Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks.
Promotion to the rank of field marshal in many countries historically required extraordinary military achievement by a general (a wartime victory). However, the rank has also been used as a divisional command rank and as a brigade command rank.
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called allies. Alliances form in many settings, including political alliances, military alliances, and business alliances.
The Schlieffen Plan (German: Schlieffen-Plan, pronounced [ʃliːfən plaːn]) is a name given after the First World War to German war plans, due to the influence of Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and his thinking on an invasion of France and Belgium, which began on 4 August 1914. Schlieffen was Chief of the General Staff of the German Army from 1891 to 1906. In 1905 and 1906, Schlieffen devised an army deployment plan for a decisive (war-winning) offensive against France. German forces were to invade France through the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium rather than across the common border.
After losing the First World War, the German official historians of the Reichsarchiv and other writers, described the plan as a blueprint for victory. Generaloberst (Colonel-General) Helmuth von Moltke the Younger had succeeded Schlieffen as Chief of the German General Staff in 1906 and was dismissed after the First Battle of the Marne (5–12 September 1914). German historians claimed that Moltke had ruined the plan by tampering with it, out of timidity. They managed to establish a narrative that Moltke failed to follow the blueprint devised by Schlieffen, condemning the belligerents to four years of attrition warfare.
LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129; registration: D-LZ 129) was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of its class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) on the shores of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company (Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei). It was named after Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934.
The airship first flew from March 1936 as a Nazi propaganda vessel until it burst into flames 14 months later on May 6, 1937, while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of its second season of service. This was the last of the great airship disasters; it was preceded by the crashes of the British R38, the US airship Roma, the French Dixmude, the USS Shenandoah, the British R101, and the USS Akron.
Prince George Louis of Hessen-Darmstadt (25 April 1669 – 13 September 1705) was a Field Marshal in the Austrian army. He is known for his career in Habsburg Spain, as Viceroy of Catalonia (1698–1701), head of the Austrian army in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1705) and governor of Gibraltar in 1704. He was killed during the Siege of Barcelona the following year. He was known in Spanish as Jorge de Darmstadt and in Catalan as Jordi Darmstadt.
The Battle of Ligny, in which French troops of the Armée du Nord under the command of Napoleon I defeated part of a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher, was fought on 16 June 1815 near Ligny in what is now Belgium. The result was a tactical victory for the French, but the bulk of the Prussian army survived the battle in good order, was reinforced by Prussian troops who had not fought at Ligny, and played a role two days later at the Battle of Waterloo. Ligny was the last victory in Napoleon's military career. In the culminating moment of this battle Blücher was wounded and carried off the battlefield, and was replaced by his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gneisenau.
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (Russian: Великий князь Николай Николаевич; 8 August 1831 – 25 April 1891) was the third son and sixth child of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and Alexandra Feodorovna. He may also be referred to as Nicholas Nikolaevich the Elder to tell him apart from his son, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856–1929). Trained for the military, as a Field Marshal he commanded the Russian army of the Danube in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878.
Birindji ferik, birinci ferîk or ferîk-i evvel (corresponding to the earlier Ottoman rank of Serdar) was a military rank of the Ottoman Army. The title means "First Ferîk" and was senior to a Ferîk and junior only to the Müşîr (equivalent to Field Marshal).
The collar mark (later shoulder mark) and cap (until 1933) of a Birinci Ferîk had three stripes and three stars during the early years of the Turkish Republic.
Finckenstein Palace (German: Schloss Finckenstein; Polish: Pałac w Kamieńcu) is a ruined Baroque palace situated in the village of Kamieniec, about 25 mi. (40 km) south of Elbląg, in northern Poland. Formerly part of West Prussia, it was designed by the architect John von Collas and erected in the years 1716–1720 by Prussian Field Marshal, Marquess, and Count Albrecht Konrad Reinhold Finck von Finckenstein. It remained in the possession of the Finck von Finckenstein family until 1782. After that the Counts Dohna-Schlobitten lived in it until 1945. Red Army soldiers set the palace on fire January 22, 1945, during their conquest of Prussia in World War II. The last owner/resident was Alfred (1917–1988), son of Hermann Dohna-Finckenstein (1894–1942).
The palace became famous in 1807, when Napoleon made it his residence from April through June of that year. When he saw the palace for the first time, he said: Enfin un chateau ("Finally, a castle"). The Treaty of Finckenstein between France and Persia was signed here. Here, Napoleon met his Polish mistress Maria Walewska, with whom he lived in the palace. The Hollywood movie Conquest depicted the palace with Greta Garbo and Charles Boyer but was actually filmed in Monterey, California.