PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE XXI
Remus von Woyrsch
Martin Wilhelm Remus von Woyrsch was a German field marshal of the Great War who fought on the borders of Silesia and in southern Poland. Born of old Bohemian nobility on February 4, 1847 at Pilsnitz near Breslau, Woyrsch joined the 1st Potsdamer Garde-Grenadier Regiment at the age of nineteen. Months later, he fought in the Battle of Königgrätz during the Austro-Prussian War. Woyrsch also served in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Despite being wounded, he earned the Iron Cross.
Woyrsch soon rose through the ranks. He became a major general in 1897, a lieutenant general and divisional commander in 1901, and general of the infantry in 1905. He commanded the VI Army Corps at Breslau before retiring from military life in 1911.
When the declaration of war was served to Tsarist Russia on August 1, 1914, Woyrsch was reactivated and given command of the Silesian Landwehr Corps, which was partly formed from the garrisons of the German fortresses in Silesia. His initial orders were to form up opposite the town of Chenstokhov in southwest Russian Poland (now Czestochowa in southern Poland). Once done, Woyrsch was to attack the Russians on August 13th, advancing northeast towards Radom while keeping in touch with the Austrians on his right flank. He came up to the Vistula, and then reinforced the left wing of the Austro-Hungarian First Army under General Viktor Dankl.
These movements led to his involvement in the Battle of Krasnik on August 22-24, 1914. The result was a minor victory for Dankl and the Austrian First Army during its advance from Galicia in the battles of Lemberg.
However, this moderate success was soon negated by the dramatic Russian victory at Rava Ruska in early September 1914. It forced the Austro-Hungarian armies into a rapid and increasingly chaotic retreat back to the Carpathians.
Woyrsch’s corps played in covering Dankl’s retreat, thus helping to maintain a connection between the Austrian and German forces. A Saint Petersburg newspaper wrote, “Only the activity of the small Prussian Landwehr troops in this battle prevented the complete destruction of the Austrian Army.”
In October 1914, Woyrsch’s corps joined the German Ninth Army, which was transferred from East Prussia. He was given command of his own army section, which held the right wing of the German line in Silesia. The Austro-Hungarian retreat had left Silesia exposed to Russian invasion.
Hindenburg and Ludendorff made two attempts to ward off this threat. The first was a thrust into Poland from the southwest. This led to the First Battle of Warsaw (October 19-30, 1914). The result was retreat in the face of vastly superior forces… and Silesia remained vulnerable to attack from the Russian “steamroller”!
Hindenburg and Ludendorff then tried a second option: move the German Ninth Army back to the north and use it to attack the Russian right flank. Woyrsch and his men were on the southern front, holding the line north from Chenstokhov. His army section (which also included the Austrian Second Army) would hold the Russians east of the Silesian border, thus allowing the main counterattack to take place around Thorn.
Two large fights quickly ensued: the Second Battle of Warsaw (November 7-25, 1914) and Lodz (November 11 to December 6, 1914). Even though Woyrsch’s forces played a small role in the fight around Lodz, Warsaw remained in Russian hands. Nevertheless, Remus von Woyrsch was award the Pour le Mérite and promoted to colonel general.
Woyrsch took part in the German advance through Poland after the breakthrough victory at Gorlice-Tarnow (May 2-10, 1915). His army section advanced 250 miles in one month! In July 1915, Woyrsch was involved in the breakthrough Battle of Sienno near Wongrowitz. His troops also captured Ivangorod and reached Baranovichi on the main railway between Warsaw and Moscow.
Once the great advance was over, Woyrsch was promoted to command his own army group, which took part in the occupation of southern Poland. In the summer of 1916, he fought the Russians in the brutal Brusilov Offensive. The following year, he became a Generalfeldmarschall.
By 1918, Woyrsch’s army group was disbanded during the reorganization of the German armies in the East that followed the collapse of Russia. Woyrsch himself decided to retire for a second time.
He returned to active duty once more after the war. Woyrsch commanded the southern wing of the small force of border guards allowed to Germany on her eastern borders. But his time in command was short, for he died at Pilsnitz on August 6, 1920 at the age of seventy-three.
After his death, the famous Silesian sculptor Paul Ondrusch created a wooden likeness of Woyrsch to decorate the main hall inside the town hall of Leobschütz (now Głubczyce). Woyrsch was portrayed as a knight wearing a coat and a chain mail, with his hands placed on a handle of a large sword resting against the ground.