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148-413: In German military history , Bandenbekämpfung ( lit.   ' "bandit-fighting" or "combating of bandits"; English equivalent of "anti-partisan operations" ' ), also referred to as Nazi security warfare during World War II , refers to the concept and military doctrine of countering resistance or insurrection in the rear area during wartime with extreme brutality. The doctrine provided

296-573: A humiliating settlement that reduced the size of the country by half. The Electorate of Hanover , up till the Convention of Artlenburg ruled in personal union by the English King George III , was incorporated into Prussia. The King's German Legion formed in Britain from officers and soldiers of the dissolved Hanoverian Army , was the only army of a German state that was continually fighting

444-548: A "desperate surprise attack". The timing of their attack was carefully planned. After successfully asking a large Herero clan to surrender their weapons, Governor Leutwein was convinced that they and the rest of the native population were essentially pacified and so withdrew half of the German troops stationed in the colony. Led by Chief Samuel Maharero , the Herero surrounded Okahandja and cut railroad and telegraph links to Windhoek ,

592-458: A German trader named Dietrich was walking from his homestead to the nearby town of Omaruru to buy a new horse. Halfway to Dietrich's destination, a wagon carrying the son of a Herero chief, his wife, and their son stopped by. In a common courtesy in Hereroland, the chief's son offered Dietrich a ride. That night, however, Dietrich got very drunk and after everyone was asleep, he attempted to rape

740-668: A Saxon army at Lobositz . Frederick would then invade Bohemia, the Prussians besieged Prague , but they were defeated at Kolin . Since Prussia looked vulnerable, the Austrians and French invaded Prussian lands. However, the French were defeated at Rossbach and the Austrians at Leuthen . In 1758, Frederick the Great tried to invade Austria, but he failed. Now, the Russians tried to defeat the Prussians, but

888-848: A campaign of racial extermination and collective punishment that the German Empire undertook in German South West Africa (modern-day Namibia ) against the Herero and Nama people . During World War I , the Imperial German Army ignored many of the commonly-understood European conventions of war when between August and October 1914, some 6,500 French and Belgian citizens were murdered. On some occasions, attacks against German infantry positions and patrols that may have actually been attributable to " friendly fire " were blamed on potential francs-tireurs , who were regarded as bandits and outside

1036-571: A centralized general staff and a professional officer corps. Following Napoleon's defeat in Russia , Prussia, Austria and a few other German states saw their chance and joined the anti-French forces in the Sixth Coalition , which won a decisive victory over France at Leipzig in 1813 and forced the abdication of Napoleon. Although declared an outlaw by the Congress of Vienna , Napoleon returned and met

1184-516: A civil war to defend his title. He defended his title and owed the Pope for acknowledging him and helping him retain his title. For this, Emperor Frederick passed the Golden Bull of Eger in which he made concessions to the church. In 1244, the war of Flemish Succession broke out with two counties, one German and one French, arguing over who was to succeed Margaret II, Countess of Flanders . The conflict

1332-798: A couple months prior to Gottberg's exploits— Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring had ordered "anti-bandit warfare" in Army Group Rear Area Centre, which was shortly followed by an OKH Directive on 11 November 1942 for "anti-bandit warfare in the East" that announced sentimental considerations as "irresponsible" and instructed the men to shoot or preferably hang bandits, including women. Misgivings from commanders within Army Group Rear that such operations were counterproductive and in poor taste, since women and children were also being murdered, went ignored or resisted from Bach-Zelewski, who frequently "cited

1480-502: A crime that the German judges and prosecutors were reluctant to punish. In 1890 Maharero's son, Samuel , signed a great deal of land over to the Germans in return for helping him to ascend to the Ovaherero throne, and to subsequently be established as paramount chief. German involvement in ethnic fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894. In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of

1628-520: A crusade would end, the Hussite armies go on "Beautiful Rides" and would invade the lands where the crusaders were from. One such place was Saxony. After Žižka's death in 1424, the Hussite armies were led by Prokop the Great to another victory at the Battle of Tachov in 1427. The Hussites repeatedly invaded central German lands, though they made no attempt at permanent occupation, and at one point made it all of

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1776-410: A feeling of resentment towards the Germans on the part of the Herero people, which escalated to hopelessness when they saw that German officials were sympathetic to the moneylenders who were about to lose what they were owed. Racial tension was also at play. The German settlers often referred to black Africans as "baboons" and treated them with contempt. One missionary reported: "The real cause of

1924-512: A final defeat at the hands of Blücher and Wellington at Waterloo in 1815. Herero and Nama genocide In August 1904, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Ovaherero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke , where most of them died of dehydration . In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans, only to suffer a similar fate. Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama were killed in

2072-546: A fraught relationship with their neighbours, leading to a period of over two millennia of military conflict over various territorial, religious, ideological and economic concerns. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (also referred as the First German Empire) emerged from the kingdom in the eastern part of Francia called Carolingian Empire at the time (first polity of Germany) in 962 after its division between

2220-472: A group of cattle herders who migrated into what is now Namibia during the mid-18th century. The Herero seized vast swathes of the arable upper plateaus which were ideal for cattle grazing. Agricultural duties, which were minimal, were assigned to enslaved Khoisan and Bushmen . Over the rest of the 18th century, the Herero slowly drove the Khoisan into the dry, rugged hills to the south and east. The Hereros were

2368-500: A new wave of Europeans into the area. Historian Horst Drechsler states that there was discussion of the possibility of establishing and placing the Herero in native reserves and that this was further proof of the German colonists' sense of ownership over the land. Drechsler illustrates the gap between the rights of a European and an African; the Reichskolonialbund (German Colonial League) held that, in regards to legal matters,

2516-464: A pastoral people whose entire way of life centred on their cattle. The Herero language , while limited in its vocabulary for most areas, contains more than a thousand words for the colours and markings of cattle. The Hereros were content to live in peace as long as their cattle were safe and well-pastured, but became formidable warriors when their cattle were threatened. According to Robert Gaudi, "The newcomers, much taller and more fiercely warlike than

2664-414: A protection treaty on 21 October 1885 with Imperial Germany 's colonial governor Heinrich Ernst Göring (father of Hermann Göring ) but did not cede the land of the Herero. This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against Witbooi but it was reinstated in 1890. The Herero leaders repeatedly complained about violation of this treaty, as Herero women and girls were raped by Germans ,

2812-651: A rabble of 'half-naked savages.' Cries in the Reichstag , and from the Kaiser himself, for total eradication of the Hereros grew strident. When a leading member of the Social Democratic Party pointed out that the Hereros were as human as any German and possessed immortal souls, he was howled down by the entire conservative side of the legislature." Leutwein was forced to request reinforcements and an experienced officer from

