This is an excerpt from the diary of my Great Grandfather Generalmajor Ernst von Chrismar written when he was a young lieutenant under the command of Colonel Keutner in Bromberg in the late 1880's....
"I had the good fortune to have served under a long list of commanding officers,
who were excellent soldiers and from whom I learnt a lot. Not least of all was my commanding officer
in Bromberg, Colonel Keutner, who was widely known throughout the entire Military as “The Wild
Man.†He was a mercenary soldier through and through. He joined the Austrian Army in Verona in
1858, and took part in the 1859 campaign in Northern (Upper) Italy, where he cheated death by diving
out of a window in a Mephisto-like move. He then went on to fight (for the French) in Africa against the Kabyle people
(Northern Algeria). And then in Mexico under (French) General Bazaine (during the French incursion
into Mexico in 1862 - 1866) In 1866 he went back to fighting for Austria against the Prussians.
And in 1870 at the outbreak of the (Franco-Prussian) War he turned up in Berlin, and, when asked by the War Ministry his reason for changing
allegiance to the Prussian side, answered, “because just for once I’d like to be on the side that doesn’t
cop a hiding.†And so it was that he became a first lieutenant in the Prussian Army’s Field Artillery
Regiment No.10, taking over the role of commanding officer of a battery, whose commander had
been injured, and entered the war against France.
At the Battle of Orleans he earned the Iron Cross, First Class for leading his battery at full charge
into the market square of a small village occupied by the enemy, and wildly firing grapeshot,
causing mad panic amongst the French troops. I once asked him, after he had invited me and a
couple of other lieutenants to join him in a red wine after a hunting ride, what his recipe was to
win an Iron Cross First Class. He slapped me on the shoulder and said, “Five fingers of red wine,
my young friend!â€
And how he could spin the greatest yarns as he sat there stroking his full black beard which
was parted down the middle. One of his greatest stories was how on 18th August, 1870, he
and his battery had gotten to within 1200 paces of the (French) enemy command: “Suddenly I
heard (General) Bazaine voice booming out - in French of course my good fellows - saying ‘shoot
that bastard, Keutner, dead, otherwise the battle is lost. I know that mongrel from Mexico!’â€
