Pavle Jurišić Šturm

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Pavle Jurišić Šturm (Serbian Cyrillic: Павле Јуришић Штурм) (August 8, 1848-January 14, 1922) was Serbian general of Sorbian origin (his original name was Paul Sturm) who commanded the Serbian 3rd Army in the First World War.

Pavle Jurišić Šturm was one of the most important commanders if the Serbian army in the WW1, especially during the first two years of the war, the time when his 3rd army was always main support either for the 2nd army during the battle of Cer, or for the 1st army during battle of Kolubara. His biography is not hard to find, so I would like to inform the readers about two very interesting things concerning Pavle Jurišić. The first one is that he was born and raised in Germany, in fact, he was a pure German, with not a single drop of Serbian blood. His real name was Pavel Sturm. He finished military academy and came to Serbia before Balkan wars to teach on the Serbian military academy. But, he felt in love with Serbia, he married Serbian woman, and changed his name from German Pavel to Serbian Pavle , and his last name Sturm to the typical Serbian last name that was modulated translation of his German last name - Sturm, meaning "charge" in German was translated into Jurišić, with the root of the word "charge" ( "juriš" in Serbian ). He kept his German last name as an alias. His son , that he had with his Serbian wife, was sergeant officer in Serbian army, and he passed all major battles in ww1, from Cer and Kolubara, then retreat over frozen Albania, the resurrection of the Serbian army on the island of Corfy, and the epic charge of the Serbian army, breaking the Salonika front, when he was wounded, crushing and defeating Bulgarian army at Vardar river and Black River that led to the Bulgarian capitulation , then retaking all the major cities and return to the motherland, defeating fon Makensen' s army and chasing Germans and Austrians further to the north, even after the triumphal entering in the capital Belgrade.After years of peace that followed, he stayed in the army with the rank of the major. When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in ww2, the first organized arm rebellion was conducted by the circle of officers led by general Dragoljub Draža Mihajlović. Germans have spread their nets to catch the rebels' leader, and once they had them surrounded on the estate of one of the officers. Together with the leaders of rebellion, was Šturm's son. In the moment when the rebels started to shoot and intended to break the siege, Jurišić's son has taken the coat of Mihajlović ,forcing the Germans to follow him, thinking that he was the rebellion leader they came to catch. By the time they had realised the deception, it was too late, General Mihajlović has fled. They took the hero to the gestapo and asked him with due respect, as an officer, who he was. When he told them that he was the son of Pavel Sturm, thay wanted to release him, since he was German. But, he stood up and yelled :" That half of the German blood had leaked out of me on Salonika front!". couple hours later, he stood in front of the firing squad, yelling :" Long live the King! Long live Motherland Serbia!".