2960-524: A railway line and set up reservations where they would be concentrated. The Herero had already ceded more than a quarter of their 130,000 km (50,000 sq mi) territory to German colonists by 1903, before the Otavi railway line running from the African coast to inland German settlements was completed. Completion of this line would have made the German colonies much more accessible and would have ushered

3108-574: A rationale for disregarding the established laws of war and for targeting any number of groups, from armed guerrillas to civilians, as "bandits" or "members of gangs". As applied by the German Empire and later Nazi Germany , it became instrumental in the crimes against humanity committed by the two regimes, including the Herero and Nama genocide and the Holocaust . Historian Alex J. Kay estimates that around one million civilians may have died as

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3256-501: A result of German anti-partisan warfare—excluding actual partisans—among the 13 to 14 million people murdered by the Nazis during World War II. According to historian and television documentary producer, Christopher Hale, there are indications that the term Bandenbekämpfung may go back as far as the Thirty Years' War . Under the German Empire established by Otto von Bismarck in 1871 after

3404-505: A river. Leaderless, panicked and attacked on all sides, only a tiny fraction of the original forces continued onward. Towards the end of the twelfth century in 1198, there was the beginning of the German Throne Dispute . Henry VI died unexpectedly and there was a succession crisis. The direction of the empire was under scrutiny and was altered by the princes of the empire. The result was a conflict that lasted almost 17 years before

3552-728: A siege came from different areas of society. There were some nobles, some knights, the kings personal men, as well as the vast majority being peasant farmers conscripted into fighting. Siege warfare in effect was the way in which war was fought in Germany during the Middle Ages; this led to advances in medieval military technology. With the use of sieges as the primary means of middle age warfare, there were changes in military technology that facilitated fighting this differing kind of warfare. That being said, advances in technology did not mean that old technology became immediately obsolete. One such advance

3700-835: A significant impact on German operations in the East; namely, since they caused "widespread economic disruption, tied down manpower which could have been deployed elsewhere, and by instilling fear and provoking extreme countermeasures, drove a wedge between occupiers and occupied". Following the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944, the Nazis intensified their anti-partisan operations in Poland, during which German forces employed their version of anti-partisan tactics by shooting upwards of 120,000 civilians in Warsaw. Ideologically speaking, since partisans represented an immediate existential threat, in that, they were equated with Jews or people under their influence,

3848-507: A sovereign Teutonic Order state . Their conflict of interests with the Polish-Lithuanian state lead in 1410 to Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) where a Polish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive defeat and broke its military power, although the Order withstood the following Siege of Marienburg and managed to retain most of its territories. In 1212, Emperor Frederick was forced to fight

3996-532: A strategic objective for Christendom . Mostly, the defense of territory gained in conquest against Muslims in the Holy Land . However, it's possible some could have been built in the Prussian Crusade in the 13th century. This all changed with the influence of gunpowder weapons as used during sieges. The tactics of the Middle Ages varied greatly. A large amount of tactics were still based on Roman ideas. Such as

4144-617: A threat by the Bishop of Minden . The Battle took place at the abandoned village of Sedemuender. The result was the total defeat of the townsfolk. In 1311, Reichskrieg , (Imperial War) a war between the Holy Roman Empire and the Count of Württemberg broke out. The Count, Eberhard , was upset that the imperial Ban was placed on him for the way he handles a court case and crisis around his duties as Landvogt (Military Protector). In 1361,

4292-516: A title of nobility bestowed on people by the local lord. Following this, the title of Ritter was generally passed in a hereditary fashion until the end of the noble line. After which, the title and its holdings would revert to the lord to give out to someone else. Ritter's were considered the elite of the German military as their entire goal was to practice for war. They did this by competing in tournaments to keep themselves practiced. A Ritter would be considered of this lowest nobility but were considered

4440-512: A treatment which, during the uprising, was regularly extended to German soldiers and civilians, "We came across a few Khoisan whom of course we killed. I myself helped to kill one of them. First we cut off his ears, saying, 'You will never hear Herero cattle lowing.' Then we cut off his nose, saying, 'Never again shall you smell Herero cattle.' And then we cut off his lips, saying, 'You shall never again taste Herero cattle.' And finally we cut his throat." According to Robert Gaudi, "Leutwein knew that

4588-648: A war between the Hanseatic League and the Danes broke out. The Hanseatic League won when they conquered Copenhagen . The war lasted nine years and resulted in the Treaty of Stralsund . In 1393, the " Vitalienbrüder ", or the " Victual Brothers " harassed the Hansa and other ships on the Baltic and North Seas . The pirates were brutal and by 1393 the only way for cargo ships to travel

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4736-462: Is crowned Holy Roman Emperor including his dominions in Germany which he gained through military conquest of Saxon tribes . Through the ninth Century, after the death of Charlemagne in 814, the empire was split in the Treaty of Verdun in 843. This created the kingdoms of France , Germany , and Lombardy . Following the Treaty of Verdun, in 870 there was the Treaty of Meerssen . This treaty replaced

4884-453: Is the use of secrecy in Henry II in 1004 against Bohemians , which gave Henry the element of surprise so that he was successful in his campaign. Another strategy, employed primarily by knights, was to ravage the countryside and force people to submit when they run out of supplies. The vast majority of these tactics were learned from Roman times in surviving works. In the year 800, Charlemagne

5032-722: Is today modern eastern Germany. The following year in 908, the Hungarians scored another victory at the Battle of Eisenach and continued to ravage the German countryside and demand tribute from local lords. This trend was reversed with the First Battle of Lechfeld in 910 when the Imperial Army led by Otto I. defeated the Hungarian invaders. From 919–36, the Germanic peoples ( Franks , Saxons , Swaben and Bavarians ) were united under Henry

5180-429: The 18th Panzer Division were instructed likewise on 4 August 1941. Nearly always, these genocidal measures were "camouflaged" in reports by coded formalised language, using terms like Aktion , Sonderbehandlung (special handling), or Umsiedlung (relocated). From September 1941 onwards through the course of World War II, the term Bandenbekämpfung supplanted Partisanenkämpfung ( anti-partisan warfare ) to become

5328-697: The Boxer Rebellion . The Kaiser took it as a personal insult from a people he viewed as racially inferior, all the more because of his obsession with the " Yellow Peril ". On 27 July 1900, the Kaiser gave the infamous Hunnenrede (Hun speech) in Bremerhaven to German soldiers being sent to Imperial China , ordering them to show the Boxers no mercy and to behave like Attila 's Huns . General von Trotha had served in China, and

5476-667: The Confederation of the Rhine following the battle of Austerlitz in 1805. Essentially this enlarged the more powerful states of the region by absorbing the smaller ones , creating a set of buffer states for France and a source of army conscripts. Neither of the two largest German-speaking states were part of this confederation: the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire remained outside it. King Frederick William III of Prussia viewed

