Oskar von Niedermayer

Oskar Ritter von Niedermayer (8 November 1885 – 25 September 1948) was a famous German General, professor and adventurer. Sometimes referred to as the German Lawrence (just like Wilhelm Wassmuss), Niedermayer is famous for having led in 1915-1916 the Indo-German-Turkish mission to Afghanistan during World War I to enlist Emir Habibullah Khan's support against Britain and to encourage the Emir to attack British India, which remains a famous aspect of the Hindu German Conspiracy as well as the German War Effort. Between the World Wars, Niedermayer was associated with the Universities of Munich and Berlin.

Early life and career

Oskar Niedermayer came from a Regensburg official and merchant family. Early on 15 July 1905, he joined as an officer candidate in the 10th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment (Erlangen). After being promoted to Lieutenant, he received within the armed forces the opportunity to study the natural sciences, geography and the Iranian languages. Subsequently, he was at full salary for a two-year research trip furloughs, which took him, from September 1912, through Persia and India. Niedermayer was the first Europeans to cross the desert of Lut. Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War (1914–1918), he returned to Germany. Already on 15 December 1914 the German military leadership sent Niedermayer with a small expedition to Afghanistan (which used the methods of mimicking the traditions and understanding the way of thinking of the un-European allie) that would later by used by Lawrence of Arabia to the Arab revolt, to try and aid the uprising of Great Britain dependent Persian Afghans and the adjacent Great Britain ruled Indian against the colonial power aufzuwiegeln. On 26 September 1915 the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition reached Kabul, but there was nothing decisive in the Alignment with Germany of Emir Habibullah (26 September 1915 – May 1916), in May 1916 the return of the expedition to the Ottoman Empire started. The dangerous return march through hostile Russian territory ended on 1 September 1916 when they arrived to the Ottoman Empire, where Niedermayer received orders of the German Military Mission in the Ottoman Empire under Field Marshal Baron Colmar von der Goltz (1843–1916) and a new but similar mission with the Arabs of the Ottoman territory followed. In the following months, he commanded (with the remaining leaders of the Military Mission) the German troops in the Middle East. Only in March 1918, he was recalled back to Germany, where on 28 March, in the Great headquarters, he arrived. Niedermayer was awarded for his merits Militär-Max-Joseph-Orden and a post as captain of the Western Front where he experienced the fighting in the Champagne and Flanders before the war ended.

Between wars

At the end of World War I, Niedermayer was on leave and had an opportunity at the University of Munich to study literature and geography for two more semesters. There he earned his degree of a Dr. phil. summa cum laude. During this period (starting on April 29, 1919), he was also the director of the publicity department of Freikorps Epp, the Munich city council's Republican force. On 12 December of that year Niedermayer returned to the army. Initially he served in the leadership of the 23rd Division and was adjutant to Reichswehr Minister Otto Gessler (1875–1955). On 23 December 1921 Niedermayer officially resigned from the army, but only to work in the by-then unofficial former Soviet Union section of the German Army. Until 1932 he worked in the Reichswehr office in Moscow. Afterwards he returned to Germany and officially rejoined the 2nd Prussian Artillery Regiment. Already on 29 January 1933, he again resigned from active service as a lieutenant colonel, to devote himself to an academic career. On 31 July 1933 he qualified himself for academic work with a thesis on Growth and migration in the Russian national body and took a position as a [[lecturer] for brigade geography and departmental policy at the University of Berlin. Four years later, on 27 July 1937, at the express request of Adolf Hitler, Niedermayer got a job at the Institute for Compulsory Military Doctrine at Berlin University. Meantime, he was, on 1 November 1935, a reserve officer in the army. A change in his status occurred when, on 1 October 1939, a plan by the high ranks of the Wehrmacht led to his augmentation to Military Ordinariate and he resumed his post as Colonel in the supreme command of the Wehrmacht (OKW).

