Zum Pazifisten. General Berthold Von Deimling – Eine Politische

Journal of Namibian Studies, 7 (2010): 123–126 ISSN: 1863-5954

Review: Kirsten Zirkel, Vom Militaristen Prussian officer corps and hence had no zum Pazifisten. General Berthold von privileged connections to the military Deimling – eine politische Biographie, establishment, Deimling advanced rap- Essen, Klartext, 2008. idly. Thus his career is a clear indication that the German army in the Wilhelmine period at least partly sponsored ad- Despite the fact that General Berthold vancement based on merit rather than von Deimling (1853-1944) was a very the right (usually aristocratic) pedigree well known and controversial figure in of young officers. By 1901 Deimling, Wilhelmine Germany and the Weimar now a lieutnant colonel, was head of Republic, today he is largely forgotten, one of the military operations depart- even among specialists in German ments of the German general staff (colonial) history. Deimling’s question- under Count von Schlieffen. This was able reputation prior to 1914 rested on one of the most promising positions the his highly successful military career, not German army could offer to younger least among his achievements was officers aiming for the highest posts. ending the Nama War in German South But Deimlings self-confidence and West Africa in 1906/7, and his standing individualism, which would be decisive as a hard core militarist and monarchist, factors throughout his life, soon ended who despised parliamentarianism and this chapter after he dared to contradict opposed any attempt to subject the Schlieffen when he criticised Deimling’s armed forces to civilian control. After skills in commanding troops. 1918 Deimling proved to be a pacifist and democrat. Kirsten Zirkel succeeds It was the Herero and Nama Wars in convincingly in reconciling these two German South-West Africa from 1904 to apparent opposites in his life in her 1907 which introduced Deimling to a elegantly written and excellently re- wider audience in Imperial Germany and searched biography. bestowed upon him the confidence of the emperor, thus giving his fledging Deimling was born in the Grand Duchy military career new impetus following his of Baden, a kind of democratic model removal from the general staff. Deimling state in 19th century Germany, into a was no old African hand who had built liberal minded family of pastors and civil his career on colonial service, but, like servants with no soldierly traditions. He most officers in the Imperial German started his military career in the army, he preferred to serve in Germany aftermath of the Franco-German war of and only volunteered for the colonies 1870/71, when the reputation of the when the major uprisings broke out. In Prussian army reached unprecedented 1904, promoted to colonel, he became heights. From the beginning he was an commander of a regiment sent from enthusiastic and extremely ambitious Germany to South-West Africa despite soldier, loyal to the core to the the fact that he had no overseas Hohenzollern monarchy. Despite the experience. He fought in the Battle of fact that he did not possess the the Waterberg in August 1904 under preferred social background of the the command of Lieutenant General

Lothar von Trotha. At the beginning of and financial resources. According to the Nama War in autumn 1904. Zirkel Deimling, in contrast to most Deimling took over the command of the other officers serving in German South German forces in the south of the West Africa, was neither a racist, nor colony. But again, as was the case on driven by any personal hatred towards manoeuvres under Schlieffen and during Africans who had dared to rise up the Battle of the Waterberg (and later in against the colonisers. Hence he was the First World War), Deimling proved to more liable to seek to resolve the be a less than perfect leader of troops conflict by negotiation rather than by at the front when he faced the Nama. subjugation. That Deimling decided to Here the book is somewhat disap- end the war in this way, as Zirkel argues pointing as the author does not really convincingly, cannot be seen as a first discuss the Deimling’s apparent short- indication of Deimling’s hidden pacifist comings as a front commander, nor tendencies which were to emerge after does she try to balance these failures the First World War. Deimling’s decision against other potential military qualities was simply a result of a sober (apart from Deimling’s repeatedly assessment of the military situation in mentioned “brennender Ehrgeiz”) which Namibia and the costs it would involve could explain his highly successful for Germany to continue the war. career as a soldier. In the end, the Deimling, promoted after the end of the Nama war helped Deimling’s career hostilities to the rank of major general, because in 1905/6, after having immediately returned to Germany as succeeded Trotha as the commander in pacified colonies did not offer military chief of all forces in South West Africa positions high enough to appeal to he defended uncompromisingly the ambitious and high-ranking officers like necessity to expand the budget for the him. war in Africa in the Reichstag. This The years 1907 to 1914 would make behaviour earned him the esteem of Deimling infamous in Germany as a Wilhelm II, who sent him back to Namibia ruthless commander in Baden and with the brief to end the war as soon as Alsace, the sensitive border region possible and by any means. This time between France and Germany. He Deimling’s preference for individual ranted against pacifism, warned against solutions and pursuing his own goals alleged planned French aggression and paid off: In September 1906, without he publicly accused the Alsatians of consulting Berlin he secretly brokered a lacking loyalty to Germany. Deimling’s peace with the Nama tribes using behaviour on the eve of the First World missionaries as mediators. He only War earned him few friends among the informed his superiors of the fait press, political parties or in the accompli but the emperor and the Reichstag, but it secured him the future secretary of state for the support of Wilhelm II, who made him colonies, Bernard Dernburg, were only commanding general of the Strasbourg too happy to have be rid of this army corps in 1913. Being a die-hard constant strain on Germany’s military defender of military prerogatives,

