Hans Hartwig von Beseler

Hans Hartwig von Beseler (April 27 1850 - December 20 1921) was a German Colonel General.

Beseler was born in in Greifswald, Pomerania, to a university professor's family. He entered the Prussian Army in 1868, fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and had a successful military career until his retirement in 1910. In that year he was ennobled by William II, German Emperor. Beseler was recalled to active service and became commander of the third reserve corps in the Germany army when World War I broke out. In 1915 he was Military Governor of the German-occupied part of Congress Poland and served as such until the end of the war.

In 1914 Beseler was brought out of retirement and was given command of the 3rd Reserve Corps in the German First Army led by Generaloberst Alexander von Kluck. The German Army took Brussels on August 20, and the German command considered the Belgian Army defeated. The main force of the German armies marched towards France, leaving the 3rd Reserve Corps behind. Beseler was given orders to take possession of the city of Antwerp on September 9. The Siege of Antwerp ended on October 10, when the mayor of Antwerp, Jan De Vos, surrendered the city. Beseler followed the Belgian army and was halted in the Battle of the Yser.

In Spring 1915, Beseler was sent to the Eastern Front with Max von Gallwitz's 9th Army where he led the successful siege of Novogeorgievsk. In August he was nominated the military governor of the Polish lands occupied by the Central Powers. After the Act of November 5 of 1916, Beseler, now a full general, stayed and still wielded real power as the General Governor of the Kingdom of Poland (beside the Austrian Governor General, Karl Kuk, who resided in Lublin) and the titular commander of the so-called Polnische Wehrmacht.

After Poland declared independence on November 11, 1918, and all German soldiers in Warsaw were disarmed, Beseler fled in disguise to Germany. A broken and disillusioned man, attacked by the German Conservatives and Nationalists as having been too liberal against the Poles and disliked in Poland for being too Prussian, Beseler died in 1921 in Neu-Babelsberg near Potsdam.

Decorations

Beseler, besides many minor decorations, received the Pour le Mérite and the Iron Cross (1st and 2nd Classes), and was a Commander with Star and Crown of the Prussian Order of the House of Hohenzollern.

Bibliography

*Bogdan Graf von Hutten-Czapski, "Sechzig Jahre Politik und Gesellschaft", 1 - 2, Berlin 1936