PEEBLES PROFILES EPISODE 89 Friedrich von Scholtz

MILITARY RISE

Boje Friedrich Nikolaus von Scholtz was born in Flensburg on March 24, 1851. Growing up in Ballenstedt, Scholtz’s military career began at the age of nineteen in Rendsburg as a gunner and senior officer cadet. In the summer of 1870, he volunteered to fight in the Franco-Prussian War.

After the war, Scholtz studied at the Military Academy in Potsdam. On March 9, 1872, he qualified as an artillery officer with the rank of lieutenant. For two years (1874-76), Scholtz studied at the artillery school in Berlin.

In 1901, Scholtz was promoted to colonel. Seven years later, he was appointed to command the 21st Division of the Imperial German Army. On the first of October 1912, Scholtz was promoted to General of the Artillery and given command of XX Army Corps.

WAR IN THE EAST

With the outbreak of the First World War, Scholtz and XX Corps were transferred to East Prussia. Initially, his men were part of the right wing of the German Eighth Army that fought Rennenkampf’s Russian First Army at Gumbinnen on August 20, 1914. When the fight turned sour for the Germans, XX Corps moved from its position just south of the Rominten Forest near Goldap and retreated west to Angerburg. With Samsonov’s Russian Second Army crossing the East Prussian frontier from the south, panic was in the wings.

Without hesitation, Moltke the Younger replaced the German commander in the East (General Maximilian von Prittwitz) with the tandem later to be known as H-L: Paul von Hindenburg (called out of retirement) and Erich Ludendorff (the hero of Liege). Upon their appointment, Scholtz and XX Corps were instructed to screen Samsonov, moving southwest towards Allenstein. Eventually, his men concentrated southeast of Osterode near the village of Tannenberg.

It was Scholtz’s XX Corps that initially faced Samsonov’s northern advance. Soon, Scholtz was joined by August von Mackensen on his left and Hermann von Francois to his right. While the Russian Second Army pounded XX Corps in the center, the wings of Mackensen and Francois encircled and bagged the tired Cossacks. Samsonov himself committed suicide rather than facing the Tsar in humiliation for such a massive defeat in the Battle of Tannenberg. With the threat of the Russian Second Army now gone, Rennenkampf’s Russian First Army retreated to the frontier in the aftermath of the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in early September 1914.

Later that year, Scholtz and XX Corps were transferred south to Russian Poland and joined the German Ninth Army. His men fought in the Battle of Łódź, a strategic German victory that stopped the Russians from entering mineral-rich German Silesia. In late May 1915, Scholtz was appointed commander of the German Eighth Army, which participated in the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive (better known as “The Great Russian Retreat of 1915”).

DEFEAT AND DEATH

On April 22, 1917, Scholtz was transferred to the Balkans, where he replaced General Otto von Below as commander of the army group consisting of the German Eleventh Army and the Bulgarian First Army. His force was almost entirely made up of Bulgarian units, as most of the German forces had been pulled out of the Balkans. The German Eleventh Army was no exception, and by 1918, it had six Bulgarian infantry divisions and another with a German staff, but it was also made up of Bulgarian units. Nevertheless, Scholtz managed to coordinate the activities on the Macedonian Front, and he gained a good reputation with the Bulgarians.

In September 1918, Allied forces (a.k.a. the Army of the Orient), under the command of French General Louis Franchet d’Espèrey, launched an offensive along the valley of the Vardar River against Army Group “Scholtz”. The Allies managed to break through the lines of the German Eleventh Army, forcing Scholtz to order a retreat in the sector of Dobro Pole.

However, the Bulgarian First Army had achieved a victory at the Battle of Doiran. Thus, the Army of the Orient was advancing up the Vardar, but its flanks were exposed to a possible blow from the right wing of both the German Eleventh Army (which was still fighting in good order) and the Bulgarian First Army. But General Scholtz thought that such an attack was not prepared well enough to launch. As such, he ordered a general retreat of his army group, hoping that the situation would stabilize.

Scholtz’s HQ was moved from Skopje to Jagodina, but the situation continued to deteriorate. Some Bulgarian soldiers even mutinied and headed towards Sofia. This led to Bulgaria’s capitulation on September 29, 1918.

The news came as a shock to Bulgarian officers serving in units on the right wing of the German Eleventh Army, but eventually they obeyed the order to lay down their weapons. As a last gesture, some of them delayed the Allies long enough for the Germans to retreat and escape capture. The army group soon dissolved, and General Scholtz was sent to Rumania to organize a defense.

With the defeat of the Imperial Germany Army, Scholtz was discharged from service on January 24, 1919. He retired to civilian life and died eight years later in Ballenstedt on April 30, 1927 at the age of seventy-six.