5624-728: The Franco-Prussian War —formed as a union of twenty-five German states under the Hohenzollern king of Prussia — Prussian militarism flourished; martial traditions that included the military doctrine of Antoine-Henri Jomini 's 1837 treatise, Summary of the Art of War , were put into effect. Some of the theories laid out by Jomini contained instructions for intense offensive operations and the necessity of securing one's "lines of operations". German military officers took this to mean as much attention should be given to logistical operations used to fight

5772-626: The Government General of Warsaw over former Congress Poland under General Hans von Beseler and created an infrastructure to support ongoing military operations, including guard posts, patrols, and a security network. Maintaining security meant dealing with Russian prisoners, many of whom tried to sabotage German plans and kill German soldiers, so harsh pacification measures and terror actions were carried out, including brutal reprisals against civilians, who were subsequently labeled as bandits. Before long, similar practices were instituted throughout

5920-567: The Herero Wars that began in 1904. Major Theodor Leutwein , the Governor of German South West Africa , was well aware of the effect of the German colonial rule on Hereros. He later wrote: "The Hereros from early years were a freedom-loving people, courageous and proud beyond measure. On the one hand, there was the progressive extension of German rule over them, and on the other their own sufferings increasing from year to year." In January 1903,

6068-467: The Herero people in 1904 is strikingly similar to the language he had used about the Chinese Boxers in 1900. However, the Kaiser denied, together with Chancellor von Bülow, von Trotha's request to quickly quell the rebellion. No written order by Wilhelm II ordering or authorising genocide has survived. In February 1945 an Allied bombing raid destroyed the building housing all of the documents of

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6216-666: The Prussian Army from the Imperial period. Despite this fact, surviving documents indicate that Trotha used the same tactics in Namibia that he had used in China, only on a much vaster scale. It is also known that throughout the genocide Trotha sent regular reports to both the General Staff and to the Kaiser. Historian Jeremy-Sarkin Hughes believes that regardless of whether or not a written order

6364-664: The Roman style , with the caveat of stone-built castles . Forts were generally well constructed and effective against attack. There were several kinds of fortifications such as the moat and bailey, earthworks, hill-forts, Urban forts, town walls , and fortified residences. Moat and bailey , the most common castles before the use of stonework's, proved ineffective against Viking invaders. In Germany, in 1200 there were only 12 towns with walls, and 9 of them were originally Roman walls . Later, crusaders built their own types of fortifications called crusader castles , meant to be used in defense of

6512-627: The Treaty of Hubertusburg of 1763. Prussia had survived the combined force of its neighbours, each larger than itself, and gained enormously in influence at the cost of the Holy Roman Empire. It became recognised as a great European power, starting a rivalry with Austria for the leadership of the German-speaking lands. During the Seven Years' War , Prussia fought on the side of Britain against Russia , Sweden , Austria , France , and Saxony. Frederick II of Prussia first invaded Saxony and defeated

6660-638: The peasants rebelled against the nobility . The rebellion ultimately failed in the end and Emperor Charles V became much harsher. From 1618 to 1648 the Thirty Years' War ravaged Germany, when it became the main theatre of war in the conflict between France and the Habsburgs for predominance in Europe. Besides being at war with Catholic France, Germany was attacked by the Lutheran King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden , who won many victories until he

6808-720: The "Commissioner for Anti-Bandit Warfare." Then Himmler transferred SS General Curt von Gottberg to Belorussia to ensure that the Bandenbekämpfung operations were conducted on a permanent basis, a task which Gottberg carried out with fanatical ruthlessness, declaring the entire population bandits, Jews, Gypsies , spies, or bandit sympathisers. During Gottberg's first major operations, Operations Nürnberg and Hamburg, conducted between November through December 1942, he reported 5,000 murdered Jews, another 5,000 bandits or suspects eliminated, and 30 villages burned down. Also in October 1942—just

6956-733: The "insurmountable odds" of success, although Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto managed to resist for upwards of four months , which historian Patrick Henry notes, was "longer than some national armies" managed. Such activity "worked powerfully against the anti-Semitic stereotype...that Jews would not fight." Correspondingly, there are estimates that 30,000 Jews joined partisan units in Belorussia and western Ukraine alone, while other Jewish partisan groups joined fighters from Bulgaria, Greece, and Yugoslavia, where they assisted in derailing trains, destroying bridges, and carrying out sabotage acts that contributed to

7104-491: The "mass murder of unarmed civilians". In keeping with these extreme measures, the OKW issued orders on 13 September 1941, that "Russian soldiers who had been overrun by the German forces and had then reorganised behind the front were to be treated as partisans—that is, to be shot. It was left to the commanders on the spot to decide who belonged to this category." On 23 October 1942, Himmler named SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski

7252-506: The African tribes with streams of blood and streams of gold." General von Trotha stated his proposed solution to end the resistance of the Herero people in a letter, before the Battle of Waterberg : I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated, or, if this was not possible by tactical measures, have to be expelled from the country ... This will be possible if the water-holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied. The constant movement of our troops will enable us to find

7400-510: The British authorities. To prevent them from returning, Trotha ordered the desert to be sealed off. German patrols later found skeletons around holes 13 m (43 ft) deep that had been dug in a vain attempt to find water. Some sources also state that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert water wells. Maherero and 500–1,500 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland where he

7548-412: The Confederation of the Rhine as a threat to Prussian interests and allied against Napoleon. At this time the reputation of the Royal Prussian Army remained high from the period of the Seven Years' War . Unfortunately they retained the tactics of that period and still relied heavily on foreign mercenaries. The lack of military reforms would prove disastrous. Prussian defeats at Jena and Auerstedt led to

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7696-480: The Eastern and Western areas of German occupied territory. During World War II, the German Army policy for deterring partisan or "bandit" activities against its forces was to strike "such terror into the population that it loses all will to resist". Even before the Nazi campaign in the East began, Adolf Hitler had already absolved his soldiers and police from any responsibility for brutality against civilians, expecting them to kill anyone that even "looked askance" at

7844-437: The Field Railway, a Military Railway Corps, District Commanders, Special Military Courts, intelligence units, and military police of varying duties and nomenclature were integrated into the Prussian system to bolster security operations all along the military's operational lines. Operationally, the first attempts to use tactics that would later develop into Bandenbekämpfung or be recognised as such were carried out in China in

7992-441: The Fowler , then Duke of Saxony , who took the title of King. For the first time, the term Kingdom of the Germans ("Regnum Teutonicorum") was applied to East Francia. The Treaty of Bonn was signed in 921 between Charles III of France and Henry I of Germany. They established the Rhine River as the border and neutral territory of their kingdoms. The treaty was ultimately a failure and led to tensions and military conflict between

