He was the first recipient of the Pour le Mérite, Prussia's highest military honor, in World War I for his role in the Battle of Liège.

[1] Emmich entered the Prussian Army on 3 July 1866 as an Avantageur (officer candidate) and three-year volunteer in the 6.

[2][3] He served in the Franco-Prussian War as adjutant of the regiment's 1st Battalion, seeing action in the battles of Spicheren, Colombey-Nouilly, Gravelotte-St. Privat and in the siege of Metz, and was decorated with the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the Schaumburg-Lippe Military Merit Medal with Swords.

[8] On 16 October 1879, he joined the regiment in Trier and on 13 January 1880 he was promoted to Hauptmann and named a company commander.

[20][16] On 16 June 1913, he was placed à la suite of the Füsilier-Regiment Generalfeldmarschall Prinz Albrecht von Preußen (Hannoversches) Nr.

[21] Emmich remained the commanding general of the X Army Corps when World War I began in August 1914.

[23] Due to the tenacity of the Belgian defenders, the German troops were obliged to entrench and bring up heavy siege artillery.

On 7 August 1914, for Emmich's "courageous leadership in the capture of the Belgian fortress Liege," the Kaiser presented him with the first award of the Order Pour le Mérite in World War I.

[27] Arriving in the vicinity of Reims, the corps transitioned to trench warfare, remaining there until late April 1915.

[28] The corps was then transferred to the Eastern Front and assigned to the 11th Army under August von Mackensen for the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive.

[30] The Russians were forced back, and Emmich's corps advanced, crossing the San in mid-May.

Emmich's corps took Krasnystaw and Biskupice, crossed the Bug, and advanced to the north and east, fighting along the Jasiolda river between Brest-Litovsk and Pinsk.

[34] Emmich took ill, however, and was forced to pass command of his corps to Walther Freiherr von Lüttwitz.