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Colonel General v. Einem

Official photo card before 1914. It shows von Einem in the parade uniform of the Cuirassier Regiment von Driesen (Westphalian) No. 4. Initially its commander, after his promotion to General of the Cavalry (1907) he retained the position à la suite of the Cuirassier Regiment “von Driesen” (Westphalian) No. 4, i.e., he was entitled to wear the regimental uniform but otherwise no longer held any official post at the regimental level.
Official photo card before 1914. It shows von Einem in the parade uniform of the Cuirassier Regiment von Driesen (Westphalian) No. 4. Initially its commander, after his promotion to General of the Cavalry (1907) he retained the position à la suite of the Cuirassier Regiment “von Driesen” (Westphalian) No. 4, i.e., he was entitled to wear the regimental uniform but otherwise no longer held any official post at the regimental level.
von Einem as army commander visiting the high command of the 7th Army Corps (second from the left). Original photo from a private photo album. Around 1916. He is wearing the field-grey coat of the cuirassiers.
von Einem as army commander visiting the high command of the 7th Army Corps (second from the left). Original photo from a private photo album. Around 1916. He is wearing the field-grey coat of the cuirassiers.

The person of Colonel General Karl Wilhelm Georg August Gottfried von Einem called von Rothmaler (* January 1, 1853 in Herzberg am Harz; † April 7, 1934 in Mülheim an der Ruhr) is particularly associated with the garrison Münster. He was not only, until 1895, commander of the Cuirassier Regiment von Driesen (Westphalian) No. 4 in Münster, but also Chief of the General Staff of the VII Army Corps (from 1896) and later Commanding General of the VII Army Corps (from 1909). In 1914 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd Army and in 1915 was finally promoted to Colonel General. In the period from 1903 to 1909 he had been War Minister. He was already close to the young Emperor Wilhelm II, who also always protected him. In the preliminary remarks to the personal notes of Colonel General v. Einem about his time as an army commander in the First World War, the editor describes his five-year period as Commanding General of the VII: Army Corps as “all in all the happiest time of his life” (Junius Alter/ Hrgb., Ein Armeeführer erlebt den Weltkrieg. Persönliche Aufzeichnungen des Generalobersten v. Einem, Leipzig 1938, p. 22). On 07.04.April 1934 at around 4 o'clock in the morning von Einem died at the age of 81 in his then place of residence Mühlheim an der Ruhr. His grave is located in the Zentralfriedhof, namely in the Protestant Field West I. The funeral was also attended by Oskar, the son of the emperor living in Dutch exile.

The original photo shows von Einem (in the middle right) at the unveiling of the Cuirassier Monument at the Promenade, i.e. at the Ägidiitor, on August 31, 1930.
The original photo shows von Einem (in the middle right) at the unveiling of the Cuirassier Monument at the Promenade, i.e. at the Ägidiitor, on August 31, 1930.

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Germany suffered 1,773,700 deaths in the First World War (according to other sources: 2,037,000). The German losses are distributed as follows: field/occupation army 1,900,876, navy 34,836, in the colonies 1,185. In addition there are about 100,000 missing persons who were considered dead. Of the approximately 281,000 officers of the German army, about 55,000 (= 19%) fell. The losses among the ranks – including non-commissioned officers – are estimated at approx. 14%. About 1,250,000 dead German soldiers were buried outside the homeland, among them in the colonies 1,053 German colonial troops. The recorded losses of individual regiments were mostly dramatic.

Kriegsgeschichte

Münster before and after the destruction in World War II. Photographs from a private photo album.

World War II originated from the criminal National Socialist (Nazi) regime and was carried out by German soldiers and other units (e.g., police battalions or SS and SD task forces), bringing combat operations, destruction, expulsion, deportation and the systematic murder of Jews and other population groups in labor and concentration camps across much of Europe. German war crimes also included the deliberate bombing of civilian targets, for example the Dutch port city of Rotterdam on 14 May 1940 or the English industrial city of Coventry on 14 November 1940. However, this war violence returned to Germany as Allied air superiority grew in the further course of World War II and developed into a systematic bombing campaign against German cities. Münster, too, as an important military center and a major transport hub for rail and canal connections, was the target of devastating American and British air raids. The first bombing raid on Münster took place on 16 May 1940. In total, from mid-May 1940 to the end of March 1945, 102 air raids were carried out against Münster, for example by 230 bombers on 10 October 1943 in two waves of attack. In the hail of tens of thousands of explosive bombs, incendiary stick bombs and incendiary canisters, the historically grown cityscape largely disappeared. As a result, more than 90% of the building stock in the city center was destroyed. By the end of the war only 25,000 people were living in the city; in 1940 there had still been 140,000 inhabitants. It is estimated that the air raids cost approximately 1,600 lives.