8140-475: The French. During the early part of the war, the French were successful until Camille de Tallard was victorious in the Palatinate . Later, in 1706, the Germans took back their land with the help of the Dutch and the English. The Austrians pushed the French back in North Italy and the coalition scored several successes in the low countries. At that time, half of the Dutch or the British armies were composed of German mercenaries. The German states that participated in

8288-419: The German Army willingly ensnared itself in the Nazi machinery of annihilation and extermination by working with the SS to systematically suppress partisan movements and other forms of perceived resistance." To this end, Einsatzgruppen , Order Police , SS-Sonderkommandos , and army forces—for the most part—worked cooperatively to combat partisans ("bandits"), not only acting as judge, jury, and executioners in

8436-535: The German forces, "that rivers of German blood" had been spilled in Serbia during the First World War and the Wehrmacht should consider any acts of violence there as "avenging these deaths". During the Battle of Crete (May 1941), German paratroopers encountered widespread resistance from the civilian population. This resistance outraged General Kurt Student , commander of the XI Air Corps, who ordered "revenge operations," consisting of: "1) shootings; 2) forced levies; 3) burning down villages; and 4) extermination of

8584-481: The German forces. Much of the partisan warfare became an exercise of antisemitism, as military commanders like General Anton von Mauchenheim gennant Bechtolsheim exclaimed that whenever an act of sabotage was committed and one killed the Jews from that village, then "one can be certain that one has destroyed the perpetrators, or at least those who stood behind them". Following the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 and its reorganisation, security and policing merged with

8732-426: The German government in Berlin . Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed commander-in-chief ( German : Oberbefehlshaber ) of South West Africa, arriving with an expeditionary force of 10,000 troops on 11 June. Meanwhile, Leutwein was subordinate to the civilian Colonial Department of the Prussian Foreign Office, which was supported by Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow , while General Trotha reported to

8880-414: The German government issued an official statement in which it said that Germany "apologizes and bows before the descendants of the victims. Today, more than 100 years later, Germany asks for forgiveness for the sins of their forefathers. It is not possible to undo what has been done. But the suffering, inhumanity and pain inflicted on the tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children by Germany during

9028-475: The Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were shot down and bayoneted to death. The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get away with their cattle. A portion of the Herero escaped the Germans and went to the Omaheke Desert , hoping to reach British Bechuanaland ; fewer than 1,000 Herero managed to reach Bechuanaland, where they were granted asylum by

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9176-431: The Great was forced to fight his sons Conrad the Red and Luidolf in a civil war in modern-day Germany. The war was fought over old Roman fortifications such as Mainz and Regensburg . In the subsequent year, during which the Ottonian kingdom would've been weaker, the Magyars invaded with the objective of besieging cities in search of booty. The number of forts and their organization also pointed to extensive work done by

9324-410: The Jews provided the victims little choice; driven to "coalesce into small groups to survive in forested areas from where they emerged periodically to forage food in nearby fields and villages, the Germans created their own partisan problem, which, by its very nature, was perceived as banditry." Typically these "heroic and futile acts of resistance" against the Nazi occupiers were often in vain considering

9472-431: The Lublin police, rounded up and killed 42,000 Jews. Over time, the Wehrmacht acculturated to the large scale anti-bandit operations, as they too came to see the entire population as criminal and complicit in any operation against German troops. Many German Army commanders were unbothered by the fact that these operations fell under the jurisdiction of the SS. Historians Ben Shepherd and Juliette Pattinson note: As

9620-437: The Napoleonic army. A demoralised Prussia brought its distinguished old general Gebhard von Blücher out of retirement and reorganized the army. The reforms of the Prussian military were led by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , and converted the professional army into one based on national service. They brought in younger leaders, increased the rate of mobilisation and improved their skirmishing and unit tactics. They also organized

9768-464: The Prussians earned a pyrrhic victory at the Zorndorf . The Swedes, however, fought the Prussians to a draw at Tornow . However, Austria gained a victory against the Prussian main army at Hochkirch . In 1759, the Prussians lost at Kunersdorf to the combined Russians and Austrians. Berlin itself was taken for a few days in 1762, but its army could not be destroyed. However, the great alliance against Prussia broke up when Elizabeth of Russia died. It

9916-517: The River Elbe , probably overrunning the territories of the Celtic Volcae in the Weser Basin . The Romans recorded one of these early migrations when the Cimbri and the Teutons tribes threatened the Republic itself around the late 2nd century BC. In the East, other tribes, such as Goths , Rugii and Vandals , settled along the shores of the Baltic Sea pushing southward and eventually settling as far away as Ukraine . The Angles and Saxons migrated to England . The Germanic peoples often had

10064-637: The SS as the organisation responsible for rear-area warfare in areas under civilian administration . In areas under military jurisdiction (the Army Group Rear Areas), the Army High Command had the overall responsibility. The directive declared the entire population of "bandit" (i.e. partisan-controlled) territories as enemy combatants. In practice, this meant that the aims of security warfare was not pacification, but complete destruction and depopulation of "bandit" and "bandit-threatened" territories, turning them into "dead zones" ( Tote Zonen ). Military history of Germany The military history of Germany spans

10212-407: The Teutoburg Forest . Germanic wars against the early Celts remain mysterious because neither side recorded the events. Germanic tribes are thought to have originated during the Jastorf culture in Iron Age in northern Germany and Denmark , their land was later called " Germania " by the Romans. The tribes spread south, possibly motivated by the deteriorating climate of that area. They crossed

10360-424: The Three Henries was fought between 977–978. The war was a short lived rebellion by three German princes, all of which were named Henry, against Emperor Otto II . The three Henries were, Bishop Henry I of Augsburg, Henry the Wrangler, and duke Henry I the Younger. Shortly after the end of the rebellion of the three Henries, Otto fought a brief war with King Lothair of France , who invaded Lotharingia and attacked

10508-432: The aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa , and therefore one of the earliest attempts at genocide in the 20th century. In 2004, the German government recognised the events in what a German minister qualified as an "apology" but ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants. In July 2015, the German government and the speaker of the Bundestag officially called

10656-568: The basis for German anti-partisan policies from 1870 and remained as such through 1945. Prussian security operations during the Franco-Prussian War included the use of Landwehr reservists, whose duties ranged from guarding railroad lines, to taking hostages, and carrying out reprisals to deter activities of francs-tireurs . Bismarck wanted all francs-tireurs hanged or shot, and encouraged his military commanders to burn down villages that housed them. More formal structures like Chief of

10804-402: The bitterness among the Hereros toward the Germans is without question the fact that the average German looks down upon the natives as being about on the same level as the higher primates ('baboon' being their favourite term for the natives) and treat them like animals. The settler holds that the native has a right to exist only in so far as he is useful to the white man. This sense of contempt led

