Paul von Collas

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Paul Baron von Collas,
General of the Infantry
The coat of arms of
the von Collas family
Paul Baron von Collas with his wife Ottilie and the children Werner, Martha and Elfriede (1882)
Paul Baron von Collas retired in Kassel (around 1905)

Paul Albert Hector August Baron von Collas (born January 31, 1841 in Bromberg ; † October 27, 1910 in Kassel -Wehlheiden) was a Prussian infantry general and military governor of Mainz .

Life

family

Paul was the son of the Prussian geometer , land registry inspector and accountant August von Collas and his wife Adelinde, née Bugisch.

He married on November 2, 1875 at Gut Möglin near Wriezen , his first marriage was Ottilie, born von Schmieden (* July 22, 1856 in Berlin , † October 9, 1883 in Wiesbaden ), the daughter of the Prussian captain and later police lieutenant Adolph von Schmieden and Auguste Kuschke, mistress of Gut Möglin since 1872.

After the death of his first wife, he married Charlotte on May 30, 1888 in Dresden , born von Lemmers-Danforth (born May 28, 1863 in Berlin; † November 24, 1952 in Kassel), daughter of the Prussian Colonel Alphons von Lemmers -Danforth and Elise Schulze.

Military career

Collas was artistically very gifted - probably a talent inherited from his ancestor John von Collas ; excellent pencil drawings from 1852, drawn by him in Pelplin at the age of only eleven, are still owned by the family today.

According to the changing jobs of his father, who is employed in the construction of the Prussian Eastern Railway from Berlin to Königsberg in East Prussia, his son Paul first went to high school in the West Prussian district of Dirschau in Pelplin (1850-1853), and later in the East Prussian Arnsberg .

After school he joined the Westphalian Fusilier Regiment ( Fusilier Regiment "von Steinmetz" (West Prussian) No. 37 ) on June 21, 1860 as a flag squire , where he was appointed ensign on December 13 of the same year and on December 23 of the same year . July 1861 was promoted to Second Lieutenant. As a second lieutenant, Collas experienced the Prussian campaign against Austria five years later during the German war and acted as adjutant to the battalion commander from July 22nd to November 14th . During this campaign he wrote a detailed diary and letters to his parents.

After the end of the campaign and after his battalion had moved into the garrison in Posen , Collas was assigned to the War Academy in Berlin on November 15, 1866 . He stayed there until August 3, 1869 and was promoted to Premier Lieutenant on June 18, 1869 shortly before the end of his training . With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War , he was assigned to this rank on July 18, 1870 as General Staff Officer to the High Command of the 1st Army , where he remained until January 9, 1871. Then he was with the General Staff of the 2nd and Southern Army under General Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel until June 27 of that year . Collas then served, also under Manteuffel's command, from June 27, 1871 to September 19, 1873 the general staff of the occupation army in France, but from October 3, 1871 already as a captain . Finally, from September 19, 1873 to April 13, 1876, he was assigned as an adjutant to the disposition of Manteuffel, who had been promoted to Field Marshal General in 1873 , whose memoirs Collas wrote. These were published in 1874. In 1878 he was promoted to major. After he had been a member of the General Staff of the 30th Division from February 1880 , von Collas was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1886.

During the Franco-Prussian War and the subsequent occupation in Paris, Collas reports his war experiences in great detail in his letters to his parents in the field (see references).

By AKO on May 15, 1882, after a long request, he received approval to use the baron title .

From 1888 he was colonel and commander of the Leib Grenadier Regiment King Friedrich Wilhelm III. (1. Brandenburgisches) No. 8. After a promotion to major general in 1891, Paul von Collas led the 22nd division of the German Empire from 1895 until his appointment as military governor of Mainz.

From 1898 to 1903 he was governor of Mainz. The New Provision Office was built on his orders from 1899 to 1906 . From February 17, 1903, Collas was put up for disposal .

On the night of October 27, 1910, Collas collapsed at 3:45 am after a stroke, but still physically “still healthy and fresh”, dead at his desk in his home at Eulenburgstrasse 4 in Kassel-Wehlheiden. He had just celebrated his 50th anniversary in the military on June 21, 1910 that year. Kaiser Wilhelm II immediately ordered that the officers of the Leib Grenadier Regiment “King Friedrich Wilhelm III” (1st Brandenburg) No. 8 “put on mourning for three days. In addition, the commander of the aforementioned regiment had to take part in the funeral services. “(ACO of October 28, 1910).

  • Advertisements (1) on the death of Paul von Collas (1910)

  • Advertisements (2) on the death of Paul von Collas (1910)

  • Advertisements (3) on the death of Paul von Collas (1910)

  • Army Ordinance Sheet No. 24 (October 29, 1910)

  • Letter from the Franco-Prussian War of October 4, 1870

  • Paul von Collas as captain (1873)

  • Letter from the German occupation in Paris, March 24, 1873

  • Paul Baron von Collas as brigade commander in Ulm (around 1895)

Awards

Works

literature

  • Sigismund von Dobschütz: The Huguenot family von Collas. A tribe list over more than 600 years and 20 generations from 1390 to the present day. GENEALOGIE, issue 3/1998, p. 465f., Verlag Degener & Co, Neustadt (Aisch) 1998, ISSN  0016-6383 .
  • Sigismund von Dobschütz: "The king is here, the Austrian army defeated!" Paul von Collas' war diary and letters to his parents from the German war of 1866 against Austria. Ostdeutsche Familienkunde (OFK), Issue 1/2005, Volume XVII, page 177f., Verlag Degener & Co., Neustadt (Aisch) 2005, ISSN  0472-190X .
  • Sigismund von Dobschütz: “We came to the point of burning down entire villages” - letters from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 and the occupation time of 1872/73 from Paul von Collas to his parents. Ostdeutsche Familienkunde (OFK), issue 1/2006, p. 321f., Verlag Degener & Co., Neustadt (Aisch) 2006, ISSN  0472-190X .
  • Federal Archives-Military Archives in Freiburg: Files MSg 109/10858 .

See also

personal data
SURNAME Collas, Paul of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Collas, Paul Baron of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry and governor of Mainz
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Bromberg
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1910
Place of death Kassel -Wehlheiden