Colmar von der Goltz

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Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz

Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (born August 12, 1843 in Adlig Bielkenfeld - after 1916 Adlig Goltzhausen, from 1928 Goltzhausen - in the East Prussian district of Labiau ; † April 19, 1916 in Baghdad ) was a Prussian field marshal , military historian and writer . As a writer he also used the pseudonym W. von Dünheim .

Von der Goltz in the uniform of a Prussian field marshal

Life

Colmar von der Goltz (1914)

Von der Goltz grew up on the Fabiansfelde estate near Preußisch Eylau , which his father had acquired in 1844 after the Bielkenfeld estate was sold. In 1861 Goltz went to the infantry, in 1864 he attended the War Academy in Berlin . In 1866 he took part in the German war against Austria and was seriously wounded in the shoulder in the battle of Trautenau . In 1867 Goltz became a member of the Prussian General Staff . In the same year he married the landowner's daughter Therese Dorguth, with whom he had five children. When the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870 , he served on the staff of Friedrich Karl Nikolaus von Prussia .

Between 1878 and 1883 Goltz was a teacher of war history at the Prussian War Academy. In 1883 he published his well-known book Von Roßbach bis Jena und Auerstedt , in which he indirectly criticized the empire through the treatment of Prussian military history. From 1883 to 1895 he reorganized the Ottoman army and was appointed marshal (marshal) with the title of pasha . In 1895 he returned to Germany, was appointed lieutenant general on April 18, 1896 and took over command of the 5th division in Frankfurt an der Oder on January 2, 1896 . On January 27, 1900 he was promoted to General of the Infantry and on January 27, 1902 , he took over the leadership of the I. Army Corps in Königsberg. In September 1907 he took over the inspection of the 6th Army in Stuttgart and was promoted to Colonel General in 1908 . At the beginning of 1911 he was appointed Field Marshal General and finally retired in 1913 at the age of 70.

On July 7, 1909, Goltz almost became Chancellor of the Reich . On this day, Kaiser Wilhelm II conferred with Rudolf von Valentini , the head of the civil cabinet at the time , as to whether Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg or von der Goltz should become Reich Chancellor. The Kaiser was very inclined to appoint the general, but his renewed presence in Turkey from May 1909 was too important to bring him to Berlin, so that Bethmann Hollweg finally became Chancellor.

In 1911 von der Goltz founded the Jungdeutschland-Bund , an umbrella organization for predominantly right-wing youth associations. The practical aim of preparing young people for a possible war through sport and field games also met with approval in the gymnastics and sports clubs. The municipalities were motivated by von der Goltz and his network to expand sports fields. As a result, the physical exercises were larger than it was for apparatus gymnastics up to then. In the same year he was accepted into the order Pour le Mérite for sciences and arts .

The "vd Goltz - Querfeldein, Großes Trakehner Jagdrennen" of the Prussian main stud Trakehnen was named after him, which at the time was one of the most difficult cross-country horse races in the world.

Reorganization of the Ottoman army

In contrast to the restructuring of the Ottoman army , in which the Germans had only limited influence and success, von der Goltz - known as Goltz- Pascha - achieved a monopoly position for arms imports into the Ottoman Empire in a short time through his work as a military reformer To get rich. In the Ottoman Empire, these transactions could be easily influenced by bribes and so von der Goltz, who worked together with the Grand Vizier and the Minister of Finance in a commission for raising money for armaments, used the sum of 30,000 marks available to him for the necessary baksheesh . However, he himself did not enrich himself in his work. When arms manufacturer Ludwig Loewe offered him a share transfer, he replied: “ You meant it well, but a Prussian officer doesn't take tips! ".

His work became of particular importance when he was able to convince the sultan to send Turkish officers to Prussia for training. This sustainably promoted the formation of a pro-German core in the Ottoman military, which has not lost its connection to the Germans even after the Young Turkish Revolution, see Leopard 1 .