10952-572: The civil War, Henry IV found time to siege Rome twice in 1081 and 1084. The struggle of the civil war broke German military and political power so that later the kingdom and empire would dissolve into hundreds of autonomous states for some time. By 1155, the German states had descended into disorder. Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa managed to restore peace through diplomacy and skillfully arranged marriages. He claimed direct imperial control over Italy and made several incursions into northern Italy, but

11100-534: The colonial capital. Maharero then issued a manifesto in which he forbade his troops to kill any Englishmen, Boers, uninvolved peoples, women and children in general, or German missionaries. The Herero revolts catalysed a separate revolt and attack on Fort Namutoni in the north of the country a few weeks later by the Ondonga . A Herero warrior interviewed by German authorities in 1895 had described his people's traditional way of dealing with suspected cattle rustlers ,

11248-418: The deaths of thousands of German soldiers. Surging operations from better equipped partisans against Army Group Centre during 1943 intensified to the degree that the 221st Security Division 's did not just eliminate "bandits" but laid entire regions where they operated to waste. The scale of this effort must be taken into consideration, as historian Michael Burleigh reports that anti-partisan operations had

11396-462: The defense of castles during siege warfare. In order to attack castles, the Springald was created to launch spears in succession, but was mainly used outside of Germany. Stirrups were developed which was integral in the use of shock combat during the Middle Ages. The creation of greaves was important in protecting the shins. In Germany, Baronets were known as ( Ritter ) or Knights . These were

11544-894: The establishment of Bandenbekämpfung operations. Aside from the groups assigned to fight partisans, additional manpower was provided by the Gestapo , the Kripo (criminal police), the SD , and the Waffen-SS . There were a number of SS-led actions implemented against so–called "partisans" in Lemberg, Warsaw, Lublin, Kovel, and other places across Poland. When the Wehrmacht entered Serbia in 1941, they carried out mass reprisals against alleged "partisans" by executing Jews there. The commander responsible for combating partisan warfare in 1941, General Franz Böhme , reiterated to

11692-492: The ethnicity of most of its subjects and rulers. The military history of Germany during the Middle Ages was full of siege warfare and the technological changes that come from fighting that kind of war. From the creation of the First German Empire in 843 until the creation of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg , the middles ages were fought in similar fashion to those of ancient times. Many changes were made due to

11840-422: The events a "genocide"; however, it refused to consider reparations at that time. Despite this, the last batch of skulls and other remains of slaughtered tribesmen which were taken to Germany to promote racial superiority were taken back to Namibia in 2018, with Petra Bosse-Huber  [ de ] , a German Protestant bishop, describing the event as "the first genocide of the 20th century". In May 2021,

11988-484: The few Europeans who encountered Herero tribesmen in the early days regarded them as the region's 'natural aristocrats. ' " By the time of the Scramble for Africa , the area which was occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland . The Nama were pastorals and traders and lived to the south of the Herero. In 1883, Adolf Lüderitz , a German merchant, purchased a stretch of coast near Lüderitz Bay (Angra Pequena) from

12136-475: The field, but also in plundering "bandit areas"; they laid these areas to waste, seized crops and livestock, enslaved the local population, or murdered them. Anti-bandit operations were characterised by "special cruelty". For instance, Soviet Jews were murdered outright under the pretext that they were partisans per Hitler's orders. Historian Timothy Snyder asserts that by the second half of 1942, "German anti-partisan operations were all but indistinguishable from

12284-560: The first eleven months of the war against the Soviet Union, German forces liquidated in excess of 80,000 alleged partisans. Implemented by units of the SS, Wehrmacht , and Order Police, Bandenbekämpfung as applied by the Nazi regime and directed by the SS across occupied Europe led to mass crimes against humanity and was an instrumental part of the Holocaust. In July 1942, Himmler was appointed to lead

12432-517: The first kings of Germany during the 10th century during the Middle Ages. In 955, the Magyars were decisively defeated at the second battle of Lechfeld by Otto the Great , ending the threat from the Eurasian steppes for four centuries. In 962, partly on the strength of this victory, Otto invaded Italy on his way to Rome and was crowned the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the pope . The War of

12580-511: The front line. Indeed, in eastern Europe during World War II, most directly in the Soviet Union, keeping occupied territory pacified was crucial to supplying not just the German front line, but also the German domestic population. Historian Jeff Rutherford claims that "Whilst the Wehrmacht focused on the Red Army , SD and other SS formations would combat any resistance movements in the rear. In effect,

12728-518: The genocide. The first phase of the genocide was characterized by widespread death from starvation and dehydration, due to the prevention of the Herero from leaving the Namib desert by German forces. Once defeated, thousands of Hereros and Namas were imprisoned in concentration camps , where the majority died of diseases, abuse, and exhaustion. In 1985, the United Nations ' Whitaker Report classified

12876-447: The grandchildren of Charlemagne in the Treaty of Verdun of 843, and lasted almost a millennium until its dissolution in 1806. It was never a unitary state ; from the beginning it was made up of many ethnicities and languages and would at its height comprise territories ranging from eastern France to northern Italy . Its unifying characteristic was its Carolingian heritage and strong religious connotations, its claim to "German-ness"

13024-441: The ground, unable to go on, German soldiers killed men, women, and children. Jan Cloete, acting as a guide for the Germans, witnessed the atrocities committed by the German troops and deposed the following statement: I was present when the Herero were defeated in a battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all men, women, and children who fell into German hands, wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death. Then

13172-500: The guiding principle of Nazi Germany's security warfare and occupational policies; largely as a result of Himmler's insistence that for psychological reasons, bandit was somehow preferable. Himmler charged the " Prinz Eugen " Division to expressly deal with "partisan revolts". Units like the SS Galizien —who were likewise tasked to deal with partisans—included foreign recruits overseen by experienced German "bandit" fighters well-versed in

13320-717: The guise of Bandenbekämpfung included Walter Stettner , commander of the 1st Mountain Division in Epirus , and Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller , who led the 22nd Air Landing Division in Crete. Before invading the Soviet Union for Operation Barbarossa , Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , and Chief of the SD Reinhard Heydrich , as well as SS General Heinrich Müller briefed the Einsatzgruppen leaders of their responsibility to secure

13468-496: The habit of borrowing money from colonist moneylenders at extreme interest rates (see usury ). For a long time, much of this debt went uncollected and accumulated, as most Herero had no means to pay. To correct this growing problem, Governor Leutwein decreed with good intentions that all debts not paid within the next year would be voided. In the absence of hard cash, traders often seized cattle, or whatever objects of value they could get their hands on, as collateral . This fostered

13616-472: The imperial city of Aachen with 20,000 men. Otto was forced to flee to Dortmund where he created an effective response. He then counter-invaded France and laid siege to Paris but was forced to withdraw during the winter months. He then turned to defeating the rebellious princes, which he did by besieging Passau where the rebels had gathered. Otto took Passau and punished the three princes for their insurrection. Between 1002 and 1024, Henry II of Germany

