MOSSNER, WALTHER VON

MOSSNER, WALTHER VON (1846–1932), German general. Born in Berlin, Mossner, a superb cavalryman, was commissioned into the King's Hussars in 1865, a personal favor by King William I to Mossner's banker father, despite the hostility of the other officers, who regarded the commissioning of a Jew in a cavalry regiment as an unwelcome precedent. Mossner was eventually baptized and was decorated for distinguished services in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. In 1872 he was appointed to the German general staff and later was ennobled. He was made William II's aide-de-camp in 1892 and from 1896 to 1898 commanded the third cavalry brigade. Mossner became governor of Strasbourg in 1903 and in the following year was given command of a cavalry division with the rank of major general. He retired in 1910 and was awarded the High Order of the Black Eagle, the last Prussian general to be so honored. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Buelow, Denkwuerdigkeiten, 4 (1931). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: F.H. Hansen, Walther von Mossner (1933) (eulogy).