Jakob Ritter von Danner


Jakob Ritter von Danner was a general in the Royal Bavarian Army, the Imperial German Army and the Reichswehr. As commandant of the Munich garrison of the Reichswehr, he was a central figure in putting down the attempted Beer Hall Putsch by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1923.

Early life and family

Jakob Danner was born on 7 August 1865 in Queichheim in the Bavarian Palatinate as the son of Ludwig Danner and Karolina, née Reich. On 1 December 1913, he married Anna, née Fuchssteiner.

Military Service

Danner entered the Royal Bavarian Army on 13 August 1884 as an officer candidate in the Royal Bavarian 17th Infantry Regiment "Orff" in Germersheim and was commissioned a lieutenant on 7 July 1886. He was promoted to Oberleutnant on 22 December 1893, initially without a patent but later receiving a patent of 6 November 1894.
In July 1900, Danner was transferred to the 6th East Asian Infantry Regiment and served in the German expeditionary forces sent to China during the Boxer Rebellion, where he earned the Bavarian Military Merit Order 4th Class with Swords, the Prussian Crown Order 4th Class with Swords and the Austrian Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with War Decoration. He returned to Bavarian military service in 1901. On 28 October 1901, he was promoted Hauptmann and transferred to the Royal Bavarian 20th Infantry Regiment "Prinz Franz". On 20 October 1907, he was named a Kompaniechef in the Royal Bavarian 13th Infantry Regiment "Franz Joseph I., Kaiser von Österreich und Apostolischer König von Ungarn".
Danner was transferred to the staff of the 13th Infantry Regiment on 13 February 1910 and promoted to major on 7 March 1910. On 7 March 1912, he was named a battalion commander in the Royal Bavarian 18th Infantry Regiment "Prinz Ludwig Ferdinand". A transfer to the Royal Bavarian 7th Infantry Regiment "Prinz Leopold" followed on 19 March 1914, where he was named commander of the regiment's 2nd Battalion.
With the start of World War I, Danner was sent into the field as commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, being promoted to Oberstleutnant on 10 September 1914. He was wounded on 20 August 1914 in the Battle of Lorraine and again on 7 November 1914 in the fighting between the Meuse and the Moselle rivers. After returning from the hospital on 7 December 1914, he briefly commanded the Bavarian 5th Infantry Regiment.
On 29 December 1914, he took command of the newly-formed Royal Bavarian 18th Reserve Infantry Regiment. He commanded this regiment on the Western and Eastern Fronts, except for brief respites, until July 1918. He received his third wound on 5 August 1916 and was hospitalized on several occasions for blood and eye ailments, including hospitalization in Munich for eye surgery from 12 November 1917 to 19 February 1918.
For valor on 1 December 1916 in the fighting in the Upper Alsace region, Danner was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph, Bavaria's highest military honor, on 1 September 1917. For a Bavarian commoner, award of this order of knighthood conferred nobility. Danner received his patent of nobility from the King of Bavaria on 20 September 1917, taking the title "Ritter von". Ritter von Danner had, in the meantime, been promoted to Oberst on 17 April 1917. He also held several temporary brigade commands, including of the Bavarian 15th Reserve Infantry Brigade and the Prussian 5th Ersatz Infantry Brigade.
From 6 July to 15 September 1918, Oberst Ritter von Danner commanded the Bavarian 12th Reserve Infantry Brigade. He was named commander of the Bavarian 21st Infantry Brigade on 30 September 1918, and led that brigade through the end of the war and into 1919. During the post-war unrest, he led the "Gruppe Danner" of the III Bavarian Army Corps. From 14 May 1919 until 30 September 1920, he commanded Reichswehr Brigade Nr. 24 in Nuremberg.
On 1 October 1920, Colonel Ritter von Danner took command of the Munich city garrison and was promoted to Generalmajor on 1 July 1921. He led this command, which also entailed serving as deputy commander of Military District VII, until his retirement. It was during this period that the Nazi Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and its allies, attempted a coup d'état to overthrow the Bavarian government. General Ritter von Danner reacted quickly, placing troops on alert and acting to ensure that the commander of Wehrkreis VII, which controlled all troops in Bavaria, did not support the putsch attempt or vacillate in the face of it. Three days after the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was arrested and charged with treason. Ritter von Danner was promoted to Generalleutnant on 1 January 1925 and retired on 31 July 1925.

Later years

After retirement, Generalleutnant Ritter von Danner served as the first president of the Bavarian Warrior League and later as the second president of the Reich Warrior League "Kyffhäuser". He died on 28 December 1942 in Munich.

Decorations and awards