Pre-WWI army career Moritz was born at the family estate of Ober Bellmannsdorf in the
Province of Silesia. He was the son of lord of the manor Moritz Freiherr on Bissing (1802–1860), a member of the landed gentry and Royal Prussian Chamberlain. On 1 October 1863, Bissing entered the
Prussian Army and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Silesian Dragoon Regiment No. 8 in 1865. He soon saw active service in the
Austro-Prussian War and the
Franco-Prussian War. Gaining steady promotion, in 1887 the young Major was appointed as an
aide-de-camp to the crown prince, who later became the
Emperor Wilhelm II. He served in the guards cavalry until 1897, when he was given command of the
29th Infantry Division. From 1901 to 1907 Bissing commanded the
VII Army Corps in
Münster. On 27 January 1902, he was promoted to
General of the Cavalry, and he retired from the army on 12 December 1907.
First World War Upon the outbreak of the
First World War, von Bissing was recalled to active duty as deputy commanding general of the
VII Army Corps, serving in that post from 2 August until November 1914. After the fall of
Belgium during the early months of the War, Bissing was promoted to
Generaloberst and appointed as
Governor-General of occupied Belgium, serving from December 1914 until a few days before his death in 1917. As governor-general, Bissing executed the German
Flamenpolitik, during which he netherlandized the
Ghent University to make it the first solely Dutch-speaking university in Belgium. As the German Chancellor
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg encouraged Flemish nationalist leaders to declare independence and to integrate into the German sphere, Bissing convened a commission to organise the division of Belgium, issuing a decree on 21 March 1917 which separated Belgium into two administrative areas, Flanders and Wallonia. This was the first attempt at dividing Belgium along linguistic lines. Taking into account the decision by Walloon nationalists in 1912 to recognize
Namur as the central city of Wallonia, Bissing established the Walloon administration there. Wallonia then consisted of four southern Belgian provinces and the district of Nivelles, part of the province of Brabant, thus realizing another revendication of the
Walloon movement, the creation of a Walloon Brabant. The Flemish region had
Brussels as its capital and was made up of the four northern provinces of Belgium, as well as the districts of Brussels and
Leuven. Among many others, Bissing signed the warrant for the execution of
Edith Cavell.
Association of Model Settlements for War-Damaged Freiherr von Bissing was the founder of the "Association of Model Settlements for War-Damaged" (
Verein Mustersiedlungen für Kriegsbeschädigte), whose aim it was to build settlements for in the war wounded and disabled soldiers and their families. In 1916, von Bissing donated land from the
Maximilian Graf von Spee's estate, which had previously been transferred to him. The settlement of Rheinisch-Bissingheim was to be built on this land. Around the same time, construction began on the Bissingheim settlement in Hagen. During the incorporation of surrounding areas into Hagen, the Bissingheim Damaschkehof was renamed Bissinghof. ==Death==