PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE XXIX
Johannes von Eben
Johannes Karl Louis Richard Eben was born in Preußisch Mark, East Prussia (now Przezmark, Poland) on February 24 1855. At the age of eighteen, Eben began his military career as a cadet with the Potsdam Cadet Corps and the Prussian Hauptkadettenanstalt. Upon completion, he joined the Second Hanseatische Infantry Regiment Number 76 (located within the Hanseatic free cities of Hamburg and Lübeck) on April 19, 1873 with the position of Portepee-Fähnrich.
Later that year on December 15th, Eben received his commission as a second lieutenant and earned his “sword knot”. His first assignment was to the Füsilier-Battalion in Lübeck. Six months later, Eben was transferred to the Hamburg Musketeers.
In October 1878, Eben was assigned to the Military Exercise Institute in Berlin for a six-month course. Upon his return, Eben became adjutant at II Battalion from June 1879 to the end of September 1882. Immediately and for one full year, he served with the 17th Regiment.
Eben was promoted to first lieutenant in mid-April 1885. His abilities were recognized by his superiors, and he was sent to the “Kriegsakademie” (Military Academy) in Berlin from October 1886 to late July 1889. Once completed, Eben returned to the 17th Regiment.
On March 24, 1890, Eben was promoted to captain. Two months later, he was appointed company commander of the 9th Company in Lübeck. For two weeks in July 1891 and another two weeks in July 1892, Eben participated in the IX Army Corps General Staff exercise tour.
He was then transferred to the General Staff of the Twelfth Division in Neisse on November 17, 1892. A little over two years later, he was appointed to the General Staff of the Army. Upon his promotion to major on September 12, 1895, Eben was assigned to the Kriegsakademie in Berlin as a tactics teacher for five years. During that time (spring 1899), he participated in an information course at the Infantry-Artillery School at Spandau.
Upon his transfer to the Spandau 5th Guards Infantry on November 20, 1900, Eben was given command of the First Battalion. On March 22, 1902, he returned to the General Staff of the Army and transferred to the XVII Army Corps in Danzig, as its general staff officer. Exactly one month later, Eben was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and he served with the XVII Army Corps.
In 1905, Eben was given the post of Army Chief of Department in the Ministry of War in Berlin. For his achievements, Kaiser Wilhelm II elevated Eben into Prussian hereditary peerage on August 29, 1906 with the official title of “von” added to his name. Two years later, von Eben became commander of the Grenadier Guards Regiment Number 5 in Spandau.
On March 24, 1909, von Eben was promoted to major general and given command of the 5th Guards Infantry Brigade. On Kaiser Wilhelm II’s fifty-third birthday (January 27, 1912), he was given the command of the 30th Division. Less than three months later (April 22, 1912), Johannes von Eben was promoted to lieutenant general.
With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, von Eben’s 30th Division (under the XV Army Corps) participated in battles in Lorraine. His leadership earned him promotion to General of the Infantry on September 2, 1914. He was then transferred to command the X Reserve Corps after General Günther von Kirchbach had been wounded in the Battle of the Marne.
On June 11, 1915, von Eben took over the I Army Corps in East Prussia, which was under the Twelfth Army. In July of that year, he succeeded in taking the fortress of Ostroleka. One month later, he besieged and occupied Bialystok.
In September 1915 (now attached to the Tenth Army), von Eben besieged and occupied the city of Vilnius. One month later (with help from Army Group Scholz), he took Dvinsk (Dunaburg).
During the Brusilov Offensive of June 1916, General von Eben and his command was subordinated to the Austrian Second Army in the Carpathians. They were successful in averting a Russian breakthrough to the Hungarian kingdom during the defensive battles of September 1916. For his efforts, General Johannes von Eben was awarded the Pour le Mérite during a visit to the front by Kaiser Wilhelm II on October 7, 1916.
Von Eben received command of the Ninth Army in Rumania (succeeding Robert Kosch) on June 10, 1917. Field Marshal August von Mackensen proposed that von Eben be given the Oak Leaves to the Pour le Mérite (which he received on September 22, 1917).
After the separate Peace of Bucharest, which Rumania concluded with the Central Powers in December 1917, the Ninth Army was moved to France in preparation for the 1918 spring offensive. Von Eben took over command of Army Detachment A in Alsace. He also took command of the Ninth Army on June 18th… until the seriously-ill Fritz von Below was able to take the position.
After the signing of the armistice with the Allies in November 1918, von Eben took his men back over the Rhine River to Württemberg. He was later made commanding general of the First Army Corps in Königsberg in mid-December 1918. Two months later, von Eben submitted his resignation from the military.
Johannes von Eben retired to his native estate in Bauditten, East Prussia (now Budwity, Poland). He died on June 30, 1924 at the age of sixty-nine.