Hans am Ende

[Dave Danner]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can add any missing details to this rather interesting military career:

am Ende, Ludwig Ernst Johannes (Hans)

Kunstmaler, Mitbegründer der Künstlerkolonie Worpswede.

31.12.1864 geb. in Trier

15.12.1892 Second-Lieutenant d. Res. (I München) im 13. Inf.-Regt.

12.06.1901 Oberleutnant d. Landw. (Aschaffenburg)

27.12.1903 Abschied bewilligt

??.??.1914 freiwillig im preußischen Heer eingetreten

??.??.19?? Hptm.d.L.a.D. im IR 162

10.04.1918 schwer verwundet bei Messines

09.07.1918 gest. infolge Verwundung in Stettin

• 1914 Eisernes Kreuz 1. u. 2. Klasse

• Ritterkreuz mit Schwertern des Kgl. Hausordens von Hohenzollern

• Lübecksches Hanseatenkreuz

• Fürstl. Schwarzburg-Rudolstädtsches Ehrenkreuz 3. Klasse mit Schwertern

• Fürstl. Schaumburg-Lippischer Orden für Kunst u. Wissenschaft 1. Klasse

• Kgl. Bayerische Landwehr-Dienstauszeichnung 2. Klasse

Hans am Ende was born in Trier and, according to his Wikipedia bio, his family moved to a village near Naumburg a./Saale in 1872. Though a Prussian citizen, he presumably ended up in the Bavarian Army because he did his initial military service while a student at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich.

He co-founded the artists' colony in Worpswede in 1889. Worpswede is only about 17.5 km from the center of Bremen, and am Ende exhibited works there, so I suppose it is also possible that Bremen awarded him its Hanseatenkreuz. Also, Bremen to Bavaria also seems like an awfully long commute for a reserve/Landwehr officer!

The Schaumburg-Lippe award is the only arts and sciences award in his DOA entry, but I suppose it is possible he received others after 1909.

He does not have any Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt connection that I know of, but his SEK3X was awarded on the same day as two other officers from IR 162, so I suppose the regiment submitted these officers along with a list of enlisted Schwarzburg citizens under their command.

[Chris Boonzaier]

12.06.1901 Oberleutnant d. Landw. (Aschaffenburg)

Interesting... could he be in the Bavarian ancestry?

[Dave Danner]

I looked, but I didn't find anything. I would guess that after he left Bavarian service in 1903, he didn't maintain much of a connection, since he did not have family there and he lived so far away.

So when mobilization was announced, he was not compelled to go back to Bavaria, and instead probably reported voluntarily to the Meldeamt in Bremen and ended up in the IX.Armeekorps replacement pool. As a fifty-year old who had not been in the military for over 10 years, he probably wasn't in that much demand in 1914, though of course things would soon change. I do know that he was in the field in 1914, as in the Wikipedia commons are some sketches he did on the Somme that year.

Edit to add: Looking at a map, it appears Aschaffenburg was probably the closest place for him to report for Landwehr duty. You could take a train from Bremen to Frankfurt, and then over to Aschaffenburg. I wonder if Aschaffenburg was a Meldeamt for other Bavarians living in northern and central Germany? Leipzig seems to have filled this function for Prussian residents in the Saxon Army, while many Prussian officers living in Saxony appear to have reported to Halle a.S.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Dave Danner

[Guest Rick Research]

Schaumburg-Lippe Arts & Sciences 1st Class 1st type (M1899) on 16 April 1907 as "Maler."

LüH 6 November 1915 as (!) "Hauptmann Inf Rgt 162!"

From the award rolls.

I have a thin little 1925 book called "Kriesgbilder Infanterie-Regiment Lübeck" which shows him at work and with two of his panoramas. Will post later.

[Guest Rick Research]

Sorry it took so long to get back, Dave. Flooding here. Not good for those below us where everything was wiped out in 1954!

Here's the page from the 1925 book--f