Tadeusz Rozwadowski
Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski (born May 19, 1866 in Babin , † October 18, 1928 in Warsaw ) was an Austro-Hungarian Lieutenant Field Marshal and a Polish general.
Life
The father Tomisław Rozwadowski was the owner of the village Glinna and a member of the Galician National Sejm and the Vienna Parliament. Rozwadowski's mother was Melania Rulikowskich. He spent early childhood with his younger brothers Samuel (born 1867) and Wiktor (born 1869) in Babin and Honatyń.
Early military career
After attending elementary school in Lemberg , he attended the cadet school in Mährisch Weißkirchen (Hranice). From 1882 to 1886 he studied at the military technical university in Vienna , which he finished on August 18, 1886 as the best in his class. First he served as a lieutenant in the 1st artillery regiment in Kraków , then he moved to Jarosłau . In 1898 he passed the entrance examination for the military academy in Wiener Neustadt , which he successfully completed in 1891 with the appointment of first lieutenant . Rozwadowski then became an adjutant in the staff of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, which was garrisoned in Marburg . After two years he was transferred to Budapest , where he was assigned to the staff of the 31st Infantry Division. In May 1894 he was promoted to captain , while he also acted as a trainer for Archduke Władysław . In addition to great technical knowledge, he was able to communicate in five languages - Polish, French, German, Czech and Russian and soon also Romanian.
Starting a family
In 1894, while serving in the Hungarian capital, he married Countess Maria Komorowska. During this time he passed the examination to become a staff officer and was promoted to major in the general staff. In October 1896 he was appointed military attaché at the Austrian embassy in Bucharest . His first successful official act was the conclusion of a customs agreement favorable to Austria-Hungary . He also developed a close military cooperation with Romania , which included the modernization of the backward Romanian army and a closer political and military alliance. During this time Rozwadowski gained the esteem of the Romanian King Carol I , as well as the Romanian heir to the throne Prince Ferdinand . Rozwadowski children were all born in Romania. In 1898 the daughter Melania, a year later the son Józef and in 1906 the youngest son Kazimierz.
Promotion in the Austro-Hungarian Army
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In 1905 he reached the rank of lieutenant colonel . He returned to Galicia in 1907 , where he was assigned to the 31 Field Artillery Regiment in Stanislau , from May 1 he was in command of this unit, which was part of the 11th Artillery Brigade. In May 1908 he was promoted to colonel . As an expert in artillery technology, Colonel Rozwadowski made several inventions. He patented, among other things. a simple but effective target device for long-range artillery fire . A more important invention was a new type of artillery projectile, the double-acting grenade shrapnel named after him. The projectile exploded once in the air as shrapnel (in the form of a fragment cloud) and again as a grenade after contact with the target. The Rozwadowski projectile named after him was also used in the First World War. In April 1913 he was appointed chief of the 1st Mounted Artillery Brigade and promoted to major general on May 1st .
In the first World War
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When the war began, on August 9, 1914, he took command of the 12th Artillery Brigade in the 12th "Krakow" Infantry Division. Rozwadowski's artillery use also played a key role in the VI's successful attack in May 1915. Army Corps ( FML Arz ) in the battle of Gorlice-Tarnow in May 1915. By May 17, the 12th Infantry Division (General Kestranek) was able to break through to Jaroslau. At the next offensive he was already in command of the 43rd Rifle Division. In the second half of 1915 a conflict with the Supreme Headquarters began to emerge. He criticized the poor treatment of Polish and Ukrainian prisoners of war and the arbitrary executions, which he later described in his memoirs. Although he was appointed field marshal lieutenant on November 1, 1915 , he was placed in the Führer Reserve on November 19 and nominally passed on February 1, 1916. The official reason given was his poor health. In 1916 he took part under Pilsudski against the will of the Austro-Hungarian army in the organization of the illegal military organization Polska Organizacja Wojskowa (POW). The worsening of the war situation and the change in the policy of the German army command seemed to favor the project again.
The new Emperor Karl I tried to find a compromise with the many national aspirations in his empire and also sought a compromise with the "Provisional State Council in the Kingdom of Poland". On August 17, 1918, the doctorate to the Maria-Theresia-Order took place in the Villa Wartholz . a. Bardolff , Lehár , Rozwadowski and Cavallar . The award was also associated with the elevation to the baron class , to which Rozwadowski, however, already belonged.
With the re-establishment of Poland
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After the fall of the Danube Monarchy , Rozwadowski immediately joined the Polish army.
On October 26, 1918, Rozwadowski was appointed Chief of Staff of the newly established armed forces by the Regency Council. In coordination with the Regency Council, the Wojska Economic Service was founded, whose task it was to guard Poland's borders, the prototype of the later Border Guard Corps (KOP) . On November 4th, a first mobile division was established, which later became the 1st Cavalry Division of the Polish Army. On October 31, Rozwadowski presented the new "organizational principle of the Polish military authority" because of the threat to Poland from the Red Army. According to this draft, the Regency Council was still nominally Commander-in-Chief of the Army, but was subject to the instructions of the Minister of War, the Chief of Staff and the Military Justice. The chief of staff was on an equal footing with the minister.
