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Hermann Gottfried Emil von Eichhorn
(13.02.1848 - 30.07.1918) - kia
place of birth: Breslau, Niederschlesien (Wroclaw, Poland)
Königreich Preußen:
Gen-Insp, OBH, Generalfeldmarschall (KIA)
Imperial German Field
Marshal Hermann von Eichhorn served as commander of the
Tenth Army throughout most of the Great War. He
began his military career as a Fahnenjunker in 2nd Foot Guards
Regiment, with whom he saw action in 1866 war with Austria, first at Soor,
then at Königinhof
and Königgrätz.
Von Eichhorn also also served during the Franco-Prussian War
of 1870-71, chiefly as battalion adjutant for the Foot-Guards. Prior to
the Great War, he served in several general staff
positions, eventually becoming the Inspector General for Seventh Army
Inspectorate - Saarbrücken -
and earning in 1912 the Order of the Black Eagle.
General von Eichhorn would have been slated to command a
field army as the sabers rattled throughout Europe, but in May 1914 he
was seriously injured in a horseback riding accident in the vicinity of
Metz. Although he was completely healthy by July 1914 mobilization, all
high command positions had already been filled. He thus whiled away the
first few months of the war but finally got approval from the Kaiser
himself to temporarily command a Leib-Grenadier regiment in January
1915, seeing heavy action at Soissons. Later that
month he was transferred to command Tenth Army on the Eastern Front,
where he was awarded the Pour le Merite in 1915 for
the storming of the Fortress of Kovno; he likewise
successfully commanded Landwehr and Landsturm
troops during the winter battle at Masurian Lakes.
Von Eichhorn remained in command of the Tenth until
1918, also concurrently serving as commander of his own army group. For
the final months of the war, he lead the troops of Army Group
Kiev as they occupied Ukraine and thus received the moniker
of "Uncrowned King of Ukraine."
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Leutnant - 1866 |
Hermann was
the son of Karl
Friedrich von Eichhorn, a high-ranking politician in Minden, and Julie
Schelling. His grandfather Johann Albrecht von Eichhorn was also a
noted Prussian statesman and Prussian Cultural Minister. His
grandfather on his mother's side was the noted philosopher Friedrich
Wilhelm Schelling. Eichhorn's son Wolf served during the War as a
Kapitänleutnant in the German Navy. A highly educated and cultured
field marshal, Feld Marshal von Eichhorn was assassinated on 30 July
1918 by a left-wing revolutionary in Kiev. He is buried next to GFM
Alfred von Schlieffen at the Invaliden Friedhof in Berlin.
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