Paul Ferdinand Alexander Grünert  
(12.01.1861 - 11.12.1936)
place of birth:  Magdeburg
Königreich Preußen:  KG,  Generalleutnant  (Kav)


Imperial German cavalry officer Paul Grünert served as Eighth Army Senior Quartermaster under General von Hindenburg during the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg. He served the remainder of the war years as an field army chief of staff and a divisional commander. General Grünert additionally spent the final few months of the Great War in command of reserve corps troops.

It was General Grünert who, along with his subordinate Max Hoffmann, tried to convince Eighth Army Commander von Prittwitz to move the bulk of his forces south in order to bolster German defensive action against Russian General Samsonov. The two German general staffers were counting on the fact that Rennenkampf, to be held by a skeleton German force, would not pursue southward to assist Samsonov. This plan was in fact executed immediately after Prittwitz had been replaced by Hindenburg, leading to the remarkable German victory at Tannenberg. Grünert mainly functioned as Hindenburg's top communications officer during this engagement.

General Grünert switched in November to working as Mackensen's Chief of Staff in the newly-formed Ninth Army as they pushed southward into Poland to conduct operations there. In this context, Mackensen and his deputy Grünert enjoyed Hindenburg's and Ludendorff's compete confidence and trust. Grünert continued in the same capacity under Prince Leopold von Bayern as his troops marched into Warsaw in the summer of 1915. For his efforts, the Kaiser presented him with Germany's Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd Class, with oak leaves and swords.

Following some deserved home leave for Christmas, Grünert was transferred in January 1916 to the Argonne Forest on the Western Front, where he took command of 25th Reserve Infantry Division. He was soon switched to the River Somme area, however, where he took the post as Fritz von Below's Chief of Staff. In July, he again went East to take charge of first the 3rd Division, then 119th Division, which was engaged in western Ukraine. The 119th was ordered in May 1917 to join with Fourth Army forces at Flanders on the Western Front. In March 1918, Generalleutnant Grünert relieved Hermann von Staabs as commander of XXXIX. Reserve Corps. It was in this capacity that he proved himself worthy of the Kaiser's awarding him with the Pour le Merite.

Toward the end of the summer 1918, Grünert was put in command of XXXX. Reserve Corps, forming the left wing of Germany's Sixth Army which was entrenched near Lens. These troops gradually withdrew to the Antwerp-Maas Line until the cease of hostilities. It fell upon Commander Grünert to lead them back to the homeland for the demobilization process.

	Generalleutnant	27.01.1918
	Pour le Mérite	03.05.1918