On November 11, 1918, Józef Piłsudski was given supreme command of the Polish troops by the Regency Council and shortly afterwards the leadership of the Polish state. Rozwadowski's excessive proposals were rejected by decree of the new head of state on January 7th. Rozwadowski had to resign on November 15th, Piłsudski had greater confidence in General Kazimierz Sosnkowski , whom he had already appointed commander of the Warsaw General District.
In the Polish-Ukrainian War
On November 17, 1918, Rozwadowski was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in Eastern Galicia (the so-called "Eastern Army") by Pilsudski , where he immediately opposed the Ukrainian nationalists for holding the city of Lviv (Lemberg). During the night of November 21-22, Lviv was occupied by the troops of Lieutenant Colonel Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz . Rozwadowski met on the night of 24./25. November in the besieged city and took command. As the commander of the "East" army, the undisciplined and unequal units began to transform into a regular army and ordered the Ukrainian nationalists to fight and "shoot at armed peasants". In late December 1918, the Ukrainian High Command launched another massive attack on Lviv. In January 1919, the Warsaw government finally decided to send extensive reinforcements under the command of General Romer . General Rozwadowski was critical of these reinforcements and called the units available to him "amateurs". The position of the Lviv defenders grew worse every day. Before the water and electricity were cut off, the specter of hunger hung over the population. The Lviv National Defense Committee has already called for General Rozwadowski to be dismissed. On March 7th, Pilsudski had ordered in a telegram to break through the siege and to withdraw to Przemyśl. General Rozwadowski had made the decision to stay with the crew in Lviv. On March 12th, General Iwaszkiewicz-Rudoszański had to begin relief attacks under pressure from the Polish population . After the railway line to Przemyśl was back in Polish hands, Pilsudski had General Rozwadowski replaced. The new commander in Galicia, General Iwaszkiewicz, gave Rozwadowski the command, which transferred him to the post of head of the Polish military mission in Paris. Rozwadowski left Lwów to the applause of the townspeople. On March 19, 1919, the Armia Wielkopolska under General Aleksandrowicz united with the troops of Colonel Sikorski in Gródek. Until that day Rozwadowski remained in command of the Armia Wschod , which fought on the Galician front in the Polish-Ukrainian war .
In the Polish-Soviet War
Rozwadowski was sent to Paris in April 1919 as Polish plenipotentiary , where he and the Polish delegation took part in the peace conference and signed the Versailles Peace Treaty (June 1919). He also carried out numerous missions to London and Rome . He intervened with Marshal Foch and pointed out the threat to Poland from the Red Army and Germany. At the Paris conference he also came into close contact with Foch's representative, General Henri Le Rond . After initial successes in the alliance with the Ukrainian President Petlyura , the Poles suffered heavy losses in the war against the Soviet Union. In January 1920, however, it became clear that Poland could not count on armed aid from France or Great Britain.
In June 1919 the Polish government appointed its new deputy in Bucharest , it was no coincidence that the post was filled by Skrzyński , Rozwadowski's adjutant. Rozwadowski visited Romania in April and May 1920 to clarify the basic points of the future Polish-Romanian relationship. At the end of June 1920 Rozwadowski returned to Paris, where he attended the first meeting of the Defense Council on July 1. In the middle of the Polish-Soviet War he was recalled from Belgium to Warsaw, where he was reappointed Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army on July 22, 1920 . The renewed takeover of the post by Rozwadowski was to be a turning point in the war with the Bolsheviks . He showed the commander in chief extensive loyalty and defended Piłsudski, who was attacked from almost all sides because of his operational leadership. As Chief of the General Staff, he made important personnel changes: General Józef Haller was appointed to the commandant of the Northern Front and Kazimierz Sosnkowski , Pilsudski's confidante, to the Ministry of Defense .
The reorganization of the staff was carried out on July 25th by General Maxime Weygand sent from France . The Battle of the Bug initially developed favorably for the Poles, but the fall of Brest had halted Pilsudski's forces. On the night of August 5th to 6th, Rozwadowski presented two variants of counterattacks after talks with the French military mission (Weygand, Henrys and Billot). There was to be a push either in the direction of Mińsk Mazowiecki or in the direction of Garwolin , with simultaneous attacks by the reinforced northern front. Rozwadowski was concerned about the situation in the north, where a Soviet invasion was trying to encompass Warsaw. In his opinion, Sikorski's 5th Army was too weak and he was afraid that the Polish plans for a counter-offensive would be intercepted by the Bolsheviks. After completion of the defense tasks, the 5th Army should hit the northern wing of the enemy, partially bypassing it from the north and pushing it south. The plan therefore envisaged a double strike against the Bolsheviks from the north, from the Wkra and from the south, from the Wieprza sector. On August 10, under pressure from the Western Commission, Rozwadowski himself proposed that General Weygand should be entrusted with the supreme leadership.