First World War

Commander

Since he was already over seventy when the World War broke out, he was, to his greatest regret, no longer given a front command, but was Governor General for the "Imperial German General Government of Belgium" from 23 August to 28 November 1914 . Since he did not agree with the orders received regarding the treatment of the Belgians, he soon asked to be dismissed from his post and was reappointed to the Ottoman Empire as a result of the proposal of the Ambassador Baron von Wangenheim . There, the ambassador hoped, he was supposed to take over from the head of the military mission , Liman von Sanders , as he had always taken a strictly military position on the operations and did not bow to the more politically motivated plans of the embassy and the military attaché. Although such a replacement was categorically rejected by the Turkish side, the agreements regarding the dispatch of the field marshal with the Ottomans remained in place and von der Goltz arrived in Turkey on December 12, 1914, where he was initially employed as the sultan's military advisor. After Liman von Sanders received supreme command of the 5th Army, which was newly formed to defend the Dardanelles, at the end of March 1915 , von der Goltz took over from him supreme command of the 1st Army in Constantinople . From October 1915, von der Goltz was in command of the 6th Ottoman Army in order to coordinate the Turkish and German operations in Persia , which up until then had seemed incompatible. In December 1915 he arrived in Baghdad and helped the 6th Army to defeat the trapped British troops in the siege of Kut .

Arthur Bopp transferred the independent management of operations in Persia from Goltz . Bopp's task was “to utilize the forces of Persia in the interests of the central powers and Turkey and to ensure the freedom and independence of Persia. ... to prepare a Persian insurrection and to initiate the formation of a Persian army ... ”. With considerable funds, a stage line across Iran to Afghanistan was built in the spring of 1915 , in which diplomatic intelligence officers were deployed as German consuls at the most important points. Most of the Swedish officers at the head of the Persian gendarmerie entered the German service in secret.

Participation in the genocide of the Armenians

During the First World War, Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz was involved in the genocide of the Armenians alongside Sylvester Boettrich and other German officers and developed plans for the deportation of the Armenians. As early as 1900 Goltz had publicly proposed that half a million Armenians who lived on the Russian border be resettled to Mesopotamia . When Enver Pasha presented him with the deportation order in March 1915, he, who thought the Armenians were “cunning traders”, agreed.

death

Goltz died on April 19, 1916 in his headquarters in Baghdad after being infected with typhus while visiting a hospital and was first buried in a bastion high above the banks of the Tigris. His coffin was transferred to Constantinople in June 1916 and buried in the garden of the summer residence of the German embassy in Tarabya on the Bosporus next to the remains of the Ambassador Baron von Wangenheim and Colonel Erich von Leipzig .

With the death of Goltz, the Turkish officers in the east became inaccessible to German advice. So they did not strategically exploit the victory against the British and Halil Pascha , who was an uncle of Envers and had represented von der Goltz as commander-in-chief for a short time, counted the victory on himself and instead of the British in Mesopotamia, unsuccessfully attacked the Russians in Persia. If the Field Marshal General, who was honored by both sides, was still able to bundle the German and Turkish efforts, from then on they diverged further.

While the embassy, ​​the Foreign Office and the main headquarters exposed von der Goltz to the accusation of lack of energy and "lack of energy" in relation to his work in Mesopotamia, other observers attest to his foresight, perseverance, persuasiveness and a feeling for the oriental mentality as being outstanding Having leadership skills.

Constantinople, Kaiser Wilhelm II lays flowers at the grave of Field Marshal von der Goltz in the embassy park. 3rd from right: Esat Pascha (1917)

Goltz had transferred his property to a foundation that was administered by his successor in the office of Governor General of Belgium, Moritz Freiherr von Bissing . The aim of the foundation was to support destitute returning soldiers. Von Bissing began building the Bissingheim housing estate near Duisburg in 1916 with funds from the foundation .

See also

Fonts

  • The people in arms. A book about armies and warfare of our time. Berlin 1883.
  • Strength and weakness of the Turkish Empire. Deutsche Rundschau, Volume XXIV, 1 (October 1897), pp. 104, 106, 109, 110, 118.
  • War history of Germany in the nineteenth century. Part 1: In the age of Napoleon. ( The nineteenth century in Germany's development . Volume 8), Berlin: Bondi, 1910. (Digitized edition at: urn : nbn: de: s2w-8556 )
  • Young Turkey's defeat and the possibility of its recovery . 1913 ( online )
  • War history of Germany in the nineteenth century. Part 2: In the age of Kaiser Wilhelm the Victorious. (The nineteenth century in Germany's development. Volume 9), Berlin: Bondi, 1914. (Digitized edition at: urn : nbn: de: s2w-8572 )
  • Edited and edited together with Wolfgang Foerster : Memories. Berlin 1929.

