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Heinrich Adolf Wild von Hohenborn
(08.07.1860 - 25.10.1925)
place of birth: Kassel,
Kurhessen (Hesse)
Königreich
Preußen: Kriegsminister,
Quartiermeister, Generalleutnant
Imperial German general officer
Adolf Wild von Hohenborn replaced Erich von Falkenhayn as Prussian
Minister of War in January 1915. He also served as XVI. Army Corps
commander during the latter half of the War. As War Minister, Wild
achieved a certain amount of notoriety when he ordered a census to be
taken (Judenzählung
- Nov 1916) ostensibly to prove that there were relatively few Jewish
soldiers serving at the front, and conversely that Jews were
over-represented among those registered as physically unfit for
military service. There were apparently no significant findings, and
the results were thus never published. This action nonetheless
unleashed a wave of anti-Semitism within the army, complete with
numerous physical attacks.
Adolf Hohenborn grew up in central Germany and
as a teenager was accepted to the university at Kassel (Cassel). During
his time there as a student, Hohenborn became a classmate and friend of
the German Empire's future emperor, Wilhelm. Hohenborn chose
the military service and in 1878 joined the 83rd Infantry Regiment in
Kassel. After a few years serving as a junior officer, he was released
from duty to accompany Christian zu
Stolberg-Wernigerode, the eldest son of Prussian Vice Chancellor Otto
Fürst
zu
Stolberg-Wernigerode, to attend university classes there in Kassel.
Two years later, Hohenborn returned to active
duty with a Jaeger battalion and soon thereafter progressed through the
ranks until promotion to major. Here he was selected for permanent
assignment to the Prussian Great General Staff in
Berlin, additionally serving as personal adjutant to Prince Eitel
Friedrich. With his old classmate Wilhelm, now Kaiser Wilhelm II,
elevating Adolf to nobility status in 1900, Major Wild von Hohenborn
had an unobstructed military career path to pursue. After stints as
regimental and brigade commander, he returned to Berlin to head up
Section AD at the Prussian War Ministry, the General War
Department.
As War Minister von Falkenhayn left for
Supreme Command Headquarters in August 1914 , Wild von Hohenborn
remained in Berlin and briefly functioned as acting War Minister in
Falkenhayn's stead. He was soon called to the field to command 30th
Division, engaged near Nancy-Epinal during the Battle of the
Aisne. He was soon transferred to briefly serve on the
Eastern Front as Eighth Army Chief of Staff, but was then recalled to
Berlin by newly-appointed Chief of General Staff von Falkenhayn, who in
late 1914 assigned him the post of General-Quartiermeister,
Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Field Army. At that time,
Falkenhayn was still functioning as War Minister and was able to
transfer these duties to General von Wild in January 1915. It was for
his exemplary leadership as War Minister that General von Wild was
awarded the Pour le Merite medal. After being
replaced by Hermann von Stein in October 1916, he once again returned
to field duty, taking command of XVI. Army Corps which was engaged in
the Argonne region of France. He remained in charge
of that unit up through the end of hostilities, at which point the
general lead his troops back to corps headquarters in Metz. After
retiring from active duty in April 1919, Wild von Hohenborn was
brevetted later that same year with the rank of General der Infanterie.
"...things are going slowly at Verdun,
unfortunately. Knobelsdorf is finished and his troops are
burning out. Now Falkenhayn is seriously considering putting a halt to
the action, but I say no!"
General
Adolf Wild von Hohenborn
March 1916 (notes from his diary) |
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