13764-410: The indigenous Khoisan people, were possessed of the fierceness that comes from basing one's way of life on a single source: everything they valued, all wealth and personal happiness, had to do with cattle. Regarding the care and protection of their herds, the Herero showed themselves utterly merciless, and far more 'savage' than the Khoisan had ever been. Because of their dominant ways and elegant bearing,

13912-572: The intensification of unrestrained warfare cannot be known, but Prussian officers like Alfred von Schlieffen encouraged their professional soldiers to embrace a dictum advocating that "for every problem, there was a military solution". Helmuth von Moltke the Elder , Chief of the Prussian General Staff, added hostage-taking as a means of deterrence to sabotage activities and the employment of collective measures against entire communities, which became

14060-770: The kingdoms. In 933, Henry the Fowler met with an assembly in which they expressed their desire to renew their war with the Magyars (Hungarians). The Magyars attempted to catch the Saxons by surprise, but ultimately failed when they split their army in two. This resulted in Henry destroying both army sections with his superior weapons and training. The name of this conflict was known as the Battle of Riade . Henry I and his son Otto I inherited their administrative qualities from their Carolingian ancestors and thus were able to field armies much larger than medieval military historiography believed

14208-724: The last major Turkish offensive against the Austrian capital of Vienna in 1683. By the closing years of the 17th century, he was already famous for securing Hungary from the Ottoman Empire , and soon rose to the role of principal Austrian commander during the War of the Spanish Succession . From 1701 to 1714 the War of the Spanish Succession , Germany fought with the English and the Dutch against

14356-837: The male population of the entire region". General Student also demanded that "all operations be carried out with great speed, leaving aside all formalities and certainly dispensing with special courts". This contributed to a series of collective punishments against civilians in Kandanos , Kondomari , and Alikianos , immediately after Crete fell. During the Axis occupation of Greece , the emergence of armed resistance from 1942 onward invoked mass reprisals in places such as Viannos , Kedros , Mousiotitsa , Kommeno , Lingiades , Kalavryta , Drakeia , Distomo , Mesovouno , Pyrgoi , Kaisariani and Chortiatis , along with numerous other incidents of smaller scale. Generals whose units also committed war crimes under

14504-455: The mass murder of the Jews." Other historians have made similar observations. Omer Bartov argued that under the auspices of destroying their "so-called political and biological enemies", often described as "bandits" or "partisans", the Nazis made no effort "to distinguish between real guerrillas, political suspects, and Jews." According to historian Erich Haberer, the Nazis' murderous policies toward

14652-634: The mayor and the town council members of Prague were thrown from the windows of the town building. Emperor Sigismund , a firm adherent of the Roman Catholic Church , obtained the support of Pope Martin V who issued a papal bull in 1420 proclaiming a crusade. In all, four crusades were launched against the heretics, all resulting in defeat for the Catholic troops. The Hussites , capably led by Jan Žižka , employed novel tactics to defeat their numerically superior enemies, decisively at Aussig . Whenever

14800-430: The military German General Staff , which was supported by Emperor Wilhelm II . Leutwein wanted to defeat the most determined Herero rebels and negotiate a surrender with the remainder to achieve a political settlement. Trotha, however, planned to crush the native resistance through military force. He stated that: My intimate knowledge of many central African nations (Bantu and others) has everywhere convinced me of

14948-409: The military and trained for duty, but were sent home for ten months out of each year. Frederick the Great , king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, modernized the Prussian Army , introduced new tactical and strategical concepts, fought mostly successful wars and doubled the size of Prussia. Frederick had a rationale based on Enlightenment thought: he launched total wars for limited objectives. The goal

15096-487: The murder "aroused extraordinary interest in Hereroland, especially since the murdered woman had been the wife of the son of a Chief and the daughter of another. Everywhere the question was asked: Have White people the right to shoot native women?" Governor Leutwein intervened. He had the Public Prosecutor appeal Dietrich's acquittal, a second trial took place (before the colony's supreme court), and this time Dietrich

15244-548: The native Herero and Nama peoples and to subjugate them as slave laborers. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Resentment brewed among the native populations over their loss of status and property to German ranchers arriving in South West Africa, and the dismantling of traditional political hierarchies. Previously ruling tribes were reduced to the same status as the other tribes they had previously ruled over and enslaved. This resentment contributed to

15392-563: The necessity that the Negro does not respect treaties but only brute force. By late spring of 1904, German troops were pouring into the colony. In August 1904, the main Herero forces were surrounded and crushed at the Battle of Waterberg . In 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II had been enraged by the killing of Baron Clemens von Ketteler , the Imperial German minister plenipotentiary in Beijing , during

15540-481: The newly conquered territories, to maintain order, and to ensure the efficient establishment of miniature Nazi governments, constituted by mobile versions of the Reich Security Main Office . Starting the same day Germany invaded the Soviet Union (22 June 1941), the 12th Infantry Division command issued orders that guerilla warfare combatants were not to be quartered as POWs but were to be "sentenced on

15688-457: The open," and rejected Leutwein's offers of peace. One missionary wrote, "The Germans are filled with fearful hate. I must really call it a blood thirst against the Hereros. One hears nothing but talk of 'cleaning up,' 'executing,' 'shooting down to the last man,' 'no pardon,' etc." According to Robert Gaudi, "The Germans suffered more than defeat in the early months of 1904; they suffered humiliation, their brilliant modern army unable to defeat

15836-551: The period from ancient times to the present. During the ancient and early medieval periods the Germanic tribes had no written language . What we know about their early military history comes from accounts written in Latin and from archaeology . This leaves important gaps. Germanic wars against the ancient Rome are fairly well documented from the Roman perspective, such as the Battle of

15984-538: The primary means of defense for many lords. All knights were nobility but not all nobles were knights. The nobility were not a military class, but quite contrarily avoided military conflict on the basis of their immense wealth. As well, knights would have been more likely to ravage the countryside in order to get a country to submit to their authority, rather than seek open battle to prove their point. Fortifications in Medieval Germany were built similarly to those of

16132-470: The rear areas—using the euphemism " special treatment "—against potential enemies; this included partisans and anyone deemed a threat by the Nazi functionaries. When Heydrich repeated this directive as an operational order ( Einsatzbefehl ), he stressed that this also meant functionaries of the Comintern , Jews, and anyone of position in the communist party. This was part of the SS contribution to prevent crime in

16280-533: The reigning chief. The terms of the purchase were fraudulent, but the German government nonetheless established a protectorate over it. At that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for European settlement. Chief of the neighbouring Herero, Maharero rose to power by uniting all the Herero. Faced with repeated attacks by the Khowesin, a clan of the Khoekhoe under Hendrik Witbooi , he signed