The Battle of the Vistula began on August 13, 1920, and the main Soviet attack was led, as assumed, against the Polish northern front. On August 15, the Polish armies counterattacked in the Warsaw and Wkra area. Sikorski's 5th Army played a crucial role not only in withstanding pressure from the Bolshevik 3rd Army, but also in being able to counterattack. The surprised Red Army threatened to be encircled, and Tukhachevsky had to order a retreat. Rozwadowski, supported by Weygand, demanded that Wieprz's offensive be accelerated because he feared the Soviets might evade the encirclement. Rozwadowski was then at the head of the southern front and urged General Rydz-Smydz to let his armies advance in order to push into the left Bolshevik wing. Pilsudski postponed the date of the second offensive from the south from August 17th to August 16th. The attack by the Polish 4th Army was already in a vacuum, and the fighting could be initiated immediately. The Marshal's supporters claimed that Piłsudski owed the greatest credit to victory. Pilsudski rejected this idea, the fighting ended in victory, but the Poles suffered heavy losses. The joy of victory was clouded because Rozwadowski received news of the death of his father, with whom he was very closely connected.
Inspector general
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Rozwadowski lost the post of chief of staff in April 1921, but was entrusted with the chief inspectorate of the Polish army. In March 1921, Jordan-Rozwadowski used his contacts in Bucharest to found the Polish-Romanian alliance by negotiating a convention on a defense alliance. When the General Inspectorate for the Mobile Armed Forces was formed at the end of 1921 , he was at the helm. He paid particular attention to the development of the cavalry school in Grudziądz , which was founded on August 15, 1920. He took particular care of this institution and supervised the training of the cavalry cadres. On November 24, 1922 he was awarded the Virtuti Militari Order. In 1923 Wincenty Witos became the new prime minister, Marshal Piłsudski's power crumbled and he had to resign. In April 1924, the General Staff under Sikorski reorganized the army. Rozwadowski worked closely with Generals Sosabowski , Kleeberg and Kutrzeba , all of whom were advocates of building a strong tank and air force.
Arrest and death
As an opponent of the further politicization of the army, Rozwadowski was meanwhile in conflict with Piłsudski and was fiercely fought by the Marshal's camp. During Pilsudski's coup d'état in May 1926, he was commander-in-chief of the legal government troops and assumed the role of military governor of Warsaw. After the rejection of the formation of a government with Skrzyński as prime minister by the new President Stanisław Wojciechowski , the supporters of Piłsudski decided to launch a coup. On May 14th, Rozwadowski met with the Minister for Military Affairs, General Malczewski . After the conversation, he agreed to take the position of Defense Chief of Warsaw in the event of the coup. He met with Colonel Anders and the newly appointed Chief of Staff General Stanisław Haller to organize the defense of around 1,700 soldiers. The putschists, commanded by General Gustav Orlicz-Dreszera , numbered around 4,300 soldiers. At the head of regiments devoted to him, Pilsudski forced the President and the Witos cabinet to resign.
For Piłsudski Rozwadowski was just an ordinary rebel, on May 15, 1926, he was arrested in Warsaw and, together with Generals Zagórski, Malczewski and Jaźwiński, charged with criminal offenses and thrown into a military prison. Pilsudski was re-elected head of state by the National Assembly, but renounced the further presidency and left the office to his faithful candidate Ignacy Mościcki .
General Rozwadowski remained in the Antokol prison near Vilna for a year. The conditions of detention were severe, the cells were not heated and the camp clinic was closed almost permanently. According to some historians, it was decided to poison General Rozwadowski by painting the walls of his cell with arsenic paint. A petition in defense of the imprisoned generals unexpectedly brought him freedom on May 18, 1927. He retired to Jastrzębia Góra , where he tried to heal himself from the stomach pain that occurred, combined with bleeding and severe vomiting. The doctors were helpless, he had regular attacks of fever and at the turn of September and October 1928 the attacks intensified. General Rozwadowski died on October 18, 1928 at 1.40 p.m. in the St. Józefa clinic in Warsaw. The general's last will was to be buried in the Lychakiv Cemetery - the last place of the defenders of Lviv in 1919.
Honors
Rozwadowski received numerous awards in the course of his life, including the Grand Cross of the Order of the Iron Crown and the Order of Leopold , the Order Virtuti Militari (Silver Cross and Commander), the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order and the Commander's Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta .
literature
- Mariusz Patelski: Generał Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski żołnierz i dyplomat a, Warszawa 2002.
- Mariusz Patelski: Ochotnicy amerykańscy w wojnie polsko-bolszewickiej from "Zeszyty Historyczne", Paris 2000
- Generał Rozwadowski, Skład Główny Księgarni Krakowskiej , Kraków 1929
Individual evidence
- ↑ The birthday party of Sr. Majesty the Emperor. In: Wiener Zeitung , supplement Wiener Abendpost , No. 187/1918, August 17, 1918, p. 1. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ↑ Arno Kerschbaumer, Nobilitations under the reign of Emperor Karl I / IV. Károly király (1916-1921) , Graz 2016 ( ISBN 978-3-9504153-1-5 ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rozwadowski, Tadeusz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jordan-Rozwadowski, Tadeusz von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Field Marshal Lieutenant and Polish General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 19, 1866 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Babin |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 18, 1928 |
| Place of death | Warsaw |