| The Prussian Machine - Generals |
Bruno von Mudra
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Karl Bruno Julius von Mudra (1.4.1851 - 21.11.1931) place of birth: Muskau (Saxony) Saxon general of infantry who served most of his military career with the combat engineers. At war's outbreak he was attached to the Crown Prince's Fifth Army as commander of XVI. Army Corps in Metz. His troops were tasked with blocking French forces in the Argonne as they sought over the next two months to punch through the frontier. Von Mudra was subsequently awarded the Pour le Merite in 1915 for his outstanding leadership and planning in the successful conduct of this assignment. In March 1916, General von Mudra arrived at Verdun where he was to command Angriffsgruppe-Ost (Assault Group East), the combined German forces based on the left bank of the Maas River. This contingent is also referred to as Maas Group East - Verdun and existed within the Fifth Army. After the Verdun conflict cooled off, von Mudra transferred East where he replaced von Fabeck as commander of the new Eighth Army (previously Army of the Niemen) headquartered at Mitau in present-day Latvia. In January 1917, he returned to the Western Front for the remainder of the Great War, commanding Army Detachment A in Alsace-Lorraine, as well as brief stints with First Army in Rethel and Seventeenth Army in Denain and Mons. After Ludendorff stepped down in late October 1918, generals von Mudra and von Gallwitz were ordered back to Berlin where they heatedly argued in front of the military cabinet for the continuance of Germany's war effort. Both Scheidemann and Erzberger decided not to take their advice, however, and von Mudra's military career came to a close.
General von
Mudra made his mark in Prussia's pre-war military forces by raising
the level of competence and utility of the combat engineers. He was also
known as a specialist in fortress defenses. Currently, the top officer
candidates who graduate from Germany's Combat Engineers School earn the Mudra
Award in his honor. Von Mudra's son Herbert served on the Western
Front as an observer with the 27th Aviation Detachment, and later as
regimental adjutant for Leib-Garde Nr. 115. On 21 November 1931
at the age of 80, General of Infantry Bruno von Mudra died and was buried
in Zippendorf, located in the present-day state of Mecklenburg- Vorpommern.
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