Hans Hartwig von Beseler

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Hans von Beseler (about 1915).

Hans Hartwig von Beseler (April 27, 1850 - December 20, 1921) was born in 1850 in Greifswald in a university professor's family, entered the Prussian army in 1868, fought in the Franco-German war of 1870 - 1871 and had a successful military career until his retirement in 1910. In that year he was ennobled by Emperor Wilhelm II. Beseler was recalled to active service and became commander of the third reserve corps in the German army when World War I broke out. In 1915 he was military Governor of German-occupied part of Congress Poland and served as such until the end of World War I.

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, 1914, 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, 1914, 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 the Spring of 1915, Beseler was sent to the Eastern Front with Gallwitz's 9th Army. 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 the country declared independence on November 11, 1918, and all German soldiers in Warsaw were disarmed, he fled in disguise to Germany. Hans von Beseler, 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, died in 1921 in Neu-Babelsberg near Potsdam.

[edit] Decorations

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