Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten

Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten
Born	(1860-09-16)September 16, 1860
Died	August 7, 1934(1934-08-07) (aged 73)

Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten (16 September 1860 – 7 August 1934) was a Colonel-General of the Austrian Imperial Army. He gained particular fame during World War I by his defence from September 1914 to March 1915 of the fortress of Przemyśl against a Russian siege.

Early life

He was the son of the senior policeman Josef Kusmanek his wife Juliana (née Wiehner). Kusmanek attended a military secondary school in Hranice, then Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and finally the War College from 1882 to 1884. As a lieutenant, he was appointed to the General Staff and served in Budapest, Foca, and Laibach. In 1888, as a General Staff Captain he was appointed to the staff of the III Corps in Graz; then from 1889 to 1893 he worked directly for the Ministry of War in Vienna. He was then transferred to regimental service and served for two years as a company commander in the Bohemian infantry regiment in Eger. In 1894 he was promoted to Major and he took a two-year service to the description of the country office of the General Staff in Vienna and in the military history department of the war archive. In 1895, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and returned to regimental service in the 63rd Infantry Regiment in Bistrita and in 1899 returned to the War Department, where he served as Chief of the Presidential Office in March 1903. As early as 1903, he was the colonel and then promoted in 1906 to Major General. In October 1908 he became commander of the 65th Infantry Brigade in Raab and in April 1910 became Division commander in Innsbruck. On 1 November 1910, he was appointed Lieutenant, and in January 1911 the commander of the 28th Infantry Division troops in Ljubljana. At the beginning of the First World War, he became the commander of the fortress of Przemysl.

Sources

• Rainer Egger (1982), "Kusmanek von Burgneustädten, Hermann", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 13, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 340–341; (full text online) Template:De icon
• O. von Hofmann, G. von Hubka: Der Mil.-Maria Theresien-Orden, Die Auszeichnungen im Weltkrieg 1914–18. 1944, pp. 175–180
• Kiszling: "Kusmanek von Burgneustädten, Hermann". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 4, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1969, p. 372. Template:De icon
• J. Svoboda: Die Theresian. Mil.-Ak. zu Wiener-Neustadt. Band II, 1894, pp. 714 f. and Vol. III, 1897, p. 84 Template:De icon
• Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914–18, 2 vols., 1930 f. Template:De icon