Beseler was born in
Greifswald,
Pomerania as the son of
Georg Beseler, then a law professor at the
University of Greifswald.
Military career He entered the
Prussian Army in 1868, fought in the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and had a successful military career until his retirement in 1910. Beseler was ennobled in 1904 by
William II, German Emperor. At the outbreak of
World War I in 1914, Beseler was brought out of retirement and given command of the
3rd Reserve Corps in the German
First Army led by Generaloberst
Alexander von Kluck. The
Imperial German Army took
Brussels on 20 August and the German command considered the Belgian Army defeated. The main force of the German armies marched toward
France, leaving the 3rd Reserve Corps behind. Beseler was ordered to take possession of the city of
Antwerp on 9 September. The
Siege of Antwerp ended on 10 October, when Antwerp's Mayor
Jan De Vos, surrendered the city. Beseler followed the Belgian army and was halted by
Allied (mainly Belgian) forces in the
Battle of the Yser (October 1914). In the spring of 1915, Beseler was sent to the
Eastern Front with
Max von Gallwitz's
9th Army. There he led the
successful siege of
Novogeorgievsk in August 1915.
Administrative career On 27 August 1915 Beseler was made Military Governor of the German-occupied part of the zone of
Polish lands, or
Congress Poland, and served as such until the end of the war. Beseler hoped to assemble three divisions of Polish volunteers for use by the Central Powers, and to this end wanted to present a "facade of independent Poland". His official title was Governor-general of . Beseler gave his support to the
Polish Border Strip plan, which would have seen mass expulsions of Poles and Jews from territory annexed by the German Empire from formerly Russian-held parts of Poland, and subsequent colonization of this area by German settlers. In November 1915, Beseler reopened the
University of Warsaw and the
Warsaw Polytechnic Institute and allowed the usage of the
Polish language at the university for the first time since 1869. Municipal councils were elected and the lower jurisdiction was organized by Polish locals. Despite these efforts, German intentions were transparent, and German rule was not well tolerated by the Poles. German calls for Polish volunteers produced disappointing results. Most Poles saw an Allied victory as the best hope for genuine independence. After the
Central Powers'
Act of 5th November of 1916 held out the prospect of limited Polish autonomy, Beseler stayed and still wielded real power as the General Governor of the
Government General of Warsaw, the German-occupied part of the
Kingdom of Poland, alongside the Austrian Governor General , who resided in
Lublin. Beseler was also the titular commander of the so-called
Polnische Wehrmacht. After the Act of 5 November was declared, he organized a ceremony in Warsaw's Royal Castle with such gestures as the unfurling of a Polish flag and the playing of the Polish national anthem; the event backfired as the Polish crowds started shouting "Out with the Germans!". After Poland declared independence on 11 November 1918 and all German soldiers in
Warsaw were disarmed, Beseler fled in disguise to Germany. A broken and disillusioned man, attacked by the German Conservatives and Nationalists as having been too liberal towards the Poles, but disliked in Poland for being too Prussian, Beseler died in 1921 in
Neubabelsberg near
Potsdam. He was buried at the
Invalidenfriedhof in
Berlin.
Ranks Berlin • 1870/71: Leutnant • 1875-06-15: Oberleutnant • 1882-04-18: Hauptmann • 1888-09-19: Major • 1893-10-17: Oberstleutnant • 1897-03-22: Oberst • 1900-01-27: Generalmajor • 1903-04-18: Generalleutnant • 1907-11-09: General der Infanterie • 1918-01-27: Generaloberst ==Decorations==