Although he was a native of the
Prussian
Province of Hesse-Nassau, Fasbender joined the
Bavarian Army in 1872. He rose to divisional command in the pre-War period, before retiring in 1912. He also served as
Chief of Bavarian General Staff in 1907 and 1908. Recalled from retirement on the outbreak of the War, he took command of the newly formed
I Royal Bavarian Reserve Corps as part of the mostly Bavarian
6th Army. He commanded this Corps for almost the entire duration of the war. In the final days of the war, he was appointed to command the
19th Army. On September 3, 1914 in
Hénamenil (France), he signed a letter which demanded that the civilian population of
Lunéville (France) pay a ransom of 650,000 francs, including 50,000 in gold pieces. The motivation was for acts of war supposedly committed by French civilians. The French later accused him of having these acts committed by his subordinates as a pretext for the ransom. Fasbender was awarded the
Pour le Mérite (the
Kingdom of Prussia's highest
order of merit) on 13 September 1916. He was also successively awarded all three classes of the
Military Order of Max Joseph (), the highest purely military order of the
Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight's Cross () on 5 October 1914, Commander's Cross () on 4 January 1917 and Grand Cross () on 23 April 1917. Karl von Fasbender died on 13 May 1933 in
Munich, Germany. == See also ==