View source for Ober Ost

{{Short description|Administrator of the Imperial German occupational forces on the Eastern Front of WWI}}
{{Infobox country
|native_name  = {{native name|de|Oberbefehlshaber der gesamten Deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten}}
|conventional_long_name= Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East
|common_name  = Ober Ost<!-- no formatting for category sorting -->
|image_flag   = War Ensign of Germany 1903-1918.svg
|flag         = List of German flags#German Empire (1871–1918)
|image_coat   = Wappen Deutsches Reich - Reichsadler 1889.svg
|symbol       = Coat of arms of Germany
|image_map    = OberOstMap.png
|image_map_caption =
|
|year_start   = 1914
|year_end     = 1919
|era          = World War I
|status       = Military occupation
|empire       = German Empire
|status_text  = Military occupation authority of the [[German Empire]]
|p1           = Governorate of Livonia
|flag_p1      = Coat of arms of Governorate of Livonia.svg
|border_p1    = no
|p2           = Courland Governorate
|flag_p2      = Coat of arms of Governorate of Courland.svg
|border_p2    = no
|p3           = Kovno Governorate
|flag_p3      = Coat of arms of Governorate of Kovno.svg
|border_p3    = no
|p4           = Vilna Governorate
|flag_p4      = Coat of arms of Governorate of Vilna.svg
|border_p4    = no
|p5           = Grodno Governorate
|flag_p5      = Coat of arms of Grodno Governorate 1878.svg
|border_p5    = no
|p6           = Suwałki Governorate
|flag_p6      = Coat of arms of Suwalki Governorate 1869.svg
|border_p6    = no
|s1           = Government General of Warsaw
|flag_s1      = Flag of the German Empire.svg
|s2           = Military General Government of Lublin
|flag_s2      =
|s3           = Kingdom of Poland (1916–18){{!}}Kingdom of Poland
|flag_s3      = Flag of Poland.svg
|s4           = Ukrainian People's Republic
|flag_s4      = Flag of Ukraine (1917–1921).svg
|s5           = Kingdom of Lithuania (1918){{!}}Kingdom of Lithuania
|flag_s5      = Flag of Lithuania (1918).svg
|s6           = Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1918){{!}}Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
|flag_s6      = Flag of Courland (state).svg
|s7           = Belarusian People's Republic
|flag_s7      = Flag of Belarus (1918, 1991–1995).svg
|s8           = United Baltic Duchy
|flag_s8      = Baltic Flag.svg
|date_start   =
|event_start  =
|date_end     =
|event_end    =
|event1       = [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]
|date_event1  = 3 March 1918
|event2       = [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|German surrender]]
|date_event2  = 11 November 1918
|title_leader = [[Commander-in-chief|Supreme Commander]]
|leader1      = [[Paul von Hindenburg]]
|year_leader1 = 1914–1916
|leader2      = [[Prince Leopold of Bavaria]]
|year_leader2 = 1916–1918
|title_deputy = [[Chief of Staff]]
|deputy1      = [[Erich Ludendorff]]
|year_deputy1 = 1914–1916
|deputy2      = [[Max Hoffmann]]
|year_deputy2 = 1916–1918
|common_languages = [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Latvian language|Latvian]]
|capital      = [[Königsberg]] <small>(HQ, 1919)</small>{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}
|currency     = {{Plainlist}}
* [[German ostmark|German {{lang|de|Ostmark|nocat=y}}]]
* [[German ostrubel|German {{lang|de|Ostrubel|nocat=y}}]]
{{Endplainlist}}
|today = [[Latvia]]<br/>[[Lithuania]]<br/>[[Poland]]<br/>[[Belarus]]
}}
[[File:65b1c6c25141a4.38944459-original.jpg|thumb|This is a 2 kopek coin (2 КОПѢЙКИ) from Ober Ost, 1916]]
{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{lang|de|Ober Ost|nocat=y}}}}
The '''Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East''' ({{langx|de|Oberbefehlshaber der gesamten Deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten}}), also known by its German abbreviation as '''{{lang|de|Ober Ost}}''', was both a high-ranking position in the [[German Army (German Empire)|armed forces]] of the [[German Empire]] as well as the name given to the occupied territories on the German section of the [[Eastern Front of World War I]], with the exception of Poland.{{efn|Under the authority of the  [[Government General of Warsaw]] after October 1915.}} It encompassed the former [[Russian Empire|Russian]] governorates of [[Governorate of Courland|Courland]], [[Grodno Governorate|Grodno]], [[Vilna Governorate|Vilna]], [[Kovno Governorate|Kovno]] and [[Suwałki Governorate|Suwałki]]. It was governed in succession by [[Paul von Hindenburg]] and [[Prince Leopold of Bavaria]]. It was abandoned after the end of [[World War I]].
