Friedrich Karl "Fritz" von Loßberg  
(30.4.1868 - 14.5.1942)
place of birth:  Bad Homburg, Hessen  (Hesse)


German general and staff officer who made his name as an expert in defensive tactics. During the war, von Loßberg initially served on the western front with the Fifth Army as a Fabeck's XIII.Corps chief of staff. During most of 1915 he was Deputy Chief of Operations at Supreme Command (OHL). He thereafter became legendary as the OHL's fixit-man, serving as field army chief of staff for von Einem's Third Army in Champagne, with von Below's Second Army during the Somme Offensive, with von Below again with the Sixth Army at Arras, and he organized Fourth Army commander Sixt von Armin's defense at Passchendaele.

As a military thinker he sought to replace defensive tactics based on a single line with "defense in depth;" behind these positions would be counterattack forces held in reserve until they were needed to support front line units under pressure. These principles were embodied in the Hindenburg Line in 1917-1918. Following the war, von Loßberg worked with future Field Marshal Erich von Manstein in drawing up plans for Germany's post-war Versailles Treaty Army. He served as Chief of Staff for Grenschutz Süd, and commanded Reichswehr-Brigade 26, 6th Infantry Division, and Reichswehr Gruppenkommando I/Berlin, retiring on 31 January 1927 as a general of infantry. His son Bernhard served as a major general during WWII. Von Loßberg died in Lübeck on 14 May 1942.