| The Prussian Machine - Generals |
Ludwig Freiherr von Falkenhausen
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Ludwig Alexander Friedrich August Philipp Freiherr von Falkenhausen (13.9.1844 - 4.5.1936) place of birth: Guben, Niederlausitz (Brandenburg) Prussian baron and colonel general who served as both corps- and army-level commander during the Great War. He was born into the home of imperial Prussian Lieutenant General Alexander von Falkenhausen and his Russian-born wife Katharina von Rouanet. Young Ludwig began his budding military career as an 11-year old we he entered the Cadet Institute in Potsdam in 1856. In 1862, he received orders to report to Potsdam's Foot Guards Regiment, the unit he later saw action with during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, 1st Lieutenant Falkenhausen functioned as field artillery regimental adjutant and participated in actions at Gravelotte-St Privat, Beaumont, and Sedan. After the War, von Falkenhausen completed several assignments as a general staff officer in Karlsruhe, Trier, and Koblenz, a battalion commander in Cologne, and was then recalled to Berlin to serve as Guard Corps Chief of Staff. After stints as regimental and brigade commander, he was assigned to quartermaster duties with the Great General Staff and then as Director of the General War Department at the War Ministry. He also concurrently served in the Lower House (Bundesrat) of Prussia's Parliament. Prior to retiring from the military, von Falkenhausen also served as a divional commander, as well as commander of XIII. Imperial Army Corps of Württemberg. Called out of retirement at the age of 74, General von Falkenhausen commanded the Ersatz Corps which was subordinate to Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht's Sixth Army. His troops were engaged in front-line action at Nancy- Epinal. As senior commander of Army Detachment "A" (also known as Army Detachment Falkenhausen) he was promoted to the rank of colonel general, and his soldiers were mainly engaged in trench warfare in northeastern France (Lorraine). It was for these actions that Falkenhausen was awarded the Pour le Merite for distinguished service. He lead coastal defense troops for about four months from headquarters in Hamburg, after which he was transferred back to the Western Front to head up the Sixth Army (1916-17). There troops under his command fought in the trenches in Flanders and Artois, along the so-called Siegfried Line, and during the Spring Offensive at Arras. For this he received the coveted Order of the Black Eagle. Von Falkenhausen was then transferred to Belgium in April 1917 to serve as the Governor General there until War's end. Generaloberst von Falkenhausen was married to Helene von Waldow und Reitzenstein, with whom he had a son Friedrich and a daughter Elsa. Two other subsequent children did not survive. Helene died at the age of 39 while they were stationed in Cologne. A few years later, he married Alice Petzold from Chemnitz. Von Falkenhausen died on 4 May 1936 in Görlitz and was interred in the Invaliden-Friedhof in Berlin. |
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