Wolff von Graeffendorff

Captain von Graeffendorff

Wolff von Graeffendorff (born September 5, 1876 in Sakrau ; † December 10, 1945 in Rodewald ) was a German officer , most recently a colonel in World War II and knight of the order Pour le Mérite .

Life

family

Graeffendorff was the son of an ennobled manorial estate owner . In 1907 he married a von Lieres und Wilkau who came from the lower nobility of Silesia in Oels .

Military career

After passing his Abitur exam , Graeffendorff joined the 2nd Silesian Jäger Battalion No. 6 of the Prussian Army in Oels in 1895 . The battalion's officer corps consisted only of nobles at the time . Here he was promoted to second lieutenant on August 18, 1896 and was adjutant to battalion from 1899 . From October 1903 he was active in various infantry units during the trial introduction of the newly established machine gun departments .

Back in the traditional hunters' association , he was transferred to the Kurhessisches Jäger Battalion No. 11 in Marburg in 1911 . There he was with promotion to captain on 1 October 1912 Chief of MG - Company appointed. Before the war he had received the Knight's Cross II. Class of the Albrecht Order and the Knight's Cross II. Class of the Duke Saxony-Ernestine House Order .

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War , the battalion fought in the association of HKK 1 . Subordinated to a Saxon army corps, it crossed the Meuse at Dinant and reached the south of Châlons . After the Battle of the Marne , the battalion covered the retreat of the XIX. Army Corps and went at La Bassée for trench warfare over. Graeffendorff distinguished himself in the autumn battle at La Bassée .

On July 30, 1916, he was appointed commander of Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 23 in the nascent 200th Infantry Division . With this he fought in the Forest Carpathians , on the Tatar Pass and in the Ludowa area. There he stormed the Hala-Mahailewa, Hala-Lukawiek, the Watonarka, the Plaik and the Ludowa. For his achievements he received the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords in early January 1917 , after he had already been awarded both classes of the Iron Cross . On the 13th of the same month he was appointed commander of his old battalion fighting in the same division, the Kurhessischer Jäger Battalion No. 11.

From June 1 to August 31, 1917 Graeffendorff was the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Mountain Battalion IV./50. Under his leadership, it participated in the liberation of Bukovina .

Back with its hunters in the trench warfare on the eastern border to Bukovina, the division was driven to the Italian front . After the Battle of Good Freit, they advanced towards the Tagliamento . On October 30, the battalion stormed the bridgehead of Codroipo at the foot of the Tagliamento. Thus the Italian troops were deprived of a decisive possibility of retreat. More than 5000 Italian soldiers, around 500 horses, forty trucks, an entire mountain battery fully equipped, as well as weapons and ammunition were captured during the storming. Graeffendorff was awarded the Order of the Pour le Mérite on November 24, 1917 as the first hunter officer.

After storming Monte Valderoa and fighting on Tontana-Secca in December, the battalion returned to the Western Front , where it was initially used in the Vosges . Graeffendorff was then appointed First Adjutant of the 200th Infantry Division on April 1, 1918. As such, he took part in the fighting of the 2nd Army on the Avre , bridgehead of Moreuil . Due to illness, he was transferred to the east on May 13, 1918 as first adjutant of the imperial governorates of Oesel , Dagö and Moon . There he was promoted to major on October 18, 1918 .

After the end of the war and the November Revolution, Graeffendorff was transferred to the officers of the army in December 1918 and, in the course of the reduction in the army, retired from active service on March 31, 1920.

Wehrmacht

Graeffendorff was made available to the Army of the Wehrmacht on July 1, 1938 , but was not used. On the occasion of the so-called Tannenberg day he received the on August 27, 1939 character as a lieutenant colonel . Even at the beginning of the Second World War it was not used. It was not until July 1, 1941, that he became the commander of the Breslau transport escort regiment as a lieutenant colonel. Later this was renamed the Transport Escort Regiment Ukraine. On January 17, 1943, Graeffendorff was released from his command and then transferred to the Führerreserve . It was here that he was promoted to Oberst zV on October 1, 1943 , before his zV position was canceled on December 31, 1943.

literature

Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: A-G. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1999. ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 . Pp. 513-514.
Wolfram G. Theilemann: Nobility in a green skirt. Aristocratic hunters, large private forest property and the Prussian forest officials 1866–1914. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-05-003556-0 .
Hanns Möller : History of the knights of the order "Pour le mérite" in the World War. Volume 1: A-L. Bernard & Graefe publishing house. Berlin 1935, pp. 406-408.
The Goslar Jäger in the World War. III. Volume, Walter Holste: Das Reserve-Jäger-Bataillon No. 23. With appendix: The Association of Former Goslar Jäger , Lax printing house, Hildesheim 1934.
Festschrift: Monument consecration of the Goslar hunters on September 19, 1926. Goslar 1926.

Individual evidence

^ A von Lieres and Wilkau had served as a lieutenant with the 6th Jäger in 1868 until the Franco-Prussian War, as did Graeffendorff, and later for some time he was captain of the Westphalian 7th Jäger in the town of Bückeburg, the capital of Schaumburg . A younger von Lieres and Wilkau had been active as a Silesian cuirassier in south-west Africa before 1914 building fortresses in the African steppe, which even Wilhelm II vividly remembered (cf. Wilhelm Vorberg: Lebenserinnerungen. MS Diepholz 1963, p. 162.)

↑ War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1914. p. 337.

personal data
SURNAME	Graeffendorff, Wolff von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German officer, most recently colonel in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	September 5, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sakrau
DATE OF DEATH	December 10, 1945
Place of death	Rodewald

[1] A von Lieres and Wilkau had served as a lieutenant with the 6th Jäger in 1868 until the Franco-Prussian War, as did Graeffendorff, and later for some time he was captain of the Westphalian 7th Jäger in the town of Bückeburg, the capital of Schaumburg . A younger von Lieres and Wilkau had been active as a Silesian cuirassier in south-west Africa before 1914 building fortresses in the African steppe, which even Wilhelm II vividly remembered (cf. Wilhelm Vorberg: Lebenserinnerungen. MS Diepholz 1963, p. 162.)

[Rangliste1914-2] War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1914. p. 337.