Second World War

By the beginning of the Second World War (1939–1945) the Nazi leadership called Niedermayer to use in the armed forces, either at the Front or with a contribution of his institute in the management of occupied Poland. As the Wehrmacht leadership had not responded, he asked some friend generals to advocacate for an active role in the war for him. Nevertheless he rejected the High Command of the Army’s request on February 20, 1941 again. Thus Niedermayer turned down on 25 May 1941 again personally to Wilhelm Keitel (1882–1946), the chief of OKW. Admittedly, he had the opportunity to participate in some courses, but until May 30, 1942 Niedermayer stayed with the leadership of the 162nd Turkoman Division instructed. This was not a regular Division, but simply a bar, which was scheduled, in the hinterland of the Army Group in the South of Ukraine, from (Caucasian, Turkestani, Georgian, Armenian) POWs troops formed against the Soviet Union’s advance in Ukraine. This task was transferred to him, because he was known in the previous years, due to many articles and memoirs as a connoisseur of the geography and peoples of the profiled regions. The division was first installed in the Ukraine, where they and Niedermeyer were responsible for the training of the so-called "Ostlegionen", until February 1943, and from then to autumn of 1943 they were reinstalled in Neuhammer German Reich. There the Legion was reclassified as a Division, but it was still made of Caucasian, Georgian and Turkotartari soldiers. As commander to this division there was Niedermayer in the fight against partisans in the Balkans. In March 1944, the relocation of the Ostlegion to Italy, where they could halt the Allied advance. Within the framework of the 10th Army, the Division on 9 June 1944 for the first major deployment, in which things were not very good. But Niedermayer at this stage was no more commander of the unit. He had already (by 21 May 1944) at the request of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring been replaced. Kesselring had few weeks before in an assessment written of Niedermayer: “The education is above average... It is, however, more scholars nature as troops body. in the decision-making and hesitant in the command leadership to slow." (Cited in: Charles W. Seidler:Ritter Oskar Niedermayer of the Second World War, in: Researchers brigadeRundschau, 4, 1970, S.203) Niedermayer became the commander of voluntary associations by the Supreme Commander of Weststaggered. His work there is not known. However, in August 1944, he now disparagingly on Hitler's Ostpolitik. Two officers of his staff reported him what to Niedermayers arrest and indictment due to a defensive force decomposition and defeatism. The case was before imperial court martial Torgau negotiation. Numerous friends, including Heinrich Himmler, wrote then entries, and recalled Niedermayers merits, reaching for his input, but only by American associations from the prison in Torgau he was exempt. He was returning after the capitulation of Germany on May 9, 1945 to his hometown of Regensburg, when, in Carlsbad the Soviets arrested and sent him to a Moscow prison where he suffered from tuberculosis. In a Russian court martial process Niedermayer was sentenced to 25 years in prison, which he was sentenced to serve in the penitentiary of Vladimir (German: Wladimir). But after a few days there he died on 25 September 1948 in the jail's hospital.

Works

• My return from Afghanistan,Munich 1918.
• The inland basins of the Iranian high country, Munich 1918.
• Afghanistan'' , Leipzig 1924.
• Under the scorching sun-Iran war experiences of the German expedition to Persia and Afghanistan,
• Dachau 1925.brigade
• Geographical considerationof the Soviet Union, Berlin 1933.
• Sowjet-Rußland-* A geopolitical problem , Berlin 1934.brigade
• *Policy-An introduction and definition, Leipzig 1939.brigade
• Geographic Atlas of France, Berlin 1939.
• soldiering and Science, Hamburg 1940.* Geography Department at Examplein Russia, Berlin 1940.brigade
• Geographic Atlas of Great Britain, Berlin 1940.war
• and Science, in:The Kingdom21 / 1941.brigade
• Geographic Atlas of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,Berlin 1941. *''Geography Department, Berlin 1942.

See also

References

• Seidt, Hans-Ulrich (2001), From Palestine to the Caucasus-Oskar Niedermayer and Germany's Middle Eastern Strategy in 1918.German Studies Review, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Feb., 2001), pp. 1-18, German Studies Association, ISSN 01497952 .
• Hughes, Thomas L (2002), The German Mission to Afghanistan, 1915-1916.German Studies Review, Vol. 25, No. 3. (Oct., 2002), pp. 447-476., German Studies Association, ISSN: 01497952 
• Peter March:The first World War, Germany between the long 19th century and the short 20th century, Ernst birds, Munich, 2004, ISBN 3-89650-193-3 * Franz W. Seidler:Ritter Oskar Niedermayer of the Second World War, in:brigade Scientific Rundschau3 / 1970, 4 / 1970 * Hans-Ulrich Seidt:Berlin, Kabul, Moscow. Oskar Niedermayer Knights of geopolitics and Germany. Universitas Verlag, Munich 2002. ISBN 3-8004-1438-4 In the Band "event horizon" ( 2003) of the poet Henning Heske there is a cycle of poems about the turbulent life of this recent German knight.

Persondata
Name	Niedermayer, Oskar Von
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	8 November 1885
Place of birth
Date of death	25 September 1948
Place of death