August Hütten was born on 7th March 1880 at Aix-la-Chapelle, into a cultured bourgeois family. He was the third child of Gerhard (1845-1918) and Christine Hütten (1853-1932). The family was Catholic, socially conscious and fond of music. He studied at the Charlemagne High School (Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium).
By March 1918 he held the rank of Feldwebelleutnant, serving as second in command to the company and section commander. His last posting was to the 6th company of the 94th reserve infantry regiment (Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 94). Photographs suggest that August had received the Iron Cross sometime between September 1917 and spring 1918.
On 18th March 1918 August Hütten was buried in the collapse of the ‘Kilianstollen’ at Carspach (Haut-Rhin) near Altkirch, where his regiment had been stationed since December 1917. The bomb shelter in which the troops had sought refuge was destroyed by French artillery. The body of August was not recovered during the war, but a stone monument erected on 27th May 1962 commemorated the location of his death. His remains were finally discovered and identified by an archaeological dig conducted in 2011. In 2013 he was reinterred in the German military cemetery at Illfurth (Haut-Rhin), along with the comrades in arms who shared his unhappy fate.
