Wilhelm Cavallar von Grabensprung

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Wilhelm Freiherr Cavallar von Grabensprung (born February 25, 1889 in Aussig , Kingdom of Bohemia , † December 20, 1957 in Vienna , Republic of Austria ) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army . He was awarded the Military Maria Theresa Order in the First World War .

Life

When the Maria Theresa Order was awarded in the Villa Wartholz in 1918 , Empress Zita spoke to Wilhelm Cavallar von Grabensprung. In the background are Anton von Léhar and Josef von Wächter , in the foreground is Karl Ungár .

Wilhelm Ritter Cavallar von Grabensprung came from an old Austrian family of officers. He attended the military lower secondary school in St. Pölten and the military upper secondary school in Mährisch-Weißkirchen . After his training at the Theresian Military Academy in the Burg in Wiener Neustadt , he was retired from Infantry Regiment No. 92 in Komotau in 1909 .

At the beginning of the First World War he had reached the rank of first lieutenant and was in command of the 13th company of his regiment. In the fight against the Serbian Timok Division , he and his unit captured a Serbian battery at Šašinci on the Save near Sremska Mitrovica on September 6, 1914 , whose guns he unceremoniously turned around and the nearby Serbian war bridge under fire. By destroying this bridge, he made a decisive contribution to the destruction of the Timok Division and the collapse of the planned Serbian offensive across the Sava against Austro-Hungarian territory.

Awarding the Maria Theresa Order during the First World War in 1918 in the Villa Wartholz . Wilhelm von Cavallar is shown below, second from the left.

Soon after his successful deployment, he was shot in the stomach. After his recovery he reported to the air force , but after a series of enemy flights he was taken on as an observer in the summer of 1915 in the general staff service. From 1916 he was on the Italian front, most recently with the 28th Infantry Troop Division. For the destruction of the bridge at Šašinci in September 1914, he was finally awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order, which he received along with ten other bearers on August 17, 1918 by Emperor Karl in the Villa Wartholz . Due to the statutes of the order, Wilhelm Ritter Cavallar von Grabensprung was also raised to the status of hereditary baron . On the same day of the previous year Josef Lutschounig was awarded the Maria Theresa Order, as was Cavallar for achievements in the fight against the Timok Division on September 6, 1914 at Šašinci. Cavallar had already been awarded the Order of the Iron Crown in 1914 for his work during the Serbian campaign .

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in November 1918, Cavallar was assigned as a major to the commander-in-chief of the people's armed forces. After the peace negotiations ended, he returned to his homeland, now the Czechoslovak Republic , in 1920 and was active in agriculture and industry. In the Czechoslovak Army he was demoted as an ethnic German to an infantryman, but in 1938 he was restored to his previous rank.

Expropriated and evicted in 1948, he spent as Major a. D. his old age in Austria. His grave is in the Döblinger Friedhof in Vienna. An oil painting with his portrait is at the Theresian Military Academy.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Schmitz: 'As if the world went out of joint': War experiences of Austro-Hungarian officers 1914-18 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2016, ISBN 978-3-657-78115-7 ( google.at [accessed on August 18, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Erwein Lobkowicz: Memories of the Monarchy . Amalthea, 1989, ISBN 978-3-85002-276-7 ( google.at [accessed on August 18, 2019]).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Karl Liko, 100 years of decommissioning year 1909 in: Österreichische Militärische Zeitschrift 5/2009, pp. 21–26
  4. ^ Oskar von Hofmann, Gustav von Hubka: The military Maria Theresa order. The awards in World War 1914-1918 . Ed .: Carl Freiherrn von Bardolff. Verl. Military Science Communications, Vienna 1944, p. 392 .
  5. ↑ Chronicle. New Maria Theresa Order Knights. In:  Streffleur's Militärblatt , No. 35/1918, August 31, 1918, p. 15, center left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / st3.
  6. ↑ Austria-Hungary: Court and State Manual of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: for the year ... compiled from official sources . Hof- und Staatsdr., 1918 ( google.at [accessed December 7, 2019]).
  7. ↑ a b Südmähre.at: Cavallar Ritter von Grabensprung , accessed on June 9, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Cavallar von Grabensprung, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cavallar von Grabensprung, Wilhelm Freiherr
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Aussig , Kingdom of Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1957
Place of death Vienna , Republic of Austria