1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Eichhorn, Hermann von

EICHHORN, HERMANN VON (1848-1918), German field-marshal, was born at Breslau Feb. 13 1848. He took part, as a young officer, in the campaigns of 1866 and 1870-1. In 1897 he was appointed chief of the staff of the VI. Army Corps at Breslau, in 1901 divisional and in 1907 corps commander. In 1905 he was promoted to the rank of general of the infantry and in 1913 to that of Generaloberst, while in the same year he was appointed inspector-general of the VII. Army Inspection at Saarbrücken. At the outbreak of the World War he was incapacitated in consequence of an accident, but was able to play a part in the battle of Soissons in Jan. 1915. In that month he was appointed to the command of the X. Army, which was engaged in the great battle of the Masurian Lakes in the following February. In Aug. he took Kovno and afterwards the fortresses of Grodno and Olita, and continued his victorious advance into Russia. From 1916-8 Eichhorn was in command of the army group known by his name in Courland. In Dec. 1917 he was raised to the rank of field-marshal and was sent to the Ukraine as chief-in-command of the German troops on the eastern front. He was assassinated at Kiev July 30 1918.