At the age of 16 he joined the Belgian 1st regiment of
Carabiniers as a volunteer. In 1886 Molitor won an appointment to the
Royal Military Academy in Brussels. He graduated in 1889, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the
2e régiment de Chasseurs à Pied. In 1900 he was assigned a job at the
Ministry of War and from 1906 to 1909 he was the
Batman of general Jacoby. In 1912 he was commissioned as major in the
Force Publique and in 1913 he was responsible for inspecting the military posts on the eastern border of the
Belgian Congo in the
Province Orientale. In 1913-14 he warned the Belgian government in a paper of what he called 'the German threat' in German East Africa and advised to reform and strengthen the Force Publique, while the colonial officials at that time stressed the importance of the neutrality of the Belgian Congo. In 1915 Molitor was assigned to form the
Brigade Nord which he was to command during the Tabora Offensive. At the end of April 1916 Molitor advanced to German East Africa, his brigade occupied
Kigali on 6 May 1916,
Biharamulo on 24 June and
St. Michaël on 21 August. His brigade faced supply difficulties, and because of the absence of a railway line from Kigali to Tabora, he was to advance at a slower pace than
Brigade Sud. In 1918 Molitor was appointed to reorganize the
Force Publique and was promoted to the rank of
major general. In 1919 he was sent back to Belgium and assumed command of the 5th infantry
division, in 1923 he was promoted to
lieutenant general and took command of the 1st infantry division. General Molitor retired in 1928. After his military career he continued to advocate the strengthening of the
Force Publique, mainly in the years prior to the second world war. Molitor strongly opposed
racial discrimination, calling racism «
une infirmité mentale». ==References==