Born on December 6th, 1849 in Haus Leipnitz, Saxony, Anton Ludwig Friedrich August von Mackensen was a German soldier and field marshall. August von Mackensen grew to be one of the most successful and competent commanders in World War I.
At the age of 19, Mackensen joined the military service as a volunteer. About a year later, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Mackensen was promoted to second lieutenant and was awarded the Iron Cross. His first main achievement was skillfully removing his army from envelopment east of Lodz. However, his more daring and impressive feats occurred during battles in World War I (by the outbreak of the war he was 65).
During World War I, his chain of victories set him apart from the other commanders. In August of 1914, he—along with Hindenburg and Ludendorff (two of the most well known German generals of World War I)—played a major role at the battles of Gumbinnen and Tannenberg, which drove the invading Russians out from most of East Prussia. At this point, Germans started calling Mackensen the "Liberator of East Prussia," a term that had only applied to Hindenburg before. Those who examined Mackensen’s battles and followed his campaigns often held him in higher regard than Hindenburg. From 1915 to 1917, Mackensen managed to defeat the Russians at Brest-Litovsk and Pinsk, overrun Serbia, and occupy Romania. However, the end of the war soon came, and when the armistice was signed, Mackensen was interned for a year.
In 1920, at the age of 71, Mackensen retired from the army and involved himself in the realm of politics. After being made a Prussian state councillor in 1933 by Hermann Göring, Mackensen frequented Nazi functions while wearing his imperial cavalry uniform, which turned him into a major symbol of the integration of the Second and Third Reichs.
During the closing months of World War II, Mackensen was briefly captured by the British Second Army at his home. Instead of meeting British expectations of making a war statement, all he requested from the Allied soldiers was for them to not “steal his chickens.” Mackensen died on November 8th, 1945 at the age of 95. He lived through the Kingdom of Prussia, the North German Confederation, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_von_Mackensen
https://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/mackensen.htm
https://www.britannica.com/biography/August-von-Mackensen
https://ww2gravestone.com/people/mackensen-anton-ludwig-august-von/
I found your analysis of Mr. Stewart's profile picture really interesting and extremely well written. I decided take a closer look at the battles of Gumbinnen and Tannenberg that you mentioned. The Battle of Gumbinnen is regarded as the first major confrontation of WW1 on the eastern front, initiated by General von Prittwiz. Faced with the threat of being crushed between two Russian Armies. The three army corps, with von Mackensen leading the second, decided to attack the First Russian Army before moving on to the second. Although Germans suffered major causalities and retreated, Russian victory was debatable. Then, about 3 days later somewhere between Allenstein and Tannenberg, the Germany army went into war with the Second Russian Army. With a resounding victory, the army then turned back and drove the First Russian Army out of Germany, marking the last time that the Russian army would march onto German lands and proving that larger armies could be defeated through superior tactics and training.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://wwitoday.com/wwiScEventDetail.php?id=13
https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/battle_of_tannenberg.php