He came to prominence in connection with his participation in the controversial long-distance cavalry exercise between Berlin and Vienna in 1892 and, later, on account of his First World War diaries, when these were published posthumously.

[1][2] Von Thaer was born in Panten, a small town in the flat lands a short distance to the west of Breslau (as Wrocław was known at that time), the eldest of his parents' six recorded children.

His father, Georg Ernst von Thaer (1834–1898), was a land owner and horse breeder who had been ennobled for his services to agriculture and cattle breeding.

One of her brothers, Albrecht's maternal uncle, Hermann von Dresler und Scharfenstein, later became an infantry general who won the Pour le Mérite medal in 1917.

[1] Army officers with an academic qualification were relatively thin on the ground at this time, but having passed his Abitur von Thaer had surmounted the principal hurdle necessary to qualify for university-level education.

As a student, he became involved with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and became an active follower of the conservative Christian-Socialist theologian-politician (and royal chaplain) Adolf Stoecker.

Here, thanks to his slightly unmilitary educational trajectory, he found himself approximately four years older than colleagues of similar rank who had become army officers via the Cadet Corps route.

Thaer, only recently commissioned as a second lieutenant, applied to his supervising officer for permission to participate, wearing the uniform of the Von Seydelitz Cuirassiers.

The responsible cavalry officer, General von Hänisch, doubted that the newly promoted lieutenant, who till recently had combined his military career with that of a part-time law student, could successfully overcome the challenges involved.

The second fastest German horse - placed ninth in the overall rankings - was ridden by Albrecht von Thaer, with a total riding time of 78 hours and 45 minutes.

She reached the finishing point undamaged apart from signs of "saddle pressure" (as a result of which she fell out of contention for the "condition prize").

The incident sheds light on the social nuances of honour and military etiquette that were a feature of the imperial Prussian officer corps at the time.

In any case, von Molkte concluded the interview frostily with the formal phrase, "Ich danke Ihnen, Herr Hauptmann" ("I thank you, Mr Officer").

The customary formulation at the time (even if strictly speaking "incorrect") would have been "Ich danke Ihnen, Thaer", using the name of a brother officer despite the difference in their actual ranks.

At the same time that Thaer took up his Danzig posting, the young Crown Prince William was sent to Danzig-Langfuhr to take command of the First Light Hussars Regiments.

In January 1915, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff with the IX Reserve Corps which was deployed in trench warfare on French soil and was later involved in the battles of 1916–1918.

[7] After facing intensive British attacks, on 6 August 1917, Lieutenant Colonel Thaer was awarded the Pour le Mérite in recognition of his conduct as Corps Leader.

[8] Despite committing to paper his belief that the honour belonged more properly to his men, he wrote excitedly to his wife of the celebration planned with fellow officers on the evening of the award.

On 24 April 1918, Thaer was transferred to work at Oberste Heeresleitung (Supreme Army Command) as Chief of Staff for the Quartermaster general (II).

Bitter fighting against Poles took place for several weeks and in the middle of February 1919, Thaer's troops withdrew behind the new Polish Corridor in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.

Nearly two decades later, on 27 August 1939, he was given the title of Generalmajor in the context of nationwide celebrations intended to highlight the Battle of Tannenberg a quarter of a century earlier.

On his abdication in 1918, the former king had relocated to his castle at Sibyllenort near Oels, where he had the use of a country estate of agricultural land and forest amounting to around 20,000 hectares.

Early in 1945, as another world war neared its end, the approach of the Soviet armies forced Albrecht von Thaer to flee to the west.

[9] The book consisted of extracts from Thaer's diaries and from his letters (mostly addressed to his wife) written during the First World War, to which Kaehler added his own commentary.

But taken in combination with the known attitudes and judgements expressed by the principal protagonists, Ludendorff, Hindenburg and the Kaiser during the end phase of the already lost war, they provide evidence for motivations and imputed culpabilities, and they offer valuable insights into the origins of the destructively toxic Stab-in-the-back myth—the Dolchstoß legend.

[13] Thaer recalled a visit that the Kaiser made to the frontline: "His majesty was finely attired, conducted himself most graciously, and spoke mostly about world affairs.

"[14] Transferred to Supreme Army Command as Chief of Staff to the Quartermaster General at the end of April 1918, Thaer reported to Hindenburg and Ludendorff on 1 May 1918.

Even though Hindenburg and Ludendorff tried to shift the blame for the threatened defeat - and therefore the failure of their own predictions to come true - during the later years of the war, away from the army, there was not at this point any talk of a planned or treacherous conspiracy.

It was only later that this protective assertion developed into a legend - again, backed by Ludendorff - driven, primarily, by domestic political motives, which purported to blame the revolutionary activists who came to the fore in November 1918 and, more generally, democratic politicians for Germany's military defeat.

[9] The assertion that the German army had in reality been victorious, or at least undefeated ("im Felde unbesiegt") when it was stabbed in October/November 1918, and the associated narrative of the so-called "November criminals" became a heavy political mortgage for what came to be called, after 1933, the Weimar republic, first by its detractors and later more generally.