|
Paul Ferdinand Alexander Grünert
(12.01.1861 - 11.12.1936)
place of birth:
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executed immediately after Prittwitz had been replaced by Hindenburg,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 |
|
