Siegfried Fiedler

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Siegfried Fiedler (born February 10, 1922 in Hirschberg ; † December 7, 1999 ) was a German officer, military writer and military researcher . From 1974 to 1979 he was director of the Military History Museum (WGM) in Rastatt.

life and work

Fiedler came from Lower Silesia ; he was born in what was then Hirschberg in the Giant Mountains . After graduating from high school in 1940, he joined the Artillery Replacement Department 9 (motorized) of the Wehrmacht in Vienna and did military service as a professional soldier . From 1941 he was used in Russia in various functions; he was wounded twice. Most recently he served in the rank of first lieutenant as battery chief in the tank artillery regiment of the tank division "Greater Germany" .

In 1956 he joined the Bundeswehr . From 1961 he was a teaching staff officer for military and war history at the Army Officer School I in Hanover for about twelve years . From 1974 to 1979 he was director of the Military History Museum in Rastatt. There he pushed through a redesign of the museum. In 1979 he retired and then intensified his military writing activities.

In 1974 he also became a member of the German Society for Heereskunde . From 1982 to 1994 he was a member of the board during the terms of office of Werner Hahlweg and Arnold Wirtgen . Fiedler published a. a. in the magazine for Heereskunde and in the military history reports . He was also involved in the text volume Basics of German Military History edited by Karl-Volker Neugebauer on behalf of the Military History Research Office (MGFA) in 1993 .

His work on the Prussian army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst received positive reviews in the General Swiss Military Journal (ASMZ).

For Friedhelm Klein , the sometimes impracticably structured, conceptually too narrow and heavily Prussian-oriented outline of military and war history is a "rather popular science" three-volume plan for (prospective) officers of a thoroughly competent person, which can be seen in the illustration in particular. The work may be suitable for beginners, but it lags behind the MGFA manual completed in 1981. An earlier book review of the first volume by Walter Schaufelberger in the ASMZ came to the conclusion that "not uncomplicated material is being conveyed in a thoroughly appealing form". The work is characterized by "clarity and methodical [] order".

In 1981, together with Alfred Gay, he presented a paper on a hitherto little explored topic of Prussian military history. His part on the grenadiers of Frederick the Great is extremely detailed.

Together with Georg Ortenburg, Fiedler wrote the noteworthy series on the Army of the Modern Era , to which he contributed the second volume. As with the other works, the Landsknechte Age (Section 1) is a good overview with further illustrations. Even though Roland Beck criticizes the structure and subdivision of the text, he considers the study - which is based on Walter Schaufelberger in the chapter on Switzerland - to be “a short and concise outline of medieval military history”. Bernhard Sicken counts the work on the period of the cabinet wars (Section 2) to the "traditional military histography". Even Martin Rink keeps a later edition of a "[t] raditional [n] Overview wars and warfare." The volumes Tactics and Strategy of the Landsknechte 1500–1650 and Tactics and Strategy of the Cabinet Wars 1650–1792 of the licensed edition of 2002 are considered by Robert Riemer to be extremely detailed. The work on the Revolutionary Wars (Section 3) was judged in a review of the Political Quarterly Journal to be a “rock-solid representation of military history”. Karl-Volker Neugebauer counts the armed forces of modern times as "standard literature" for the epochs.

Fiedler, who was a recognized military scientist, corresponded with the Prussian researcher Hans Bleckwenn .

Awards

  • Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class
  • 1977: Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon
  • 1994: Honorary membership of the German Society for Army Studies
  • 1998: Golden badge of honor of the German Society for Army Studies

Fonts (selection)

