OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 154, 28 December 1936, Page 8

OBITUARY

GENERAL YON SEECKT

(Received December 28, 1.40 p.m.) BERLIN, December 27. The death has occurred of General yon Seeckt, the.creator of Germany'! post-war army. , • General Hans yon Seeckt was born in Schleswig in 1866) and entered the Kaiser Alexander Grenadier Regiment as an ensign, or fahnenjunker as such a young soldier is generally called in Germany. In 1897 he was appointed to the General Staff, becoming Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army Corps in 1913, in which capacity he went on active service in the Great War of 1914-18 with, the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The following year he was promoted colonel, and soon afterwards he became Chief of Staff to Mackenseiys army group. He had a large shafe'in' the break-through of the ■ Central Powers at Gorlice-Tarnow..in 1915 and the subsequent invasion .of' Serbia. After the collapse of the Monarchy itt 1919 he became adjutant-general, and after the Kapp "putsch" of March. 1920. he was appointed Chief of. the German Army Command. The President, yon Hindenburg, in 1926, promoted' him to the rank of general, but he .was forced, to retire the same .year", as* : his actions created a Ministerial crisis which was likely to hinder a.FrancoGerman rapprochement. Had yon. Seeckt been retained in office in that year the President might have been faced with the necessity of finding a new Ministry. He was a member of the German People's Party and the Reichstag in 1930-32, and was appointed military adviser to the Nanking Government in 1934.