==Extension==
{{lang|de|Ober Ost}} was set up by Kaiser [[Wilhelm II]] in November 1914, initially under the command of [[Paul von Hindenburg]], a [[Prussia]]n general who had come out of retirement to achieve the [[German Empire|German]] victory of the [[Battle of Tannenberg]] in August 1914 and became a national hero. When the [[Chief of the General Staff (Germany)|Chief of the General Staff]] [[Erich von Falkenhayn]] was dismissed from office by the Kaiser in August 1916, Hindenburg took over at the General Staff, and [[Prince Leopold of Bavaria]] took control of the {{lang|de|Ober Ost}}.
By October 1915, the [[German Army (German Empire)|Imperial German Army]] had advanced so far to the east that central [[Poland]] could be put under a civil administration. Accordingly, the German Empire established the [[Government General of Warsaw]] and the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]] set up the [[Military Government of Lublin|Government General of Lublin]]. The military ''Ober Ost'' government from then on controlled only the conquered areas east and north of central Poland.
After the signing of the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] of March 1918, the {{lang|de|Ober Ost}} effectively spanned present-day [[Lithuania]], [[Latvia]], [[Belarus]], parts of [[Poland]], and [[Courland]], all of which had been part of the [[Russian Empire]].{{sfn|Figes|1998|pp= xxiii, 548}}
==Policies==
[[File:Ober Ost.JPG|thumb|Postage stamps from ''Ober Ost'']]
{{lang|de|Ober Ost}} governed in a very strict and often cruel way. The movement policy ({{lang|de|Verkehrspolitik}}) divided the territory without regard to the existing social and ethnic organization and patterns. Movement between the districts was forbidden, which destroyed the livelihood of many merchants and prevented people from visiting friends and relatives in neighboring districts.<ref name="Gettman">{{cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/worldwar1.htm|title=The Baltic Region during WWI|last=Gettman|first=Erin|date=June 2002|access-date=2008-03-02}}</ref> The Germans also tried to "civilize" the people in the ''Ober Ost''-controlled land, attempting to integrate German ideals and institutions<ref name="Gettman"/> with the existing cultures. They constructed railroads but only Germans were allowed to ride them and schools were established and staffed with German instructors.<ref name="Koehl">{{cite journal|last=Koehl|first=Robert Lewis|date=October 1953|title=A Prelude to Hitler's Greater Germany|journal=The American Historical Review|volume=59|issue=1|pages=43–65|doi=10.2307/1844652|jstor=1844652}}</ref>
In 1915, when large territories came under ''Ober Ost''{{'}}s administration as a result of military successes on the Eastern Front, [[Erich Ludendorff]], von Hindenburg's second-in-command, set up a system of managing the large area now under its jurisdiction. Although von Hindenburg was technically in command, Ludendorff had actual control of the administration. There were ten staff members, each with a specialty (finance, agriculture, etc.). The area was divided into the [[Courland District]], the [[Lithuania District]] and the [[Bialystok-Grodno District]], 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 and to provide a haven for German refugees from Russia.<ref name="Koehl"/> Ludendorff quickly organized ''Ober Ost'' so that it was a self-sustaining region, growing all its own food and even exporting surpluses to Berlin. The largest resource was one that Ludendorff was unable to exploit effectively: the local population had no interest in helping obtain a German victory, as it had no say in the government and was subject to increasing requisitions and taxes.<ref name="Koehl"/>
==Communication with locals==
