first attended elementary school before moving to Hammer Gymnasium. He left this with a university entrance qualification .

As a one-year volunteer , Stern was assigned to the Westphalian Pioneer Battalion No. 7 of the Prussian Army in Deutz on October 1, 1863 . With this he moved in 1864 as part of the 13th Infantry Division of the combined Prussian Army Corps against Denmark in the Second Schleswig-Holstein War . When his battalion took part in the storming of the Düppeler Schanzen , he decided to become an officer .

On December 1, 1864, Stern was promoted to Portepeefähnrich and on November 2, 1865, he was assigned to the 3rd engineer inspection in Koblenz as an out-of-budget second lieutenant . Once again he proved himself in 1866 during the war against Austria in the battles near Münchengrätz and Königgrätz . After the war, he was transferred to the 4th engineer inspection in Berlin on June 4, 1868 . There, Stern was appointed engineer officer on September 12, 1868. During the war against France , Stern was commanded from August 18, 1870 to March 11, 1871 as an orderly officer to the staff of the 18th Division . He took part in the battles at Colombey , Mars-la-Tour , Gravelotte , Noisseville , Orléans , Beaugency and Le Mans and the siege of Metz . His achievements were honored by being awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class.

During his retirement in Lübeck, he wrote down his experiences in a book that was published several times.

After the preliminary peace at Versailles , Stern was transferred to the Holstein Infantry Regiment No. 85 in Kiel on March 5, 1871 at his own request . There he became Premier Lieutenant on February 26, 1872 . From mid-June to early September 1872, Stern was briefly assigned to the Plön Cadet House as an educator . From October 1, 1872, he graduated from the War Academy for three years and on May 18, 1876 he was assigned to the General Staff for one year . This command was then extended for another year. In the meantime, on February 2, 1878, he was transferred to the 1st Hanseatic Infantry Regiment No. 75 . When he was promoted to captain, he was aggregated into the regiment on May 2, 1878, and Stern was assigned to the General Staff for a year as an auxiliary budget. This command was extended again until the end of September 1879. Stern then returned to service as chief of the 12th Company in Stade . On July 21, 1889, Stern was promoted to major and on November 18, 1890, he was commander of the III. Battalion appointed in Stade. As a lieutenant colonel and regular staff officer , he was transferred to Neisse on May 23, 1895 to the infantry regiment "von Winterfeldt" (2nd Upper Silesian) No. 23 . To be able to command this regiment on his behalf had been a special honor for Stern. The proximity to the border meant that in an emergency he would have been one of the first to be “at the enemy”. While such a garrison was an honor for high-ranking officers, the lower-ranking officers there were hardly used anywhere else in the empire. Fritz Oswald Bilse , who was stationed in Forbach , described this in his 1903 novel From a small garrison. A military image of the time . The name of the garrison in which the book played was not mentioned , Neiße or Diedenhofen were mentioned as examples.

When he was promoted to colonel on July 17, 1897 , Stern was aggregated into his regiment and on August 18, 1897 transferred to Cologne as a commander in the infantry regiment "Freiherr von Sparr" (3rd Westphalian) No. 16 . As early as August 18, 1870, in the battle of Gravelotte, he had led a dispersed group of the regiment as an orderly officer on the battlefield . On the occasion of the festival of the Order, he was awarded the Order of the Crown, 2nd class, on January 19, 1901, for his long service in troop leadership . He was also the holder of the Order of the Red Eagle III. Class with a bow. Granted the character of major general, Stern was put up for disposal on May 18, 1901 with the statutory pension in approval of his resignation petition.

Lübeck

In addition to his official duties, Stern always found opportunities to take an interest in the questions of the time. After leaving active service, Stern relocated to Lübeck. Seldom had a member of the army understood, as his obituaries later said, how to bring about such a happy relationship between the military and the civilian population as the general did in his many years of service in Lübeck. He did this in the non-profit and partly in the political field. So occurred mainly, besides Emil Possehl , he Luebeck for the Zeppelin donation after the disaster of the airship LZ 4 or collection of Messina one.

