Heinrich Adolf Wild von Hohenborn
(08.07.1860 - 25.10.1925)
place of birth:  Kassel, Kurhessen  (Hesse)
Königreich Preußen:  Kriegsminister,  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)

	Generalleutnant ................	20.01.1915
	Pour le Mérite ....................	02.08.1915  (Eichenlaub:  11.10.1918)