There were many problems with communication with local persons within the {{lang|de|Ober Ost}}. Among the upper-class locals, the soldiers could get by with [[French language|French]] or [[German language|German]], and in large villages, the Jewish population would speak German or [[Yiddish]], "which the Germans would somehow comprehend".<ref name="Vagts">{{cite journal|last=Vagts|first=Alfred|date=Spring 1943|title=A memoir of Military Occupation|journal=Military Affairs|volume=7|issue=1|pages=16–24|doi=10.2307/1982990|jstor=1982990}}</ref> In the rural areas and amongst [[peasant]] populations soldiers had to rely on interpreters who spoke [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Latvian (language)|Latvian]] or [[Polish language|Polish]].<ref name="Vagts"/> The language problems were not helped by the thinly-stretched administrations, which would sometimes number 100 men in areas as large as [[Luxembourg]].<ref name="Vagts"/> The [[clergy]] at times had to be relied upon to spread messages to the masses since that was an effective way of spreading a message to people who speak a different language.<ref name="Vagts"/> A young officer-administrator named {{lang|de|Vagts}} related that he listened (through a translator) to a sermon by a [[priest]] who told his congregation to stay off highways after nightfall, hand in firearms and not to have anything to do with [[Bolshevist]] agents, exactly as {{lang|de|Vagts}} had told him to do earlier.<ref name="Vagts"/>
==Russian Revolution==
The uncertain situation caused by the Russian [[October Revolution]] in 1917 and the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] in March 1918 made some indigenes elect [[Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg]] as head of the [[United Baltic Duchy]] and the [[Mindaugas II of Lithuania|second duke of Urach]] as king of Lithuania, but those plans collapsed in November 1918.
==Administrative divisions==
The {{lang|de|Ober Ost}} was divided into three {{lang|de|Verwaltungsgebiete}} (administrative territories): {{lang|de|[[Courland|Kurland]]}}, {{lang|de|[[Lithuania District|Litauen]]}}, and {{lang|de|[[Bialystok-Grodno District|Bialystok-Grodno]]}}. Each was, like Germany proper, subdivided into {{lang|de|Kreise}} (districts); {{lang|de|Landkreise}} (rural districts) and {{lang|de|Stadtkreise}} (urban districts). In 1917 the following districts existed:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://territorial.de/oberost/kreise.htm|title=Kreise im Generalgouvernement Warschau 1917|website=territorial.de|access-date=2019-12-21}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable" lang="de"
|-
! scope="col" | '''Bialystok-Grodno'''
! scope="col" | '''Kurland'''
|-
| Alekszyce || Bauske
|-
| Bialystok, Stadtkreis || Doblen
|-
| Bialystok, Landkreis || Goldingen
|-
| Bielsk || Grobin
|-
| Grodno, Stadtkreis || Hasenpot
|-
| Grodno, Landkreis || Libau, Stadtkreis
|-
| Lida, Stadtkreis || Mitau, Landkreis
|-
| Ost || Talsen
|-
| Planty || Tuckum
|-
| Radun || Windau
|-
| Sokolka ||
|-
| Swislocz ||
|-
| Wasilischky ||
|-
| Wolkowysk ||
|}
{| class="wikitable" lang="de"
|-
! colspan="2" | '''Litauen'''
|-
| Augustow || Rossienie
|-
| Birshi || Russisch-Krottingen
|-
| [[Joniškėlis|Johanischkele]] || Saldugischki
|-
| Kiejdany || Schaulen
|-
| Koschedary || Schirwinty
|-
| Kowno, Stadtkreis || Sejny
|-
| Kowno, Landkreis || Siady
|-
| Kupzischki || Skaudwile
|-
| Kurszany || Suwalki
|-
| Maljaty || Telsze
|-
| Mariampol || Uzjany
|-
| Okmjany || Wiezajcie
|-
| Olita || Wilkomierz
|-
| Podbrodzie || Wilna, Stadtkreis
|-
| Pojurze || Wilna, Landkreis
|-
| Poniewiez || Wladislawow
|-
| Rakischki || Wylkowyschki
|}
The total area was {{convert|108,808|km2|abbr=on}}, containing a population of 2,909,935 (by the end of 1916).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.brest-litowsk.libau-kurland-baltikum.de/Ober-Ost/ober-ost.html|title=Ober Ost (Kurland, Litauen, Bialystok-Grodno) 1917|website=www.brest-litowsk.libau-kurland-baltikum.de|access-date=2019-12-21}}</ref>
==Main military units in 1919==
* the [[10th Army (German Empire)|10th Army]] ({{lang|de|10. Armee}} or {{lang|de|Armeeoberkommando 10}}), Commanding Officer {{lang|de|[[Erich von Falkenhayn]]}}, [[Grodno]]
* the [[Army Group Mackensen (Poland)|Army Group Mackensen]] ({{lang|de|Heeresgruppe Kiew}})
==Aftermath==