16428-509: The rules of war, eliciting ruthless measures by German forces against civilians and villages suspected of harboring them. Throughout the war, Germany's integrated intelligence, perimeter police, guard network, and border control measures coalesced to define the German military's security operations. Along the Eastern Front sometime in August 1915, Field Marshal Erich von Falkenhayn established

16576-558: The security initiatives in rear areas. One of his first actions in this role was the prohibition of the use of "partisan" to describe counter-insurgents. Bandits ( Banden ) was the term chosen to be used by German forces. Hitler insisted that Himmler was "solely responsible" for combating bandits except in districts under military administration; such districts were under the authority of the Wehrmacht . The organisational changes, putting experienced SS killers in charge, and language that criminalised resistance, whether real or imagined, presaged

16724-460: The settlers to commit violence against the Hereros." The contempt manifested itself particularly in the concubinage of native women. In a practice referred to in Südwesterdeutsch as Verkafferung , native women were taken by male European traders and ranchers both willingly and by force. In 1903, the Hereros saw an opportunity to revolt. At that time, there was a distant Khoisan tribe in

16872-487: The small groups of this nation who have moved backwards and destroy them gradually. Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg on 11–12 August 1904 but were unable to encircle and annihilate the retreating survivors. The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero from breaking from the main body of the fleeing force and pushed them further into the desert. As exhausted Herero fell to

17020-476: The son of Henry VI, Frederick II , was able to regain his title and power as Holy Roman Emperor. Teutonic Knights In 1226 Konrad I of Masovia appealed to the Teutonic Knights , a German crusading military order , to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic Prussians . The conquest and Christianization of Prussia was accomplished after more than 50 years, after which the Order ruled it as

17168-601: The south called the Bondelzwarts , who resisted German demands to register their guns. The Bondelzwarts engaged in a firefight with the German authorities which led to three Germans killed and a fourth wounded. The situation deteriorated further, and the governor of the Herero colony, Major Theodor Leutwein, went south to take personal command, leaving almost no troops in the north. The Herero revolted in early 1904, killing between 123 and 150 German settlers, as well as seven Boers and three women, in what Nils Ole Oermann calls

17316-486: The special powers of the Reichsführer ." During late November 1942, forty-one "Polish-Jewish bandits" were killed in the forest area of Lubionia, which included "reprisals" against villages in the area. Another action undertaken under the auspices of anti-bandit operations occurred near Lublin in early November 1943; named Aktion Erntefest (Action Harvest Festival), SS-Police, and Waffen-SS units, accompanied by members of

17464-678: The spot by an officer", meaning they were to be summarily shot. To this end, the Nazis welcomed partisan warfare since in the mind of Hitler, such circumstances opened up "the possibility of annihilating all opposition". On 31 July 1941, the 16th Army command were informed that any "Partisan-Battalions" formed behind the front that were not properly uniformed and without appropriate means of identification, "were to be treated as guerrillas, whether they were soldiers or not". Any civilians who provided any assistance whatsoever were to be treated likewise, which historian Omer Bartov claims "always meant one thing only: death by shooting or hanging". Members of

17612-409: The systematic murder of anyone associated with them was an expression of the regime's racial antisemitism and was viewed by members of the Wehrmacht as a "necessity of war". Much of this Nazi mindset in killing partisan "enemies" was not just an immediate expediency but was preemptive warfare against "future" enemies. Across western and southern Europe, the implementation of anti-bandit operations

17760-536: The territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the Schutztruppe (imperial colonial troops) to pacify the region. Both German colonial authorities and European settlers envisioned a predominantly white "new African Germany," wherein the native populations would be put onto reservations and their land distributed among settlers and companies. Under German colonial rule, colonists were encouraged to seize land and cattle from

17908-484: The testimony of seven Africans was equivalent to that of a colonist. According to Bridgman, there were racial tensions underlying these developments; the average German colonist viewed native Africans as a lowly source of cheap labour, and others welcomed their extermination. A new policy on debt collection , enforced in November 1903, also played a role in the uprising. For many years, the Herero population had fallen in

18056-501: The transformation of security warfare into massacres. The radicalisation of "anti-bandit" warfare saw further impetus in the Führer Directive 46 of 18 August 1942, where security warfare's aim was defined as "complete extermination". The directive called on the security forces to act with "utter brutality", while providing immunity from prosecution for any acts committed during "bandit-fighting" operations. The directive designated

18204-420: The treaty of Verdun and split the empire again. The Kingdom of East Francia (Germany) continued to exist under the conditions of this treaty. However, within 10 years this led to further conflict between German and French Kings. In July 907, an army of Germans faced off against Hungarians in the Battle of Pressburg . The result was a decisive Hungarian victory in which the Hungarians were able to pillage what

18352-515: The use of siege warfare and new military technologies. During the Middle Ages, siege warfare was the primary way in which war was fought and territory taken through conquest. There were field battles fought, in which they employed a phalanx formation similar to what would have been studied in Vegetius ' De re militari . However, the vast majority of battles were fought in defense of or the attempt to take fortifications. The men required to partake in

18500-449: The use of training, regimentation, and the phalanx. Medieval commanders may have been educated or read in Vegetius' De Re Militari which would have provided the bases for battle tactics. In historiography, Charles Oman believes that cavalry entirely dominated the battlefield of the Middle Ages, but others contend that the infantry continued to play the most vital role even through the early modern age. One example of tactics and strategy

18648-439: The wake of the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), after two German officers went missing, which was followed up with more than fifty operations by German troops, who set fire to a village and held prisoners. Shortly after these operations, the infantry was provided with a handbook for "operations against Chinese bandits" ( Banden ). The first full application of Bandenbekämpfung in practice, was the Herero and Nama genocide (1904–08),

18796-481: The war at the rear as those in the front, and certainly entailed security operations. Following Jomini's lead, Oberstleutnant Albrecht von Boguslawski published lectures entitled Der Kleine Krieg ("The Small War", a literal translation of guerrilla ), which outlined in detail the tactical procedures related to partisan and anti-partisan warfare—likely deliberately written without clear distinctions between combatants and non-combatants. To what extent this contributed to

18944-407: The war dragged on, the occupation's mounting economic rapacity engendered a vicious cycle of further resistance, further German brutality in response, and the erosion of order and stability across occupied Europe. Here, the issue of how occupation strategy shaped the partisan war connects with... how the nature and course of the partisan war was affected by the relationship between the occupied rear and

19092-448: The war in what is today Namibia must not be forgotten. It must serve as a warning against racism and genocide." Furthermore, the German government agreed to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years to fund projects in communities that were impacted by the genocide. The original inhabitants of what is now Namibia were the San and the Khoekhoe . Herero, who speak a Bantu language , were originally

