Ludwig Renn

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**Ludwig Renn** (born 22 April 1889) is a German general and writer. Born a Saxon nobleman, he would defect to the Spartacists after the May Revolution and become both a high ranking commander and a committed communist.

## Early life

Ludwig Renn was the assumed name of Arnold Vieth von Golßenau who was born into a noble Saxon family whose family seat was in Golßen (Niederlausitz). He adopted the name Ludwig Renn in 1930, taking the name of the hero of his 1928 debut novel, *Krieg* (War). His mother, Bertha, maiden name Raspe (born 1867) was the daughter of a Moscow apothecary, whilst his father, Carl Johann Vieth von Golßenau (born 1856), was a teacher of mathematics and physics at the Royal Court of Saxony in Dresden. Through him, Renn came to know the Crown Prince of Saxony, Prince Friedrich August Georg von Sachsen (born 1865), later King Friedrich August III, who was destined to be the last King of Saxony after the 1918 November Revolution.

From 1911 Renn served as an officer in a prestigious Saxon Guards Regiment, where he served under his friend Prince Friedrich August. Between 1914 and 1918 he fought in the Great War as a company commander, and a field battalion commander on the Western Front.

## German Civil War

After the war he was a captain in the Dresden security police, a paramilitary force set up during the Weimar Republic. He was present in Dresden when the May Revolution erupted. Ordered to fire on the revolutionary strikers, he refused to relay the order to those under his command. As described in his later novel *Nachkrieg* (Postwar), the police had already come into conflict with the Freikorps due to their participation in the local revolutionary workers and soldiers council. Upon receiving news that the revolution had erupted across Germany, Renn defected along with many others and helped forge the local armed workers and defected soldiers and police into a unified formidable fighting force.

Renn soon became the de facto commander of revolutionary forces in Dresden, which were able to defeat elements of the Freikorps that were sent to suppress the uprising. Much of Central Germany was quickly consolidated by the Spartacists, including the majority of Saxony. Renn's forces were merged with the rest of the revolutionary forces in Saxony. His distinguished military background and revolutionary efforts in Dresden brought him to the spotlight, and in August 1919 he was assigned as the regional commander in Saxony. Renn led his forces into Thuringia and Bavaria, uniting revolutionary forces in those areas.

The months that followed the initial uprisings were relatively peaceful. White forces were primarily composed of the Freikorps, a paramilitary force composed of right-wing Great War veterans. However, right-wing ideas were mostly fringe among veterans. Most soldiers actively participated in the revolutionary workers and soldiers councils, and the primary right-wing party, the German National People's Party (DNVP), received less than 100 votes from troops in the east in the 1919 election. This meant that the Freikorps numbered only in the thousands, while the army, the Reichswehr, was weakened by defections.

This situation changed in early 1920. White forces were reorganized by new leadership under Kurt von Schleicher. The Schleicher Offensive was launched, and many lost areas were reoccupied by the Whites. Renn would initially lead operations in Saxony, but was soon reassigned to oversee defensive operations in the Battle of Berlin, commanding the 1st Army. In May he assumed command of the reorganized Army Front Spree, encompassing both the 1st and 3rd Army. He was the chief orchestrator of the counterattack in June that would see part of the White 4th Army encircled and destroyed, and in the aftermath the Spartacists clearly had the upper hand, leading to the subsequent Summer Offensive.