Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen

Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen (24 November 1862 – 21 February 1953) was a Bavarian Army general in World War I. He served as Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Bavarian Army before World War I and commanded the elite Alpenkorps, the Imperial German Army's mountain division formed in 1915.

Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen
Born24 November 1862
Laufen, Bavaria
Died21 February 1953(1953-02-21) (aged 90)
Seeshaupt, Bavaria, Germany
Allegiance Bavaria
 German Empire
Service/branchArmy
Years of service1881–1918
RankGeneral der Artillerie
Commands heldAlpenkorps, II Bavarian Army Corps
Battles/warsSerbian Campaign, Verdun, Romanian Campaign, Caporetto, Spring Offensive
AwardsPour le Mérite with oak leaves, Military Order of Max Joseph, Bavarian Military Merit Order with swords, Württemberg Military Merit Order, House Order of Hohenzollern with swords, Prussian Crown Order with swords, etc.

Early life

Krafft von Dellmensingen was born into a lower ranking Bavarian noble family in Laufen, Upper Bavaria. His father was a royal notary. Konrad entered the Royal Bavarian Army as an officer candidate in August 1881 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in December 1883. After attending the Bavarian War Academy, he served as a general staff officer in various units. In 1902 he married Helene Zöhrer in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. They would have two sons and one daughter.

Through the pre-war years, Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen proceeded up the ranks, generally alternating command and general staff assignments, until October 1, 1912 when he became Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Bavarian Army, a position he would hold until the mobilization for war in August 1914.

World War I

On mobilization in 1914, Generalmajor Krafft von Dellmensingen became chief of the general staff of the German 6th Army, and served with that command in the Battle of the Frontiers and the Race to the Sea. On May 27, 1915, shortly after his promotion to Generalleutnant, he took command of the newly formed Alpenkorps, a provisional mountain division. He would lead the division until the end of February 1917, through fighting on the Italian Front, at Verdun, and in the invasions of Serbia and Romania (see Battle of Sălătrucu). He received the Pour le Mérite, Prussia's highest military honor, on September 13, 1916, and oak leaves to the Pour le Mérite on December 11, 1916, as well as honors from Bavaria, other German states, and their Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman allies.

On March 1, 1917, Krafft von Dellmensingen became chief of staff of Army Group Duke Albrecht of Württemberg, where he served until September 9, 1917. On September 11, 1917, he received the Commander's Cross of the Württemberg Military Merit Order, Württemberg's highest military decoration. He then became chief of staff of the 14th Army under Otto von Below, and helped plan the operation that would become the successful Battle of Caporetto.[1] On October 24, 1917, he received the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph, Bavaria's highest military decoration.[2]

On February 2, 1918, the 14th Army in Italy was dissolved and the army's staff under Otto von Below took command of the 17th Army, newly formed for the Spring Offensive in France. After helping prepare the army for the offensive, Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen was promoted to General der Artillerie and given command of the II Bavarian Army Corps, which he led from April 18, 1918 through the Spring Offensive and the defensive battles that followed to the war's end.

Post-war

Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen retired from the army in December 1918. He was active in monarchist circles after the war seeking a 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 1926 and 1928, he edited a 2-volume account of the Battle of Caporetto, Der Durchbruch am Isonzo (The Breakthrough on the Isonzo).[3]

In 1937, a barracks complex in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was named the "Krafft-von-Dellmensingen-Kaserne". In 1945, the Kaserne was taken over by the United States Army. The program of denazification was launched after the end of the Second World War; the name “Krafft-von-Dellmensingen-Kaserne” was deleted. On 9 July 1975 this decision was reversed; the barracks were named after Dellmensingen again. Today this building houses part of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.[4] The name "Krafft-von-Dellmensingen-Kaserne" was removed from the outside of the barracks on 29 June 2011. Krafft von Dellmensingen had died in Seeshaupt, Upper Bavaria.

Decorations and awards

References
  • Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels und Dr. Günther Freiherr von Pechmann: Virtuti Pro Patria: Der königlich bayerische Militär-Max-Joseph-Orden (München 1966). Includes a biography of Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen.
  • Short biography (with some errors)
  • Curriculum vitae with picture

Notes
  1. See:
    • Morselli, Mario (2001). Caporetto, 1917: Victory Or Defeat?. London, England: Frank Cass Publishers. p. 33.
    • Austrian Ministry of Defense and Austrian War Archives (1936) Österreich-Ungarns Letzter Krieg 1914–1918 [Austria-Hungary's Last War 1914–1918], Vienna, Austria: Militärwissenschaftliche Mitteilungen (Military Science Reports), vol. 6: Das Kriegsjahr 1917 (Year of the war 1917), p. 496. Available at: State Library of Upper Austria From p. 496: "Auf den Vorhalt des GM. Waldstätten, daß eine Verbesserung der Lage am Isonzo für Österreich-Ungarn von entscheidender Bedeutung sei, verfügte GFM. Hindenburg, daß ein deutscher Beauftragter die Angriffsverhältnisse an Ort und Stelle zu erkunden habe. Hierzu wurde der im Gebirgskrieg sehr erfahrene bayerische GLt. Krafft, zurzeit Stabschef einer Heeresgruppe an der Westfront, bestimmt." (Upon Major General Waldstätten's protest [to Ludendorff] that an improvement of the situation on the Isonzo would be of decisive significance for Austria-Hungary, Field Marshall Hindenburg ordered that a German officer would have to ascertain on the spot the possibilities for an attack. To this end, the Bavarian Lt. General Krafft, who was very experienced in mountain warfare and who at that time was the chief of staff of an army group on the western front, was appointed.)
  2. He had previously received the Knight's Cross and Commander's Cross of that order in 1914 and 1916 respectively. He would also receive the Grand Cross with Swords of the Bavarian Military Merit Order, the highest grade of that order.
  3. Krafft von Dellmensingen, Konrad, (1) Der Durchbruch am Isonzo Teil I.: Die Schlacht von Tolmein und Flitsch (24.bis 27. Oktober 1917). (The Breakthrough on the Isonzo, Part 1: The battle from Tolmein [Italian: Tolmino ; now: Tolmin in Slovenia] and Flitsch [Italian: Plezzo ; now: Bovec in Slovenia] (24th to 27th October 1917), 1926, and (2) Schicksalswende – Der Durchbruch am Isonzo. Teil II: Die Verfolgung über den Tagliamento bis Piave (The Turn of Fate – The Breakthrough on the Isonzo. Part 2: The pursuit across the Tagliamento to the Piave), 1928. These were published as volumes 12a and 12b of the series Schlachten des Weltkrieges (Battles of the World War), which was published by Stalling of Berlin and Oldenburg, Germany.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-06-23. Retrieved 2007-07-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Military offices
Preceded by
missing		 Quartermaster General / Chief of the General Staff (Kingdom of Bavaria)
1912–1914		 Succeeded by
Abolished
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