Rudolf Hammer
(04.08.1862 - 18.01.1926)
place of birth:  Dresden, Sachsen (Saxony)
Königreich Sachsen:  Div-Kdr,  Generalleutnant


General Rudolf Hammer was a highly decorated infantry officer and Royal Saxon division commander during the Great War. At the outbreak of hostilities, Hammer was initially in command of a regiment attached to the 40th Infantry Division. Within a couple weeks of having pushed in to Belgium, the Saxon troops met both military and civilian resistance in the town of Dinant. This confrontation led to Hammer and his soldiers participating in the now infamous Dinant Massacre, where the town was almost completely destroyed and a total of 674 Belgian citizens were killed. As they continued their push toward the French border, Hammer was shot through his lower jaw and had to return to Germany for convalescent leave.

After a three-month hospital stay, Hammer was promoted to Generalmajor and returned to the Western Front. He was then put in charge of the 88th Infantry Brigade and remained engaged along the front lines in northern France for the subsequent year and a half. He briefly headed up 32nd Division and was then put in command of Germany's 24th Infantry Division in time for participation in the Battle of the Somme, followed by trench warfare in Flanders. His outstanding leadership while engaged on the front lines lead to his being awarded in 1917 Germany's highest military honor, the Pour le Merite.

For the final year of the War, Hammer's 32nd Division was subordinate to Otto von Below's newly-formed 17th Field Army. For his exemplary leadership during the so-named Kaiserschlacht (German Spring Offensive), he was awarded the Kommandeurskreuz I. Klasse (Komtur I) of the Militär-St-Heinrich-Orden. His division thereafter remained entrenched on the Western Front until the Armistice was signed in November 1918. Hammer was then charged with marching his troops back to their homeland for demobilization, followed by his retiring from active duty in January 1919.

	Generalleutnant	17.06.1918
	Pour le Mérite	24.11.1917
	Militär-St-Heinrich	15.10.1914  Ritter  (Komtur II: 31.08.1916;  Komtur I:  28.03.1918)