Prussia The Face Of Disgrace: Hauptmann Polst, Cashiered

[Guest Rick Research]

Here we have Hauptmann Guido Polst of Infanterie Regiment 52, about 1905.

[Guest Rick Research]

The 1912 officers' Stammliste of Inf Rgt 52 gives all his personal details and... most ... of his service career information. Note that he "departed" from service after 17 1/2 years on 31 January 1911. So... what happened with his move to Fusilier Rgt 36?

[Guest Rick Research]

Why... it was a Fate Worse Than Death (and positioned there too!). He was CASHIERED.

"Außerdem abgegangen" ... "departed other than the above."

[Guest Rick Research]

As explained by G. Krüger in his 1955 Zeitschrift für Heereskunde article ,,Über den ,Abgang' in den alten Preußischen Ranglisten"---

"Außerdem abgegangen bedeutet, daß das Urteil auf Verletzung der Standesehre unter erschwerenden Umständen lautet. Folgen: Entfernung aus dem Offizierstand, Verlust von Dienststelle, Uniform und Offiziertitel. Bei Verurteilung zu Zuchthaus im ordentlichen Verfahren wegen Verrat jeder Art erlischt auch jeder Pensionsanspruch. Hier sind auch die zu ,Ausstoßung aus dem Heere' verurteilten Person zu finden."

Beyond bad. To be "struck off" from class, occupation, pension, (awards), utterly the original meaning of the Scandinavian meaning "nothing." Literally, a non-person.

Imagine how Mrs. Polst would have felt, cast into exterior darkness knowing she and any children she had would be permanently excluded from all social interaction with anyone previously considered equals.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Rick Research

[Guest Rick Research]

Occasionally there was at least partial resurrection. In 1913, Polst is simply listed in that year's directory of retired Prussian officers from Captain up ("Liste der verabschiedeten Generale....") as if he were any old "normal" retired Captain. Service dates, awards....

[Guest Rick Research]

Now it gets... murky. Cashiered and disgraced in 1911. "Passing" for normally retired in 1913.

Among the... subtleties of reading contemporary Prussian military sources... unlike all other forms of "retirement" the "other than above" expellees were NOT--ever--so listed in the Militär-Wochenblätter. They--and they ALONE... vanished with nothing but this most subtle of annual Rank Lists bell-book-and-candle career ending euphemism.

Maybe Polst died between 1913 and the outbreak of the war. He did NOT get called back up for war service (MWBs checked) nor does he appear as a fatality in the 1914-1918 Ehrenmal. He... sat the war out, when every warm, overaged body was mobilized. He wasn't disabled--he was

"außerdem abgegangen."

As a final point--is Polst having a smirk at us across the century?--note that while his portrait shows him in the uniform of an Infantry Regiment 52 Captain... he is clutching a FUSILIER pattern sword.

Barred from wearing the uniform of Fus Rgt 36 after being court-martialed, did he sneak back to his old stomping grounds and put on the OLD uniform he'd put away? Was this propped on his mantlepiece in violation of regulations? Was he putting it to those who had ejected him?

Had he slipped through the cracks in the 1913 retirees' directory?

WHAT DID HE DO?

Edited July 1, 2013 by Rick Research

[Dave Danner]

He is an oddity.

He is in the 1913 Berlin Adressbuch as a Hptm., no "a.D.", in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

He then disappears until the 1918 edition, where he is listed as a Hptm.a.D., now living in Berlin W30 (Berlin-Schöneberg).

He then disappears again until 1930, now listed as a Maj.a.D., and now living in Berlin SW29 (Berlin-Kreuzberg).

Gone again in 1931.