  • Scharnhorst. Spirit and deed . Schild-Verlag, Munich 1958 (Maximilian-Verlag, Herford et al. 1963).
  • Military and war history plan . 3 volumes, Schild-Verlag, Munich 1972 ff.
  • Volume 1: The standing armies in the age of absolutism, 1640–1789 . With a foreword by Heinz Karst . 1972 (2nd supplemented and expanded edition, 1980, ISBN 3-88014-001-4 ).
  • Volume 2: The Age of the French Revolution and Napoleon . 1976.
  • Volume 3: Napoleon against Prussia . 1978, ISBN 3-88014-066-9 .
  • History of the grenadiers of Frederick the Great . Schild-Verlag, Munich 1981 (contained in: Alfred Gay: Grenadiermützen of the Army of Frederick the Great )
  • Armies of the modern age . 5 departments, volume 2, Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1985 ff. (Ed. By Georg Ortenburg ; licensed edition: Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2002, ISBN 3-8289-0521-8 ):
  • Dept. I: Warfare and Warfare in the Age of the Landsknechte . 1985, ISBN 3-7637-5462-8 .
  • Dept. II: Warfare and Warfare in the Age of Cabinet Wars . 1986, ISBN 3-7637-5478-4 .
  • Dept. III: Warfare and Warfare in the Age of Revolutionary Wars . 1988, ISBN 3-7637-5808-9 .
  • Dept. IV: Warfare and Warfare in the Age of Wars of Unification . 1991, ISBN 3-7637-5810-0 .
  • Dept. V: Warfare and warfare in the age of armies of millions . 1993, ISBN 3-7637-5812-7 .

literature

  • Joachim Niemeyer : Obituary for Siegfried Fiedler 1922–1999 . In: The messenger from the Wehrgeschichtliches Museum 38 (2000), p. 1 f. and another: Obituary: Siegfried Fiedler . In: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde 64 (2000) 395, p. 35.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ U .: Scharnhorst, Geist und Tat. From Siegfried Fiedler . In: Allgemeine Schweizerische Militärzeitschrift 124 (1958), p. 725 f.
  2. ↑ Friedhelm Klein : Siegfried Fiedler: Outline of the military and war history . In: Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 32 (1982) 2, p. 236 f.
  3. ↑ Sbr ( Walter Schaufelberger ): plan for military and war history . In: Allgemeine Schweizerische Militärzeitschrift 139 (1973), p. 545.
  4. ↑ Reinhold Redlin: Alfred Gay (†): Grenadier caps of the army of Frederick the Great / Siegfried Fiedler: History of the grenadiers of Frederick the Great . Military history reports 33 (1987) 1, p. 216 f.
  5. ^ A b Christian Greiner: Siegfried Fiedler: Warfare and warfare in the age of the Landsknecht . In: Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 42 (1987) 2, p. 246 f.
  6. ^ Alfred Kohler : Siegfried Fiedler: Warfare and Warfare in the Age of Cabinet Wars . In: Military history reports 47 (1990) 1, p. 272 ​​f.
  7. ^ Roland Beck : Warfare and Warfare in the Age of Landsknechte . In: Allgemeine Schweizerische Militärzeitschrift 152 (1986), p. 303.
  8. ^ Bernhard Sicken : The Thirty Years War as a turning point: Warfare and army structure in the transition to miles perpetuus . In: Historical magazine , supplements, new series, vol. 26, Der Westfälische Friede. Diplomacy - political turning point - cultural environment - history of reception, 1998, pp. 581–598, here: p. 581, fn. 1.
  9. ↑ Martin Rink : The Little War. Developments and trends of asymmetric violence 1740 to 1815 . In: Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 65 (2006) 2, pp. 355–388, here: p. 367, fn. 40.
  10. ↑ Robert Riemer : Interactions between armed conflicts and the activity of the Reich Chamber of Commerce . In: Alexander Denzler, Ellen Franke, Britta Schneider (Eds.): Trial files, parties, particular interests. Maximum jurisdiction in central Europe from the 15th to the 19th century (= Library of the Old Reich . Vol. 17). De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin a. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-035981-7 , pp. 41–54, here: p. 43, fn. 5.
  11. ^ Warfare and warfare in the age of the revolutionary wars (= armies of the modern age, III. Dept., Vol. 2) by Siegfried Fiedler; Gg. Ortenburg . In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift 31 (1990) 1, p. 154.
  12. ^ Karl-Volker Neugebauer : Introduction . In the S. (Ed.): Basic course in German military history. Three volumes with interactive DVD . Volume 3: The time after 1945. Armies in transition . On behalf of the Military History Research Office, Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58100-3 , pp. Vi – viii, here: p. Viii.
  13. ^ Heinrich Walle : The Seven Years' War between anecdote and cliché . In: Historische Mitteilungen 18 (2005), pp. 101–133, here: p. 132.
personal data
SURNAME Fiedler, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Hirschberg
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1999