With the end of the war and collapse of the empire, the Germans started to withdraw, sometimes in a piecemeal and disorganized way, from {{lang|de|Ober Ost}} around late 1918 and early 1919.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1dt1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA65|title=Civil War in Central Europe, 1918-1921: The Reconstruction of Poland|last=Böhler|first=Jochen|date=2019|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-879448-6|pages=65|language=en}}</ref> In the vacuum left by their retreat, conflicts arose as various former occupied nations declared independence, clashing with the various factions of the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]] and subsequent [[Russian Civil War|Civil War]], and with each other. For details, see:
*[[Soviet westward offensive of 1918–19]], part of the [[Polish–Soviet War]] (the largest of the resulting conflicts)
*[[Ukrainian–Soviet War]] and [[Polish–Ukrainian War]]
*[[Estonian War of Independence]]
*[[Latvian War of Independence]]
*[[Lithuanian Wars of Independence]]
==Parallels with Nazi German policy==
The Lithuanian historian Vėjas Gabrielius Liulevičius 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 {{lang|de|Ober Ost}}{{'}}s policies and assumptions to [[Nazi Germany]]'s plans 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, a region suffering from the ravages of warfare.<ref name="Gatrell">{{cite journal|last1=Gatrell|first1=Peter|last2=Liulevicius|first2=Vejas Gabriel|year=2001|title=Review of War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I|journal=Slavic Review|volume=60|issue=4|pages=844–845|doi=10.2307/2697514|jstor=2697514}}</ref> He claims that the encounter with the East formed an idea of "spaces and races", which 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 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.<ref name="Gatrell"/> Also, he "makes almost no attempt to relate wartime occupation policies and practice in {{lang|de|Ober Ost}} to those in Germany's [[German colonial empire|colonial territories overseas]]".<ref name="Gatrell"/>
==See also==
* {{lang|de|[[Lebensraum]]}}
* {{lang|de|[[Reichskommissariat Ostland]]}}
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
===Sources===
* {{cite book|last=Figes|first=Orlando|year=1998|title=A People's Tragedy: the Russian Revolution, 1891–1924|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|location=[[New York City|New York]]|isbn=0-670-85916-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestragedyhi00fige }}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Davies|first=Norman|orig-year=1972|year=2003|title=White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish–Soviet War, 1919–20|edition=2nd|publisher=[[Random House]]|location=[[London]]|isbn=0-7126-0694-7}}
* {{cite journal|first=M. R.|last=Schwonek|title=Book Reviews: ''War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I'' by Vejas, Gabriel Liulevicius|journal=The Journal of Military History|volume=65|number=1|date=January 2001|pages=212–213|publisher=Virginia Military Institute and the George C. Marshall Foundation|location=[[Lexington, Virginia]]|doi=10.2307/2677470|jstor=2677470|issn=0899-3718|url=http://www.h-net.org/review/hrev-a0b9m4-aa }}
* {{cite book|last=Stone|first=Norman|year=1975|title=The Eastern Front, 1914–1917|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York|isbn=978-0-68414-492-4}}
{{World War I}}
{{Coord|52|13|59|N|21|01|12|E|display=title}}
[[Category:German Empire in World War I]]
[[Category:1910s in Lithuania]]
[[Category:Poland in World War I]]
[[Category:1910s in Belarus]]
[[Category:Baltic-German history]]
[[Category:1914 establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:1919 disestablishments in Europe]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1914]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1919]]
[[Category:German military occupations]]
[[Category:Lithuania in the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:German involvement in the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:1910s in Latvia]]