literature

  • Pertev Demirhan: Field Marshal General Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz: the life picture of a great soldier. From my personal memories. Goettingen 1960.
  • Carl Alexander Krethlow : General Field Marshal Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz Pascha. A biography. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-77372-2 .
  • Carl Alexander Krethlow: Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz and the genocide of the Armenians 1915–1916. In: Social.History. Journal of historical analysis of the 20th and 21st centuries. 21 (3) (2006), pp. 53-77.
  • Bernd Lemke: Global War. The Colmar von der Goltz's uprising and conquest plans for the Middle East and India. In Wilfried Loth, Marc Hanisch: First World War and Jihad. The Germans and the revolutionization of the Orient. Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, pp. 39–60.
  • Hermann Teske : Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz. A fighter for military progress. Goettingen 1957.
  • Hermann Teske:  Goltz-Pascha, Colmar Freiherr von der. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , pp. 629-632 ( digitized version ).
  • FAK Yasamee: Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz and the Rebirth of the Ottoman Empire. In: Diplomacy & Statecraft. Vol. 9, no. 2 (1998), pp. 91-128.

Web links

Commons : Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Goltz-Pascha, Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der | (Pseudonym W. von Dünheim) in the German biography
  2. ↑ Horst Schulz, Der Kreis Pr. Eylau, Verden / Aller 1983.
  3. ↑ a b c Brauns, Nikolaus: The German-Turkish relations before the First World War 1914 . Master's thesis at the Institute for Modern History at the University of Munich, winter semester 1996/1997, unpaginated version, chap. 5.3.2.
  4. ↑ Arnd Krüger : Education through physical education or "Pro patria est dum ludere videmur". In: R. Dithmar, J. Willer (Hrsg.): School between Empire and Fascism . Knowledge Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1981, ISBN 3-534-08537-X , pp. 102-122.
  5. ^ A b Joseph Pomiankowski : The collapse of the Ottoman Empire - memories of Turkey from the time of the world war . Amalthea, Vienna 1928, p. 32.
  6. ↑ Alan Palmer: Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire . Heyne, Munich 1994 (original: London 1992), p. 319.
  7. ^ Otto Liman von Sanders: Five years of Turkey . Scherl, Berlin 1920, p. 247.
  8. ↑ Joseph Pomiankowski: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Memories of Turkey from the time of the world war. Amalthea, Vienna 1928, p. 100 f.
  9. ^ Otto Liman von Sanders: Five years of Turkey. Scherl, Berlin 1920, p. 66.
  10. ^ Otto Liman von Sanders: Five years of Turkey. Scherl, Berlin 1920, p. 77.
  11. ^ A b Joseph Pomiankowski: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire - memories of Turkey from the time of the world war . Amalthea, Vienna 1928, p. 152 f.
  12. ↑ Joseph Pomiankowski: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire - memories of Turkey from the time of the world war . Amalthea, Vienna 1928, p. 153 f.
  13. ^ Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz: Memoirs , edited and edited by Friedrich von der Goltz and Wolfgang Foerster, Berlin 1929, p. 418 f.
  14. ^ Rolf Hosfeld: Turkey, Germany and the genocide of the Armenians . Qantara.de. October 6, 2005. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
  15. ↑ Men, women, children - “The Armenian is like the Jew”: Remembrance of the 1915 genocide . The world. April 26, 2003, accessed September 23, 2013.
  16. ↑ Jürgen Gottschlich : Aiding and abetting genocide. Germany's role in the annihilation of the Armenians. Links, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86153-817-2 , p. 136.
  17. ↑ a b Otto Liman von Sanders: Five Years Turkey , Scherl, Berlin 1920, p. 169.
  18. ↑ Joseph Pomiankowski: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire - memories of Turkey from the time of the world war . Amalthea, Vienna 1928, p. 216 f.
  19. ↑ Joseph Pomiankowski: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire - memories of Turkey from the time of the world war . Amalthea, Vienna 1928, pp. 192–195 and 217.
  20. ↑ Joseph Pomiankowski: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Memories of Turkey from the time of the world war. Amalthea, Vienna 1928, pp. 153 and 216.
predecessor Office successor
- Governor General of Belgium
1914 		Moritz von Bissing
personal data
SURNAME Goltz, Colmar from the
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goltz-Pascha, Colmar Freiherr von der; Goltz, Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der (full name); Dünheim, W. von (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian field marshal and military historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielkenfeld
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1916
Place of death Baghdad