Alfred von Waldersee
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Warning: this article is based primarily on information from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica and does not reflect modern scholarship. There may be errors of fact, anachronisms, and omissions, beyond those normally encountered in Wikipedia.
Chief of Staff, 1888-1891
Alfred Graf von Waldersee (8 April 1832 - 5 March 1904) was a German Generalfeldmarschall who served as Chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1888 to 1891.
Alfred Graf von Waldersee was a descendant of Count Franz John George of Waldersee (b. Dessau, 5 September 1763 - d. Dessau, 30 May 1823),a illegitimate son of Leopold III Frederick Franz, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau with Johanna Eleonore Hoffmeyer (b. 12 November 1739 - d. 3 May 1816), by marriage von Neitschütz since 1765. Count Franz John George of Waldersee married in Dessau on 20 May 1787 to Countess Louise of Anhalt (morganatic granddaughter of the Hereditary Prince William Gustav, eldest son and heir of Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau). They had six children, three sons (Franz Henry, Eduard and Frederick Gustav) and three daughters (Louise, Amalie Agnes and Marie). Their descendants through the eldest son Franz Henry are still alive.
[edit] Biography
Waldersee was born in Potsdam to a military family.
Entering the Guard Artillery of the Prussian army in 1850, he soon attracted the favorable notice of his official superiors, and in his first campaign, the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 he served as aide-de-camp to General of Artillery Prince Charles of Prussia, with whom he was present at Königgrätz. In the course of this campaign, Count Waldersee was promoted major and placed on the general staff, and after the conclusion of peace, he served on the staff of the X. Army Corps (newly formed from the conquered kingdom of Hanover). In January 1870, he became military attaché at Paris and aide-de-camp to Kaiser Wilhelm I.
In the Franco-Prussian War, Lt. Colonel Count Waldersee, on account of both his admitted military talents and his recent experience of the enemy's army, proved a most useful assistant to the "supreme War-Lord." He was present at the great battles around Metz, in which he played more than an orderly officer's part, and in the war against the republic he was specially sent to the staff of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was operating against Chanzy's army on the Loire. The grand duke was a good soldier, but not a brilliant strategist, and the fortunate outcome of the western campaign was largely due to his adviser.
At the end of the war, Waldersee received the Iron Cross First Class, and was entrusted with the exceedingly delicate and difficult post of German representative at Paris, in which his tact and courtesy were very marked. At the end of 1871, Waldersee took over the command of the 13th Uhlans at Hanover, and two years later he became chief of the staff of the Hanoverian army corps, in which he had served before 1870. On 14 April 1874, he married Mary Esther Lee, third daughter of New York merchant David Lee, who had previously been married to Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein, and who had been made Princess of Nöer by the Emperor of Austria. [1] In 1881, he became Moltke's principal assistant on the great general staff at Berlin, and for seven years was intimately connected with the great field marshal's work, so that, when Moltke retired in 1888, Waldersee's appointment to succeed him was a foregone conclusion.
It was during these years that he accompanied the future Wilhelm II on trips abroad, representing his grandfather Wilhelm I. Out of these trips, a friendship grew and Waldersee was everything the young prince's parents hated "anti-semitic, narrowly zealous in religion, and reactionary.....the quartermaster general was the personification of everything Wilhelm's parents most detested" (Kaiser Wilhelm II, Christopher Clarke p 12)
Three years later, the chief of the general staff was sent to command the IX. Corps at Altona, an appointment which was interpreted as indicating that his close and intimate friendship with Bismarck had made him, at this time of the chancellor's dismissal, a persona non grata to the young emperor. In 1898, however, he was appointed inspector-general of the III "Army Inspection" at Hanover, the order being accompanied by the most eulogistic expressions of the kaiser's goodwill.
On the despatch of European troops to quell the Boxer insurrection in China in 1900, it was agreed that Count Waldersee should have the supreme command of the joint forces. The preparations for his departure from Germany caused a good deal of satirical comment on what was known as the "Waldersee Rummel" or "theatricals." He arrived at the front, however, too late to direct his troops in the fighting before Peking. Waldersee was in charge of the repression against the Boxers. At the end of the war, he returned to Europe. In 1901 for his "Tätigkeit im Interesse der Erhaltung des Weltfriedens" (tasks in the interest of the world's peace), he was named an honorary citizen of Hamburg. [2] At Hanover, he resumed his duties of inspector-general, which he performed almost to his death.
[edit] In Popular Culture
In the Hong Kong movie The Boxer Rebellion, Waldersee, played by Richard Harrison, is depicted as married to a Chinese lady who saves his life after two of the chinese protagonists try to kill him. He is also depicted as a much younger man than he was at the time of the Rebellion.
Regarding personal names: Graf is a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin.
[edit] References
- ^ Richard Jay Hutto, Crowning Glory:American Wives of Princes and Dukes, Henchard Press, Ltd., Macon, Georgia, 2007, ISBN 9780972595179, p. 136.
- ^ Stadt Hamburg Ehrenbürger (German) Retrieved on June 17, 2008
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Preceded by Count Moltke |
Chief of the General Staff 1888–1891 |
Succeeded by Count Schlieffen |
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