Ignjat Kirhner (, ; 30 May 1877 – 18 May 1944) was an Austro-Hungarian officer, Serbian World War I volunteer, and Yugoslav brigadier-general. He deserted the Austro-Hungarian Army by the start of World War I and joined the Royal Serbian Army as a guerrilla fighter in the Belgrade area. After the war he rose in the Royal Yugoslav Army to the rank of brigadier-general. Early life There are differing accounts on his origin. He has been described as: a Banat Swabian (ethnic German); an ethnic Serb, born in Ruma, Austria-Hungary (now Serbia), who adopted the surname Kirchner from his stepfather who adopted and raised him; an ethnic Serb, born in Klein-Betschkerek, Austria-Hungary (now Becicherecu Mic, Romania), who adopted the surname from his stepfather, whom his mother remarried. Ruma was a town which had a Serb majority and minorities of Germans, Hungarians and Croats, while Klein-Betschkerek was a village which had a German majority and minorities of Serbs and Romanians. He grew up speaking German, and only learnt Serbian while serving in the Austro-Hungarian army. Austro-Hungarian service Kirhner finished the Military Academy in Vienna, then served in the Austro-Hungarian army as an officer in Vinkovci in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia (now Croatia) for seven years. Here, he learnt Serbian; it is said that he learnt to speak fluently, but with a likable German accent. He deserted from the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914 and crossed into the Kingdom of Serbia. According to unconfirmed stories of his comrades, he had deserted after killing a superior officer who, knowing of Kirhner's ancestry or not, had talked very insulting and degrading about Serbs. World War I Kirhner joined the Serbian Army, being accepted by decree by King Peter I of Serbia. According to unreliable stories, Kirhner fled to Serbia swimming across the Sava river to Belgrade in the summer of 1914, and was the first to bring news that the Austro-Hungarian government was ready to declare war regardless of the response to the July Ultimatum. Kirhner began his service in the World War I campaign as a Chetnik volunteer. In 1914 he participated in the capture of an Austro-Hungarian military post on the left shore of the Sava, during which he was wounded in the right foot, but declined to go to hospital. He gathered youngsters from Syrmia and Banat who had managed to escape to Belgrade and wanted to join the Serbian Army, but