In addition to the Colonial Society and the Society for the promotion of community service had a star but first as Chairman of Lübeck Rudergesellschaft from 1885 , promoted the rowing squads of Katharineum and the Johanneums and used in the circle of Lübeck members of the Luebeck Yacht clubs to sailing on the Baltic Sea .

In the civil political associations, the general was both a speaker and an active member. In one electoral term , his name was often mentioned as a possible candidate for the Reichstag . It appeared particularly suitable for uniting the multiply conflicting elements of the center. In this he saw his life's work and had done much in that direction within the city. He also worked for the Reich Association against Social Democracy , where he tried to remove the harshness and to bridge the class differences .

Furthermore, the general advocated orderly youth care in his final years. The Young Germany Movement founded the state association “Lübeck” in the Great Hall of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities . At the request of the Senate, Stern had taken over the chairmanship of the Bund Jung-Deutschland and knew how to bind the youth to the idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor and the empire . Just a few days before his death, he had presented the Senate with proposals from a commission set up in the regional association - these were sports and playgrounds in all parts of the city.

At the same time he advocated the construction of a Kaiser Wilhelm Hall with a monument to the emperor in front of it. When the man, who seemed to be called to "free the city from a situation that was gradually starting to get quite embarrassing," died, the idea of ​​a worthy monument seemed to have taken shape thanks to Stern. It has already been speculated that on March 9, 1913 - 25 years after the death of Kaiser Wilhelm I - the foundation for the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial House would be laid.

After a short period of malaise , Stern died of a stroke at the age of 68 on the morning of November 25, 1912 . On the afternoon of the following Thursday, the man living on St. Jürgen-Ring was buried with great sympathy in the old Lübeck St. Jürgenfriedhof.

family

Stern married Helene Scheibel on September 20, 1873. The marriage had two children. The daughter died at the age of nine. His son Charles was at the time of his death as a first lieutenant in the Hussar Regiment "Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, King of Hungary" (Schleswig-Holstein) no. 16 in Schleswig stationed .

Publications

  • Ordinance ranks 1870/71. Borchers Brothers, Lübeck.

Web links

Commons : Paul Stern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • General z. D. Stern †. In: Lübeck advertisements . Year 1912, Morgen-Blatt, No. 599, issue of November 26, 1912.
  • Wilhelm Dahms : Major General z. D. Stern †. In: Father-city sheets. Year 1912, No. 48, edition of December 1, 1912, p. 33.
  • August Maurhoff: List of officers of the Royal Prussian Infantry Regiment v. Winterfeldt (2nd Upper Silesian) No. 23. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1913, pp. 413–414.
  • Christian Reuter : General Stern †. In: Lübeckische Blätter . Year 1912, No. 49, edition of December 1, 1912, pp. 725–726.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Before the publication of the second edition of the book, Stern once again toured the sites of war to collect new material on the spot in the form of maps and sketches for the book.
  2. ↑ The 16th Infantry Regiment was colloquially known as the "Regiment Hacke Tau". During the Battle of Großbeeren , the soldiers' rifles failed due to persistent heavy rain. So they were forced to use the rifle butt in close combat. Here they shouted "HACKE TAU ..." (blow to) "... it's gone fatherland". As a result, the members of the regiment were given the nickname: Hacketäuer
  3. ↑ General Stern †. In: Lübeckische Blätter. Year 1912, No. 49, edition of December 1, 1912, p. 726.
  4. ^ Military weekly paper . No. 6 of January 18, 1901, p. 181.
  5. ↑ Jan-Jasper Fast: From craftsman to entrepreneur. The Possehl family from Lübeck. Verlag Schmidt-Römhild, 2000 Lübeck, ISBN 3-7950-0471-3 , p. 138.
  6. ↑ 112th annual report of the "Society for the promotion of charitable activities". In: Lübeckische Blätter . Year 1901, No. 45, edition of November 10, 1901, p. 570
  7. ↑ General Stern †. In: Lübeckische Blätter. Year 1912, No. 49, edition of December 1, 1912, p. 725.
personal data
SURNAME Stern, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stern, Paul Carl Reinhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian major general
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamm
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1912
Place of death Lübeck