Ober Ost is short for
Oberbefehlshaber der gesamten Deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten, which is a German term meaning "Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East" during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. In practice it refers not only to said commander, but also to his governing military staff and the district they controlled - Ober Ost was in command of the Eastern front. After the Treaty of Brest it controlled
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
,
LatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , and to the southeast by Belarus . Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden...
,
EstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
, parts of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and
CourlandCourland is one of the cultural and historical regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
: former territories of
the Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Ober Ost is short for
Oberbefehlshaber der gesamten Deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten, which is a German term meaning "Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East" during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. In practice it refers not only to said commander, but also to his governing military staff and the district they controlled - Ober Ost was in command of the Eastern front. After the Treaty of Brest it controlled
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
,
LatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , and to the southeast by Belarus . Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden...
,
EstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
, parts of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and
CourlandCourland is one of the cultural and historical regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
: former territories of
the Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. The land it controlled was around 108,808 km². Ober Ost was created in 1914, and its first leader was
Paul von HindenburgPaul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a German field marshal and statesman....
, a Prussian military hero. When the Chief of the General Staff
Erich von FalkenhaynErich von Falkenhayn was a German soldier and Chief of the General Staff during World War I. He became a military writer after World War One.-Early life:...
was dismissed from office in 1916, von Hindenburg replaced him, and
Prince Leopold of BavariaLeopold Maximilian Joseph Maria Arnulf, Prinz von Bayern was born in Munich, the son of Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria and his wife Archduchess Augusta of Austria...
was given control of the Ober Ost.
Policies
Ober Ost ruled the land with an iron fist, in an effort to control the chaotic war torn land. The movement policy, or "Verkehrspolitik", divided the land without regard to the preexisting social and ethnic organization and patterns. One was not allowed to move between the districts, which destroyed the livelihood of many merchant Jews, and prevented indigenous people from visiting friends and relatives in neighboring districts.
They also tried to civilize the people in the Ober Ost controlled land, attempting to integrate German ideals and institutions with existing cultures. They brought in railroads, however only Germans were allowed to ride them, and the schools were taught by German instructors, since they had not trained Lithuanians.
Upon Ober Ost's inception in 1915,
Erich LudendorffErich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German Army officer, victor of Liège, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of the battle of Tannenberg. From August 1916 his appointment as Generalquartiermeister made him joint head of Germany's war effort...
, von Hindenburg's second in command, immediately set up a system of managing the large area under Ober Ost’s jurisdiction. Although von Hindenburg was technically in command, it was Ludendorff who was in control of the administration. There were ten staff members, each with a specialty (finance, agriculture, etc.), and the area itself was divided into the Courland District, the Lithuania District and
the Bialystok-Grodno DistrictBialystok-Grodno District was a portion of Ober Ost , which is a German term meaning "Supreme Command of All German Forces in the East". During World War I Ober Ost was in command of the Eastern front, most notably in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, parts of Poland, and Courland....
, each overseen by a district commander. Ludendorff's plan was to make Ober Ost a colonial territory for the settlement of his troops after the war, as well as provide a German haven for German refugees from inner Russia. In addition, Ludendorff quickly organized the Ober Ost so that it was a self sustaining region, growing all its own food, and even exporting excesses to Berlin. The largest resource was one that Ludendorff was unable to exploit without difficulty. The locals had no interest in helping obtain a German victory, as they had no say in their government, and were subject to increasing requisitions and taxes.
Parallels with Nazi German policy
Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius postulates in his book
War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I, that a line can be traced from Ober Ost's policies and assumptions to Nazi Germany's plan and attitudes towards Eastern Europe. His main argument is that "German troops developed a revulsion towards the 'East', and came to think of it as a timeless region beset by chaos, disease and barbarism", instead of what it really was, which was a region suffering from the ravages of warfare. He claims that the encounter with the East formed an idea of 'spaces and races' that needed to be "cleared and cleansed". Although he has garnered a great deal of evidence for his thesis, including government documents, letters and diaries, in both German and Lithuanian, there are still problems with his work. For example he does not say much about the reception of German policies by native populations. Also, "he makes almost no attempt to relate wartime occupation policies and practice in Ober Ost to those in Germany's colonial territories overseas".
Communication with locals
There were a great many problems with communication with indigenous persons within the Ober Ost. Among the upper class locals the soldiers could get by with French or German, and in large villages the Jewish populations would speak German or Yiddish, "which the Germans would somehow comprehend". But in the rural areas and amongst peasant populations soldiers had to rely on interpreters who spoke Latvian, Russian, or both. These language problems were not helped by the thinly stretched administrations, which would sometimes number 100 men administrating an area as large as Rhode Island. In addition the clergy were at times relied upon to spread messages to the masses, since this was an effective way of spreading a message to people who speak a different language. A young officer-administrator named Vagts relates that he listened (through a translator) to a sermon by a priest who tells his congregation to stay off highways after nightfall, hand in firearms, and not to have anything to do with Bolshevist agents, exactly as Vagts had told him to do earlier.
Administrative divisions
Wilna Administrative Area was a unit of administrative division of German-controlled territory of the Ober Ost. It bordered the so-called Southern Lithuania area to the south and Kaunas government precinct to the north. The area was formed roughly in the parts of former
Vilna GovernorateThe Vilnius Governorate or Government of Vilna was a governorate of the Russian Empire created after the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795...
and Suwałki Governorate of the Russian Empire.
Main military units in 1919
- the Tenth Army, Commanding Officer Erich von Falkenhayn
Erich von Falkenhayn was a German soldier and Chief of the General Staff during World War I. He became a military writer after World War One.-Early life:...
, Grodno
- the Heeresgruppe Kiew
Aftermath
The Germans started to withdraw from Ober-Ost around late 1918 and early 1919. In the vacuum left upon their retreat, a series of conflicts arose, as various ethnic groups (Poles, Balts, Ukrainians) tried to create their states, clashing with each others and with the various factions of the ongoing Russian Revolution.
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
commented: "The war of giants has ended, the wars of the pygmies began." For details, see:
- Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919, part of the Polish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, four states in post-World War I Europe. The war was the result of the belligerents' desire to expand their territories and their influence...
(the largest of the resulting conflicts)
- Ukrainian-Soviet War
The Ukrainian–Soviet War of 1917–21 was a military conflict between the Ukrainian People's Republic and pro-Bolshevik forces for the control of Ukraine after the dissolution of the Russian Empire.-Background:...
and Ukrainian-Polish War
- Estonian War of Independence, Latvian War of Independence, Lithuanian War of Independence
Further reading
- Stone, N (1975). The eastern front 1914-1917. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Davies, Norman
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies Fellow of the British Academy is a leading British historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Poland, Europe, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :Davies studied in Grenoble, France . He was a disciple of A. J. P...
(1972). White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War, 1919–20. (2004 edition: ISBN 0-7126-0694-7)