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Hans von Beseler

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"HANS VON BESELER (1850-), Prussian general and governor of Poland during the German occupation, was born April 27 1850 at Greifswald. He was one of those generals who, after having been placed upon the retired list, were recalled in 1914 to assume important commands. He conducted the siege of Antwerp, which he occupied on Oct. 9 1914. In 1915 he was employed on the eastern front, and on Aug. 19 of that year took Novogeorgievsk. From Aug. 27 1915 to Nov. 1918 he was German governor-general of Poland at Warsaw, in which capacity he endeavoured with diminishing success to organize a form of Polish national government and representation under German auspices, as also to form a Polish army under German control. The Armistice and the German Revolution put an end to the complicated attempts of Beseler and the Austrians to arrive at a modus vivendi with regard to Poland's political and territorial destiny. The revolutionary Soldiers' Councils asserted themselves, and the German governor-general with the German troops of occupation left the country.