19240-416: The war were Austria (which contributed the most), Prussia and Hanover. During the reign of Frederick William I (1713–40), the military power of Prussia was significantly improved. He organized the government around the needs of his army, and produced an efficient, highly disciplined instrument of war. The Prussian Army was expanded to 80,000 men, about 4% of the total population. Peasants were drafted into

19388-568: The way to the Baltic Sea . The Hussite movement was ended in 1434, however, at the Battle of Lipany . Historiography tends to believe that the Middle Ages end in 1453 with the emergence of the printing press in Mainz; thus, beginning the early modern age of Germany, and more broadly the early modern European age. During the German Peasants' War , spanning from 1524 to 1525 in the Holy Roman Empire,

19536-519: The wife of the chief's son. When she resisted, Dietrich shot her dead. When he was tried for murder in Windhoek , Dietrich denied attempting to rape his victim. He alleged that he awoke thinking the camp was under attack and fired blindly into the darkness. The killing of the Herero woman, he claimed, was an unfortunate accident. The court acquitted him, alleging that Dietrich was suffering from "tropical fever" and temporary insanity . According to Leutwein,

19684-426: The wrath of the German Empire was about to fall on them and hoped to soften the blow. He sent desperate messages to Chief Samuel Maherero in hopes of negotiating an end to the war. In this, Leutwein acted on his own, heedless of the prevailing mood in Germany, which called for bloody revenge." The Hereros, however, were emboldened by their success and had come to believe that, "the Germans were too cowardly to fight in

19832-506: Was able to conscript forces across his entire kingdom for a campaign south of the Alps into Italy. As was common in previous centuries, all able-bodied men in the Holy Roman Empire were required to defend their home if it was under threat. Germany during the eleventh century was engulfed in civil war most notably in the 1070s and 1080s. It began during the reign of Henry IV in 1056. During

19980-434: Was between half-brothers, both of whose mother was the aforementioned Margaret, John I of Avesnes and Guy of Dampierre . The result of the war was John I of Avesnes defeating his mother and half brother with the aid of Count William of Holland. The Teltow-Magdeburg Wars were fought in the modern German state of Brandenburg. It was fought between 1239 and 1245 over the ownership of some eastern German territories. The war

20128-542: Was between princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The result was that Otto the Pious and John I of Brandenburg (Brothers who jointly ruled Brandenburg) expanded their holdings in eastern Germany. Following their conquest, the brothers would later go on to help the Teutonic Order defeat a Prussian uprising in the middle of the 1260s. In 1260, there was a small uprising in the town of Hamelin . The townsfolk rose up in response to

20276-456: Was capable at that time. The efficiency of military organization in tenth-century Germany was much higher than believable. This can be seen in the number of sieges, which would require extensive logistics, that were conducted during the century. Otto I and his subsequent descendants were tasked with defending the military borders to the east of modern-day Germany. Their enemies were primarily Slavic and roaming Steppe peoples . In 953-954 Otto

20424-477: Was chosen in 1904 to command the expedition to German South West Africa precisely because of his record in China. In 1904, the Kaiser was furious by the latest revolt in his colonial empire by a people whom he also viewed as inferior, and took the Herero rebellion as a personal insult, just as he had viewed the Boxers' assassination of Baron von Ketteler. The tactless and bloodthirsty language that Wilhelm II used about

20572-596: Was dealt a defeat by the Polish-Lithuanian forces by King Władysław II Jagiełło . This marked an ending to the power of the German religious state in eastern Europe. The Hussite Wars , fought between 1419 and 1434 in Bohemia , had their origins in a conflict between Catholics and the followers of a religious sect founded by Jan Hus . The inciting action of the war was the First Defenestration of Prague , in which

20720-471: Was found guilty of manslaughter and imprisoned. The move prompted violent objections of German settlers who considered Leutwein a " race traitor ". In 1903, some of the Nama clans rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi . A number of factors led the Herero to join them in January 1904. One of the major issues was land rights. In 1903 the Herero learned of a plan to divide their territory with

20868-468: Was from her death that a pro-Prussian ruler, Peter III would sue for peace. It was thanks to this " miracle of the House of Brandenburg " and to the unshakable will of Frederick that Prussia survived. The Napoleonic era ended the Holy Roman Empire and created new German-speaking states that would eventually form modern Germany. Napoleon I of France reorganized many of the smaller German-speaking states into

21016-459: Was given, the Kaiser must have given General von Trotha verbal orders. According to Hughes, the fact that Trotha was decorated and not court-martialed after the genocide became public knowledge lends support to the thesis that he was acting under orders. General von Trotha commented: "I know the tribes of Africa…. They are all alike. They only respond to force. It was and is my policy to use force with terrorism and even brutality. I shall annihilate

21164-586: Was in convoys. The Hansa built some defensive ships but nothing that could completely wipe of the brothers like they had hoped. It was the master of the Teutonic Knights, Konrad von Jungingen that besieged and conquered the Vitalienbrüder base at Gotland that finally ended their reign of terror as the remainder of the pirates were forced to move into other seas. In 1410, the Teutonic Order or (Deutscher Ordensstaat) in German, situated in modern-day Poland,

21312-513: Was killed at Lützen . The war resulted in large areas of Germany being laid waste, causing general impoverishment and a loss of around a third of its population; it took generations to recover. It ended with the Peace of Westphalia , which stabilized the nation states of Europe. The imperial general Prince Eugene of Savoy faced the Ottoman Turks on the battlefield, first coming to prominence during

21460-481: Was the trebuchet , but other smaller advancements were made as well. There were advancements such as new helmets called Spangenhelme as well as some Carolingian developments in weapon production. With the subsequent development in armor, there came advancements in handheld weaponry to deal with these developments. For example, swords became thinner and pointed on the tip in order to penetrate between gaps in plate armor. Crossbows as well became more commonly used in

21608-430: Was to convince rival kings that it was better to negotiate and make peace than to fight him. In the War of Austrian Succession (1740–48) Empress Maria Theresa of Austria fought successfully for recognition of her succession to the throne. However, during the subsequent Silesian Wars and the Seven Years' War , King Frederick the Great (Frederick II) occupied Silesia and forced Austria to formally cede control in

21756-599: Was ultimately defeated by the Lombard League at Legano in 1176. Despite his defeat, he did manage to receive the imperial coronation from the pope, thus aiding Barbarossa in his efforts to restore the empire to its former glory that it experienced under Otto I. In 1189, Frederick embarked on the Third Crusade . After a few initial successes against the Turks , notably at the Battle of Iconium , Frederick died when trying to cross

21904-524: Was uneven, owing to a constantly evolving set of rules of engagement, command and control disputes at the local level, and the complexity of regional politics with regard to the regime's goals in each respective nation. Throughout the war in Europe, and especially on the Eastern Front , these doctrines amalgamated with the Nazi regime's genocidal plans for the racial reshaping of the Eastern Europe to secure "living space" ( Lebensraum ) for Germany. In

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