August von Mackensen

Anton Ludwig Friedrich August Mackensen was born in December 1849 and rose through the ranks of the German military, earning ennoblement in 1899. During World War I he commanded Army Group Mackensen and became one of the German Empire's most effective field commanders. After the armistice in November 1918, the Allies interned him in Serbia for a year. He retired from the army in 1920, but in 1933 Hermann Göring appointed him a Prussian state councillor. Through the Nazi era Mackensen remained a committed monarchist, often appearing at official functions in his World War I uniform - a gesture that drew suspicion from senior Nazi Party members who doubted his loyalty but never moved against him. He died in November 1945, weeks after the regime he'd outlasted collapsed.