Otto von Emmich (4 August 1848-22 December 1915) was a General of the Prussian Army and the Imperial German Army during the Franco-Prussian War and World War I.
Biography[]
Otto von Emmich was born in Minden, Prussia on 4 August 1848, and he joined the Prussian Army in 1866 and served in the Franco-Prussian War. He was promoted to Major-General in 1901, to Lieutenant-General in 1905, and to General in 1909, and he was given command of the X Army Corps in Hanover. At the start of World War I in 1914, he was given command of the Army of the Meuse and took part in the German invasion of Belgium, during which he was sent to capture the Belgian forts at Liege. The forts held out for nine days before surrendering, and, following the city's fall, Emmich was reverted to corps command, fighting at the First Battle of the Marne. He was later transferred to the Eastern Front, where he fought in the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. He died of arteriosclerosis in 1915 at the age of 67.