Hermann von Francois
“General Francois will withdraw when he has defeated the Russians!”
A son of Luxembourg born to a Prussian officer in 1856, Hermann von Francois lost his father when he was killed in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Raised in a military family, he also had two brothers who served the Kaiser, with his elder brother Curt serving as Governor of German Southwest Africa and the younger Curt being killed in action there in 1904.
Hermann entered the Imperial Army as an officer cadet, attending school in Potsdam and serving for some time as a page to Kaiser Wilhelm I. This appointment likely had an influence in his subsequent posting to the 1st Prussian Guards Regiment of Foot, of which the Emperor was Colonel in Chief, and was considered the preeminent unit in the Army. This posting was followed by being sent to the Prussian War Academy, concluding his three year term there and taking a post with the General Staff as a Captain in 1887. By 1899 he had a reputation as a staff officer, and was serving as Chief of Staff to the German IV Korps, serving under General Paul von Hindenburg.
The Prussian War Academy in Berlin, c.1900
von Francois subsequently rose through the ranks, taking his first major command at the rank of Oberst (Colonel) in 1904 with the 3rd Queen Elizabeth Grenadier Guards Regiment. In early 1908 he became a Generalmajor and took command of a brigade, with a promotion to Generalleutnant in 1911 and command of division.
In 1913 von Francois was promoted again, this time to General der Infanterie, and took command of the I Korps, attached to the 8. Armee and stationed in East Prussia to defend the German frontier from the threat of the Russian Empire. His headquarters was moved to the old Prussian capitol at the fortress city of Konigsberg, and it was here that Francois was stationed when the Great War erupted in the late summer of 1914.
Crowds listen to the Kaiser as he reads the declaration of war on Russia from the Stadtschloss in Berlin
The German strategy for the opening phase of the war was almost entirely focused on knocking France out of the war before the slower-moving Russian Army could be brought to bear on East Prussia. The duty of the 8th Army was, accordingly, to hold Russian vanguards while this was completed, before the main force of Wilhelm II’s armies could be turned eastward following the collapse of France.
General von Francois, for his part, had been a long time skeptic of the plan to hold the Russians along the Angerapp River. Considering the abandonment of the Prussian frontier east of the river to be patently unacceptable, and his pressure had resulted in a larger allocation of machine guns to his corps. With this in hand, von Francois moved under his own initiative well forward of the Angerapp, entrenching along a line from Goldapp to Stallupönen near the border, where what would become known as the Tannenberg Campaign opened as the Russians marched on Stallupönen on 17 August.
General von Francois (right) with another officer in East Prussia
The General, with some of his staff, rushed to Stallupönen to observe and direct the battle, scaling the church steeple where they were deafened by villagers unkowingly ringing the bells to signal the danger. The battle dragged onthrough the day, with von Francois’ outnumbered forces holding against the Russian onslaught, and when orders arrived from 8th Army headquarters to withdraw the General famously replied: “Tell General von Prittwitz that General von Francois will break off the battle when the Russians are beaten.”
Despite this, by the end of the day the Germans were at risk of being enveloped in several areas, and von Francois ordered a retreat toward the Angerapp. His insubordination had infuriated the commander of the 8th Army, General Maximillian von Prittwitz, who considered releiving him of command, but Francois survived as his superiors recognized the need to avoid a reshuffle of command at this point in the campaign.
Francois with his officers at Tannenberg
Subsequently, I Corps was ordered to counterattack at Gumbinnen, where the Russians were fought to a stalemate, which constituted a serious danger to a German force still anticipating another entire Russian Field Army advancing from the south. General von Prittwitz began to argue with his superiors at the OHL (German High Command) over the possiblity of a retreat behind the Vistula, entailing the abandonment of East Prussia. This was wholly unaceptable to them, and as a result von Prittwitz was replaced with Paul von Hindenburg, who came out of retirement to attempt to salvage the situation.
Despite clashing again with his new commander, von Francois remained in command through the terminal phase of the campaign, leading his corps to envelop and destroy the Russian 2nd Army in the Battle of Tannenberg that concluded the campaign with a decisive German victory. In subsequent operations von Francois continued to defy the next commander of the 8th Army while winning notable victories, attracting the interest of no less a figure than the Kaiser, who placed him in command of the 8th Army in October of 1914. This was only to last a month, however, as refusal to reinforce Hindenburg resulted in his dismissal a month later.
General von Francois takes the surrender of Russian General Klujev at Tannenberg
In December von Francois took command of the XXXXI Reserve Corps on the Western Front, before returning to the East in the spring of 1915 to take part in the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive with the XLI Reserve Corps of the 11th Army. This battle resulted in the conquest of Russian Poland, and the decoration of von Francois with the Pour le Merit, the highest military honor bestowed by Imperial Germany.
In the summer of 1915 he returned again to the Western Front, taking command of the VII Corps, which he led into the Battle of Verdun as a component of the 5th Army. During the brutal fighting here Francois was awarded a set of oak leaves for his Pour le Merite, and subsequently he commanded his corps in the Second Battle of the Aisne in 1917, but by this point his political luck was all but expended. When Hindenburg and Ludendorff took command of OHL (and essentially the German Government) in 1916 the personal animosity that had been built with Ludendorff ensured that von Francois was never promoted or given anything larger than a corps level command.
German troops assault a French position at Verdun
His corps took part in the Spring Offensive of 1918, but after its failure he relinquished his command in July of 1918, being placed into a ceremonial position with his old unit, the 3rd Queen Elizabeth Grenadier Guards Regiment. He formally retired from the Army in October of 1918, just a month before the collapse of the Empire and the end of the war.
Hindenburgs Sieg bei Tannenberg (Hindenburg’s Victory at Tannenberg), one of von Francois’ later historical works on the war
Following the end of the war, von Francois became a noted author of military history, particularly concerning the Battle of Tannenberg, revenues from which allowed for a comfortable retirement. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen in 1925 for his scholarly work. He died in 1933 after suffering kidney failure, and was buried in the Wilmersdorf Cemetery in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district.
