1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pflanzer-Baltin, Karl, Freiherr von

by Moritz von Auffenberg

PFLANZER-BALTIN, KARL, Freiherr von (1855-⁠), Austro-Hungarian general, was born at Pécs in Hungary in 1855. He served in the cavalry and on the general staff, but in 1914 found himself, on account of precarious health, unattached, and it was only in the autumn of that year, when Rumania appeared to be turning against the Central Powers, that he was charged with the defence of Transylvania. But when the Russians at this period crossed the Carpathians, and there was immediate danger of their eruption into the plains of Hungary, Pflanzer-Baltin, with a division improvised by his brilliant talent for organization out of next to nothing, threw himself on this enemy, and conducted the defensive in the form of a series of daring offensive movements. After fighting with varying success in the southern part of Eastern Galicia and in the Bukovina the VII. Army under his command was driven back by Brussilov's offensive in June 1916, whereupon he was relieved of his command. In the summer of 1918 the Austro-Hungarian front in Albania yielded before the attack of the Entente army. Pflanzer-Baltin, entrusted with the command in this theatre of operations, won back, after a brief and powerful attack, the old positions southwards of Fjeri and Berat — the last considerable success which fell to the Austro-Hungarian army in the field. (A.-K.)