Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen
(24.11.1862 - 21.2.1953)
place of birth:  Laufen  (Upper Bavaria)


Bavarian general of infantry who was Crown Prince Rupprecht's Chief of Staff (Sixth Army) out War's outbreak, and is known as the founding father of the Bavarian Army's Mountain Troops. Young Konrad grew up in Upper Bavaria as the son of a royal notary. His mother was the former Anna Winkler. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Bavarian Army in December 1883, later attending the Bavarian War Academy. During the two years leading up to World War One, Krafft served as the Bavarian Army's Chief of General Staff. 

When war broke out, Generalmajor Krafft von Dellmensingen was Crown Prince Rupprecht's Chief of Staff in the Sixth Army, largely comprised of Bavarian soldiers. With the Sixth, he oversaw operations during the Battle of the Frontiers and participated in the so-called Race to the Sea. As an expert on mountain warfare, he was sent to Tyrolia in May 1915 to command the Alpenkorps, an elite mountain unit which saw action in the Italian Front, at Verdun, as well as operations in Serbia and Romania. For his efforts, Krafft was awarded the Pour le Merite. In 1917, appointed Chief of Staff for Army Group Albrecht and then Chief of Staff for Otto von Below's Fourteenth Army, where he planned much of the successful Caporetto Offensive. In October 1917, he received Bavaria's highest military honor, the Military Order of Max Joseph. Krafft von Dellmensingen remained as Below's Chief of Staff in the Seventeenth Army where he was involved Germany's Spring Offensive. In 1918, Krafft was given command of the II. Bavarian Army Corps and remained on the Western Front until the war's end.

After retirement from the military in December 1918, Krafft von Dellmensingen became an active advocate for the return of the Bavarian monarchy. He also participated in the 1920s in the preparation of the official history of the Bavarian Army in the war. In 1937, a barracks complex in Garmisch was named the Krafft-von-Dellmensingen- Kaserne. In 1945, the Kaserne was taken over by the United States Army and today houses part of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen, who with his spouse Helene Zöhrer had three children, died on 21 February 1953 in Seeshaupt, Upper Bavaria.