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Deimling played an important role in the 1919 Deimling joined the left-liberal Zabern affair in December 1913. This Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP), affair, named after the Alsatian town of thus connecting with his liberal Zabern, was the most telling conflict Badenese family roots which he had between the military and the civilian abandoned for decades after joining the authorities over who would have the Prussian army in 1871. He also became dominant influence in Germany during probably the best known representative peace times. As Zirkel makes plain by of the German peace movement, her meticulous research, the affair lobbying relentlessly for disarmament, would never have achieved such international cooperation, Germany’s nationwide notoriety, had not Deimling, entry into the League of Nations in the as the highest military authority in 1920s and from the mid-1920s Alsace, endorsed and even instigated onwards also occasionally for a general the high-handed behaviour of his decolonisation instead of the restitution officers towards the civilian population. of Germany’s former colonies, a claim Whereas many officers considered the still popular even within the DDP. Zirkel inhabitants of this province to be pro- compares him with the few other known French and thus unpatriotic, the German examples of officers who underwent a civilian authorities in Alsace tried to metamorphosis into democrats and calm the situation and protect the pacifists after 1918, such as Hans inhabitants from intimidation by the Paasche or Paul von Schoenaich. She military. finds some similarities in their lives, The First World War would be the notably a strong individualism already turning point in Deimling’s military apparent during their military careers, career. As a commander on the Western the courage to take unconventional Front he repeatedly ordered attacks decisions and previous clashes with the without consulting his superiors. Worse, military establishment resulting in career these resulted in most cases in military setbacks. setbacks with many pointless casualties The fact that Deimling was a converted for the units involved. Therefore the general made him an important spokes- German high command under Hinden- man of pacifism and republicanism, burg and Ludendorf forced him to retire drawing huge crowds to his speeches in in 1917. This humiliating experience public. But this stance also attracted the combined with the fact that Wilhelm II hatred of his former army comrades went to exile in November 1918 without who excluded him from all veterans’ putting up a fight to preserve the organisations. It would also result in his throne, transformed Deimling pro- complete silencing in the Third Reich foundly. He would become one of the although he escaped direct political very few staunch supporters of the persecution due to the fact that he was Weimar Republic among the high now too old to pose a threat to the ranking officers of the former imperial regime and because he had not army which also helped to keep him in exercised a political office after 1918. the public domain in the new era. In Deimling, as an arch-militarist and

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monarchist turned pacifist and end of the book about Deimling’s long democrat, was certainly a cause celebre and apparently very happy marriage in Weimar Germany. But at the same and that he had fathered two children. time his influence remained limited as Nevertheless the two extremes into Zirkel clearly shows. Not only did the which his Deimling’s life seemed to have DDP decline rapidly after 1920 but the fallen plausibly reconciled in this peace movement in Weimar Germany engaging book. According to Zirkel also always remained a marginal Deimling’s transformation in 1918/19 phenomenon. Deimling himself never was a logical outcome of his character could shake off the military socialisation traits which he had developed from his which had left its imprint on him for early days on and not the result of a more than 40 years. Still under the spell split personality. The protagonist comes of the Wilhelmine soldier’s deep mistrust alive as being idiosyncratic, self-confi- of any thing that smacked of politics, dent, ambitious, hard-working and eager Deimling, like most of the other pacifist to attract publicity. At the same time he officers after 1918, never aspired to lacked diplomatic and intellectual subtlety any leading political posts in the DDP, in and had difficulties relating to other the peace movement or as an MP. His people. He was essentially a loner, strong individualism and often whether in his life as a soldier or as a idiosyncratic views on various political campaigner for peace and democracy. issues also limited his influence in the organisations he had subscribed to. Eckard Michels Zirkels’ biography endeavours admira- Birkbeck College, London bly to do justice to such a difficult and, at first sight, not very pleasant character as Deimling. She neither glorifies him nor does she take away his dignity as a historical personality. In the chapters dealing with the years after 1918 she occasionally overplays Deimling’s historical importance. But this is the pitfall of every biographer who has to plead the case for a historical personality who is largely forgotten today but who has left a large paper trail in the archives suggesting a very significant role back then. The reviewer would have liked some more information about the personal life of Deimling even though the sources on this aspect are sparse according to Zirkel. To give an example: the reader is only informed in passing towards the

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