Ludwig Goiginger
Ludwig
Goiginger was born on the 11th August 1863 in Verona. After graduating from the
high school in Salzburg he entered the Engineer Cadet School in Vienna from
which he commissioned as a Leutnant in 1884 in Engineer Regiment Number 2 in
Krems. After attending the War Academy from 1888 until 1890 he was assigned to
the General Staff. During the next 22 years he served in various staff
appointments. On being promoted to colonel in the General Staff Corps he was
attached to the Turkish military at Üsküb where he put into effect the
organization of the Turkish Gendarmerie in Macedonia as well as the suppression
of Macedonian guerilla activity. Promoted to major general on the 23rd of
May 1912 he was given command of the newly formed 122nd Infantry Brigade at
Bruneck in the same year. Prior to mobilisation the 122nd Infantry Brigade had
been a Common Army formation within Feldmarschalleutnant Johann Freiherr von
Kirchbach auf Lauterbach's 8th Infantry Division. However in August 1914 the
headquarters was renamed as a Landwehr Infantry Brigade with six battalions of
the crack Landesschützenregiment Nr.I under command and formed part of
Feldmarschalleutnant Heinrich Tschurtschenthaler von Helmheim's 44th Landwehr
Infantry Division in Third Army's XIV Corps. Goiginger was soon promoted to a
divisional command - that of the 32nd Infantry Division within General der
Kavallerie Eduard Böhm-Ermolli's 2nd Army. This division plus the 103rd
Landsturm Infantry Brigade were placed under his command as Gruppe Goiginger
during the fighting in the Carpathians from October 1914 and throughout the
following winter. In the Spring he briefly assumed command of the 44th Landwehr
Infantry Division then serving in XVIII Corps before being summoned personally
by General der Kavallerie Viktor Dankl to assume the command of the Pustertal
Division in Rayon V on the newly activated Italian front. Promoted to
Feldmarschalleutnant on the 9th of May 1915 he assumed his new command on the
5th of June. He would remain in this hotspot on the Southwestern front until
August the following year. Although the important position on the Col
di Lana was lost on the 17th April 1916, he successfully defended the
strategically important Puster Valley staving off all Italian attempts to break
into the Austrian hinterland. Switched to the Rumanian front, Goiginger
assumed command of the newly formed 73rd Infantry Division within Bavarian
Generalleutnant Krafft von Delmensingen's Group in the German Ninth Army.
Following the successful conclusion of that campaign his division was
transferred back to the Southwestern front directly under command of Army Group
Conrad. He then took his division to the Isonzo front for the summer battles in
the Monte San Gabriele sector in Generaloberst Boroević's Isonzo Army. He
was awarded the Golden Bravery Medal for Officers for his leadership during the
11th battle of the Isonzo. For the autumn offensive (Caporetto) he was given
command of the 60th Infantry Division within Group Kosak in the 2nd Isonzo Army
of General der Infanterie Ritter von Henriquez. He shortly thereafter assumed
command of Corps Goiginger which included his old 60th Infantry Division and the
55th plus elements of the 94th in the Monte Asolone sector. As commanding
General of the XXIV Corps Headquarters he led his corps in the battle of
Montello on the Piave river in June 1918. For the success of his corps in taking
Montello he was awarded the Military Maria Theresa Order. Transferred with
to the Western front in July 1918 he fought the last months of the war against
the Western allied armies commanding XVIII Corps under Army Group Gallwitz. One
of the finest Austrian divisional and corps commanders, FML. Goiginger was
additionally a Knight 1st Class of the Order of the Iron Crown and a Commander
of the Order of Leopold. At the wars end he was the second senior
Feldmarschalleutnant in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Feldmarschalleutnant Ludwig
Goiginger retired to the neighbourhood of Graz and died there on the 26th August
1931.
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