Pavle Jurišić tower

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Pavle Jurišić Šturm / Paulus Sturm

Pavle Jurišić Šturm (actually Paulus Sturm ; born August 22, 1848 in Görlitz , Kingdom of Prussia ; † January 14, 1922 in Belgrade , Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ) was a Field Marshal General in the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 and in First World War .

Early years

Paulus Eugen Sturm was born on August 22nd, 1848 in Görlitz. He finished the military academy in Breslau and became an officer in the Prussian army . In the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871 he took part as a sergeant.

After the Franco-Prussian War, he accepted a call from the Serbian Military Academy and was appointed professor there. In Serbia he married Savka b. Piroćanac, the sister of Milan Piroćanac , a Serbian politician and lawyer for Queen Natalie , and transcribed his name from Paulus to Pavle; He added the Serbian equivalent Jurišić to his surname ( storm in the sense of an attack would be too Serbian juriš ).

In the Serbian army

With the outbreak of the Serbian-Ottoman War from 1876 to 1878, Šturm volunteered for the Serbian army and initially held the rank of lieutenant. In the First Serbian-Ottoman War in 1876, he distinguished himself as commander of the Sabac battalion and was appointed captain. In the Second Serbian-Ottoman War 1877-1878 he commanded the 1st Volunteer Regiment, then the Krajiner Regiment at Bela Palanka and Pirot .

In the Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1885, Šturm commanded the 6th regiment of the Drina Division. In the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 he was General of the Drina Division , which distinguished itself above all in the Battle of Kumanovo .

Šturm experienced the outbreak of World War I as Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd Army . Under his command was u. a. also Dragutin Dimitrijević as Colonel of the 2nd Drina Division. Šturm's 3rd Army resisted the Austro-Hungarian offensive under Oskar Potiorek , which enabled the 2nd Army under Stepa Stepanović to restructure and ultimately both armies to win the Battle of Cer on August 20, 1914. As commander-in-chief of the 3rd Army, Šturm took part in the operations of the Serbian armed forces in autumn 1914, which resulted in the second Serbian victory over the Austro-Hungarian armed forces in the Battle of the Kolubara on December 15, 1914. In autumn 1915 the 3rd Army was able to successfully stop the offensive of the German 11th Army under August von Mackensen , but ultimately had to retreat with the rest of the Serbian armed forces first to Corfu and then to Thessaloniki , where the Salonika Front was built.

The 3rd Army under Šturm defeated the Bulgarian army at Vardar and Bitola on the Salonika Front , which u. a. led to the Bulgarian surrender in 1918. The subsequent rapid withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian and German armed forces from Serbia gave the population above Šturm the impression that it was chasing the enemy armies like a "storm", which gave his name almost legendary features.

After the army

After the end of the First World War, Pavle Jurišić Šturm retired in 1921. He died in Belgrade on January 14, 1922.

With his wife Savka he had a son, whom he named his own. Pavle Jurišić Šturm Jr. served as a major in the Serbian army during World War I. 1941, with the invasion of Hitler's regime in Yugoslavia, is Šturm Jr. of the so-called closed Yugoslav Army in the Homeland of Dragoljub Mihailovic to, but was from the Gestapo caught and shot.

Web links

Commons : Pavle Jurišić Šturm  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files