Jakob Meckel

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Jacob Meckel
Major General
Battles/warsAustro-Prussian War Franco-Prussian War
AwardsOrder of the Red Eagle (2nd class with oak leaves)
Order of the Rising Sun (2nd class)
Iron Cross (2nd class)

Klemens Wilhelm Jacob Meckel (28 March 1842 – 5 July 1906) was a

Meiji period Japan
.

Biography

Meckel was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, Prussia and joined the Prussian Army in 1860 as part of the 68th Infantry Regiment. He served in the Austro-Prussian War, fighting at Königgrätz, and was a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War.[1] During the latter he was decorated with the Iron Cross.[2]

In Japan

After the government of Meiji period Japan decided to model the

universal conscription system to abolish virtually all exceptions. A bust of Meckel was sited in front of the Japanese Army Staff College from 1909 through 1945.[4]

Although his period in Japan (1885–1888) was relatively short, Meckel had a tremendous impact on the development of the Japanese military. He is credited with having introduced

Kriegspiel) in a process of refining tactics.[6] By training some sixty of the highest-ranking Japanese officers of the time in tactics, strategy and organization, he was able to replace the previous influences of the French advisors with his own philosophies. Meckel especially reinforced Hermann Roesler's ideal of subservience to the Emperor by teaching his pupils that Prussian military success was a consequence of the officer class's unswerving loyalty to their sovereign Emperor, however unswerving loyalty to superiors, in particular unswerving loyalty to the Emperor, was already an ideal in Japan, with the unswerving loyalty to the Emperor being expressly codified in Articles XI–XIII of the Meiji Constitution.[7]

Meckel's reforms are credited with Japan's overwhelming victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895.[8]

However, Meckel's tactical over-reliance on the use of infantry in offensive campaigns was later considered to have contributed to the large number of Japanese casualties in the subsequent Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.[citation needed]

On the German General Staff

On his return to Germany, Meckel first served in the

Wilhelm II, who opposed his elevation into the ranks of Prussian peerage.[citation needed] He eventually was reassigned to command the 8th Infantry Brigade, but retired from active service shortly thereafter. He settled in Lichterfelde, near Berlin, and died there on July 5, 1906.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Körner, pp. 584-585
  2. ^ Harries, Soldiers of the Sun. page 48
  3. ^ Nishitani, Yuko et al. (2008). Japanese and European Private International Law in Comparative Perspective, p. 29 n6.
  4. ^ Welch, Claude Emerson. (1976). Civilian Control of the Military: Theory and Cases from Developing Countries, p. 161.
  5. ^ Bassford, Christopher. (1994). Clausewitz in English: The Reception of Clausewitz in Britain and America, 1815-1945, p. 74.
  6. ^ Schramm, Helmar. (2005). Collection, Laboratory, Theater, p. 429.
  7. ^ Welch, p. 162.
  8. ^ Yiu, Angela. (1998). Chaos and order in the works of Natsume Sōseki, p. 49.
  9. ^ von Schellendorff, Paul Leopold Eduard Heinrich Anton Bronsart. (1893). Duties of the General Staff, p. vii.

References

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