PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE 175
Wilhelm von Dommes
MILITARY RISE
Wilhelm Ernst Justus von Dommes was born in Göttingen on September 15, 1867. Barely eighteen years old, he was a cadet with the “Baron von Manteuffel” Dragoon Regiment (Rhenish) Number Five based in Hofgeismar. Within two years, Dommes held the rank of second lieutenant. Just days after turning twenty-five, he was made the unit’s adjutant.
In the autumn of 1894, Dommes entered the Prussian War Academy in Berlin. Within six months, he was a first lieutenant. Then in the summer of 1897, Dommes joined the East Prussian “King Albert of Saxony” Dragoon Regiment Number Ten based in Allenstein. For the next three years, he was involved with the Great General Staff in Berlin.
As the 20th century began, Dommes soon witnessed more opportunities. In late 1902, he was named squadron commander of the First Pomeranian “von Schmidt” Uhlan Regiment Number Four in Thorn. Just over a year later (December 19, 1903), his father August was elevated into the German nobility, and the family name became von Dommes.
Then in May 1905, Dommes returned to the Great General Staff in Berlin as the first adjutant to Chief of General Staff Alfred von Schlieffen. He would hold the same title under Schlieffen’s successor, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, in 1906. When the spring of 1907 arrived, Dommes was promoted to major.
In May 1910, Dommes was made an adjutant in the court of Kaiser Wilhelm II. After being promoted to lieutenant colonel in the autumn of 1912, he was named commander of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment in Potsdam on the Kaiser’s 54th birthday (January 27, 1913).
THE GREAT WAR
When Imperial Germany went to war in the summer of 1914, Wilhelm von Dommes was named head of the Political Section at the HQ of the Great General Staff. A month later, he was made a full colonel. For the next three years, Dommes would serve as army chief of staff to a number of different commanders in a number of different units.
Dommes was sent to the Western Front in October 1914 to join VIII Corps as Chief of Staff to Julius Riemann. In February 1915, he became Chief of Staff to Freiherr von Marschall as part of Army Group Marschall. Then in April 1916, the unit became the Guard Reserve Corps, and Dommes stayed on as Marschall’s chief of staff. Later that December, he joined the Guard Corps as Chief of Staff to both Karl von Plettenberg and Ferdinand von Quast.
FINAL YEARS
By the summer of 1917, Dommes was again a chief of staff. This time he served under Erich von Falkenhayn’s Army Group Command “F” (a.k.a. “Yildirim”), which assisted the Ottoman Turks in Palestine. However in February 1918, Dommes retired from active service.
The time away from the German Army was short-lived! The day after Ludendorff launched the Kaiserschlact (March 22, 1918), Dommes was promoted to major general. Just over a week later, he took command of the 66th Infantry Brigade. In June, Dommes replaced Eberhard von Hofsacker as commander of the Second Infantry Division. He was also decorated with Imperial Germany’s highest military honor, the Pour le Mérite.
But by the autumn of 1918, it was apparent that the war was lost for Imperial Germany. A month after the signing of the Versailles Treaty in the summer of 1919, Dommes again retired from the army… this time for good.
On the 25th anniversary of the victory at Tannenberg in August 1939 (a.k.a. Tannenbergtag), Wilhelm von Dommes was promoted to the brevet rank of lieutenant general. He would survive another twenty years before dying in Verden an der Aller on May 5, 1959 at the age of ninety-one.