Rudolph Hammer

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Rudolph Hammer (* 4. August 1862 in Dresden , † 18th January 1926 ) was a Saxon lieutenant general in the First World War .

Life

Hammer joined the 4th Infantry Regiment No. 103 of the Saxon Army on April 1, 1880 as an ensign after his education in the cadet corps . There he was first on 12 October 1881 to second lieutenant and 1 April 1887 first lieutenant promoted. As such, Hammer was commanded from 1889 to September 22, 1892 as an educator in the Dresden Cadet Corps. At the same time he was promoted to captain on March 24, 1893, he was appointed company commander in his main regiment. In the same function, Hammer was transferred to Strasbourg on May 21, 1895, to the 6th Infantry Regiment No. 105 , of which he was a member until March 25, 1899. Then he was in the directorate at the General Command of the XIX. (II. Royal Saxon) Army Corps and four years later aggregated to 7th Infantry Regiment No. 106 . As a major , Hammer took over a battalion in the 10th Infantry Regiment No. 134 in Plauen on October 23, 1903 . From June 23, 1905 to December 10, 1908, he then acted as commander of the 2nd Battalion in the 14th Infantry Regiment No. 179 in Leisnig and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 16, 1908 . This was followed by his employment with the staff of the 6th Infantry Regiment No. 105 until September 23, 1910. Hammer then returned to his hometown, became department head in the local War Ministry and was promoted to colonel on September 23, 1911 . On December 13, 1912, he returned to service and was appointed commander of the 5th Infantry Regiment "Crown Prince" No. 104 , which was stationed in Chemnitz .

First World War

With the outbreak of the First World War, his regiment made mobile and marched into neutral Belgium in conjunction with the 40th Division (4th Royal Saxon) . There it had the task of taking the strategically important Meuse bridge at Hastière during the battle of Dinant from August 22nd to 24th . However, this only succeeded after a 20-hour battle. During the further advance towards France Hammer was badly wounded near Surice when a gunshot shattered his lower jaw . After a stay in the hospital at home, Hammer returned to the front as major general (since November 21, 1914) to his regiment in mid-December 1914. King Friedrich August III. appointed him on Christmas Eve 1914 as the commander of the 89th Infantry Brigade (8th Royal Saxon), which Hammer then commanded on the Western Front until April 19, 1916. For a short time he was commander of the 32nd Division (3rd Royal Saxon) until May 4, 1916 and then received command of the 24th Division (2nd Royal Saxon) . He led this in the months to August and then again from October to November during the Battle of the Somme and then in the trench warfare in Flanders . From June 1917 the division was then in action in the Wytschaete-Bogen and the subsequent Third Battle of Flanders . The section commanded by Hammer was able to withstand and repel enemy attacks several times. For this achievement, Hammer was submitted to the Pour le Mérite by his superior General Karl Dieffenbach . After the commanding General Friedrich Sixt von Armin also supported the award, Hammer was then awarded the highest Prussian valor award by Wilhelm II on November 24, 1917 .

From February 1918 the division was subordinate to the newly formed 17th Army and prepared for the Great Battle of France in the following years . On March 21, 1918, the German armed forces opened the offensive and were able to break through the enemy front west of Cambrai . Hammer's division was only used as the 3rd wave and it managed to storm the heart of the English position, the park of Vélu . In recognition of his services related to this, the Saxon King awarded him the Commander's Cross 1st Class of the Military Order of St. Henry on March 28, 1918 . Hammer was also promoted to lieutenant general on June 17, 1918. After the end of the offensive, the division was back in trench warfare. She fought in the following years on the Avre , with the 9th Army between Cambrai and St. Quentin , in the Siegfried and lastly before and in the Hermann position . Due to the heavy defensive battles, the division was decimated to a strength of only 500 men.

After the armistice , the remnants marched back home with a hammer on top. There he was put up for disposition on January 26, 1919 at his request .

In retirement, Hammer worked as chairman of the Saxon officers' associations until his death.

Awards

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweig: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 2: HO. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, ISBN 3-7648-2516-2 , pp. 26-27.
  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: A-L. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Berlin 1935, pp. 438-440.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Saxon War Ministry, Department for Personal Affairs (Ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Saxon Army for the year 1914. C. Heinrich, Dresden 1914, p. 24.
  2. ^ Johann Edmund Hottenroth: Saxony in great time. Volume 1, Academic Bookshop R. Max Lippold, Leipzig 1919, p. 457.
  3. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, pp. 288–289.
  4. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 89.
  5. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 73.
personal data
SURNAME Hammer, Rudolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon Lieutenant General in World War I
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1926
Place of death Dresden