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Kriegsgeschichte

The Prussians are coming - The first occupation of Münster by the Prussians (1802 – 1806)

Kochendörffer describes the territorial situation of Westphalia around the turn of the century (1800) as follows: "If we look at a historical map of Westphalia from the beginning of the 19th century, the colourful mixture of territories from which today's Province of Westphalia is composed immediately stands out, many of which were legally sharply separated from one another: there are the two ecclesiastical principalities Münster and Paderborn, which in particular gave Westphalia its character, the former forming mainly today's Regierungsbezirk Münster, reaching to Prussian East Frisia, Paderborn to the east, which during the 17th and 18th centuries was several times, but only through the person of the common bishop, connected with Münster; then the Prussian "provinces" Mark, Minden and Ravensberg, Tecklenburg and Lingen, partly spatially separated from each other, also far removed from the heartlands of the Prussian monarchy and always regarded by its politics only as outposts, as compensation objects, furthermore the Electorate of Cologne's possessions, the Duchy of Westphalia and the Vest Recklinghausen, further south Siegen and the counties of Wittgenstein, then not yet belonging to Westphalia, and sprinkled into these compact territories counties e.g. Steinfurt, Rietberg, Gemen, Limburg, Dortmund, Herford, while from the north the related Osnabrück pressed in like a wedge between the Prussian provinces and the Münster upper and lower prince-bishoprics ...." (pp. 98/99).

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.

Heeressoziologie

IR 13 - Burials and Graves

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.

Heeressoziologie

Daily Routine in Wartime in the Home Garrison - Return of the Flags

On July 19, 1915, it says in the war chronicle of the city of Münster 1914-18 by Eduard Schulte (p. 120): "In the afternoon, with a marching band playing, 24 flags and standards from the army units of the VII Army Corps were brought from the station to the Royal Palace. Trench warfare in the West leaves no room for the use of the historical field insignia and flags. Under the cover of 120 front-line soldiers, the flags were transferred here."

Heeressoziologie

Barracks (K 4)

The Cuirassier Regiment von Driesen (Westphalian) No. 4 (designation from 1889) arrived at its new garrisons in Westphalia in 1817: Münster, Hamm, Dortmund and Coesfeld. Later, individual squadrons were moved to Paderborn, Neuhaus, Lippstadt, Telgte and Warendorf. From 1871 the bulk of the regiment was assembled in Münster, while the 4th squadron was housed in Hamm and the 5th squadron in Telgte. From 1885 all squadrons were stationed in Münster. However, between 1833 and 1849 the regiment was detached to Silesia, and from 1866 to 1870 to Hanover.

Heeressoziologie

Colonel General v. Einem

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.

Heeressoziologie

Military Chaplaincy in the Royal Prussian Garrison Münster

With the takeover of the former Catholic prince-bishopric by the Prussians, Münster henceforth belonged to a state entity whose ruling house and the majority of the population were Protestant. Except in Upper Silesia, only the Rhine Province and the Province of Westphalia had a Catholic majority. From this arose conflicts even in relatively tolerant Prussia, which in the second half of the 19th century would intensify in the context of the Kulturkampf. The idea of parity was only slowly developed in the Prussian state. The civil service and the military were largely non-local and initially still predominantly Protestant. For them, military chaplaincy had to be secured.

Heeressoziologie

On the military culture of remembrance in Münster after 1918

When the Münster regiments finally returned to their home garrisons in 1918 and 1919 and were almost completely disbanded, the German Reich sank into revolutionary turmoil. Against the backdrop of the Weimar Republic, the processing of the military defeat began — a defeat that allegedly had not occurred (the "stab-in-the-back legend"); the myth of the front-line soldier and a culture of remembrance and commemoration developed.