Years of service 1870-1919 Commands held 19th Division | Name Moriz Lyncker Rank Generaloberst | |
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Born 30 January 1853
Spandau, Thuringia, Germany ( 1853-01-30 ) Battles/wars Franco-Prussian War
First World War Died January 20, 1932, Steinhofel, Germany Battles and wars Franco-Prussian War, World War I Service/branch Prussian Army, German Army | ||
Allegiance Prussia, German Empire | ||
Moriz Freiherr von Lyncker (30 January 1853 – 20 January 1932) was a Prussian officer of the German Empire and Chief of the Military Cabinet of Emperor Wilhelm II.
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Life
Lyncker was born in Spandau, Prussia into a military family, with his father, his father-in-law and two brothers being officers. He took part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, and two of his sons died in the First World War.
His association with the Prussian Royal Family began when he served as Aide-de-camp to Crown Prince Frederick as a Captain. Subsequently Lyncker was appointed military mentor to the adolescent Crown Prince Wilhelm and Prince Eitel Friedrich for three years until 1898. After resuming his regular career he successively commanded a Guards Regiment and Brigade before taking up leadership of the 19th Division at Hannover in 1905.
After the sudden death of the Chief of the Military Cabinet, General Dietrich von Hülsen-Haeseler, von Lyncker was on 17 November 1908 appointed to the post. He was responsible for personnel matters of the Prussian army and during First World War he was one of the closest aides to Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was present at the famous Imperial War Council of 8 December 1912.
He has been evaluated as "politically innocent, intellectually mediocre, with subservient devotion to Wilhelm II."
On the other hand, as the First World War progressed and the Kaiser withdrew into an atmosphere of "fear of the world and flight from reality", he worked with Georg Alexander von Müller, Chief of the Imperial Naval Cabinet, at great lengths to persuade him to spend more time on the business of the government in Berlin.
By 10 August 1914 he was considering replacing Helmuth von Moltke with Erich von Falkenhayn as Chief of the German General Staff. After the failure of the Battle of the Marne it was his duty to convince von Moltke to leave.
After 1915 he was ready to moderate Germany's aims to achieve peace, but still demanded that the Reich should retain Belgium or at least the Belgian ports for future use against Britain. Like Falkenhayn, he wanted a compromise peace with Tsarist Russia and a substantial victory over Britain and France.
He died in Demnitz, Germany.