MILITARY RISE
Moritz Ferdinand Freiherr von Bissing was born at Ober Bellmannsdorf on January 30, 1844 in the province of Silesia. His father (also named Moritz von Bissing) was a member of the landed gentry who was known to speak his mind to the Kaiser.
At the age of twenty-one, Bissing entered the Prussian Army as a cavalry lieutenant. He soon saw action in both the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
Over the next few years, Bissing steadily gained promotion. In 1887, the young major was appointed as an aide-de-camp to the Crown Prince (who would become Kaiser Wilhelm II one year later). Bissing also 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. In 1902, he was again promoted, this time to general of the cavalry. Six years later, he retired from the Imperial German Army.
Upon the outbreak of the First World War, Bissing was recalled to active duty as deputy commander of the VII Army Corps. He served in that capacity until November 1914. By year’s end, Bissing was promoted to Generaloberst and appointed Governor-General of occupied Belgium.
FLAMENPOLITIK
When 1915 dawned, German authorities set into motion a plan for the dissolution of Belgium into separate Walloon and Flemish components. It became known as “Flemish Policy”, or Flamenpolitik.
In the beginning, Flamenpolitik consisted only of an effort to translate the laws of Germany into the languages of Belgium. However, a new plan was developed in 1916 with the idea that Belgium should never again be an obstacle to advancing German forces. In addition, Imperial Germany was to be surrounded by weak buffer states open to German influence. The plan required a separate Flemish state not subject to Walloon influence. It also necessitated much more radical measures than had been previously taken.
The first solely Dutch-speaking university was established in Ghent, and it was named after Governor-General Moritx von Bissing. In addition, Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg encouraged Flemish nationalist leaders to declare independence and integrate into the German sphere of influence. At the same time, the occupying forces were helped and encouraged by Walloon and Flemish nationalist movements.
Bissing convened a commission to organize the division of the country. In a March 21, 1917 decree, Belgium was separated into two administrative areas: Flanders and Wallonia. This was the first attempt at dividing the country along linguistic lines.
A Flemish government was soon established in Brussels; it became known as the Raad van Vlaanderen or RVV. The region was made up of the four northern provinces of Belgium, as well as the districts of Brussels and Leuven.
Taking into account the 1912 decision by Walloon nationalists to recognize Namur as their capital, Bissing promptly established an administration there. At the time, Wallonia consisted of four southern Belgian provinces and one part of the province of Brabant (the district of Nivelles). Another revendication of the Walloon movement was realized: the creation of the Walloon Brabant.
The geographical basis for the country’s division was largely inspired by the federalist goals of both the Flemish and Walloon nationalist movements. During the Second World War, the Flemish Policy was implemented yet again. Today, both the Flemish and Walloon communities have the same capitals and nearly the same territory as the administrative entities of Flamenpolitik.
INFAMY AND DEATH
As Governor-General of occupied Belgium, Moritz von Bissing was also the man responsible for the death of the famous British nurse, Edith Cavell…
Before the war, Cavell trained as a nurse in London. Later, she accepted a position in Brussels as Matron in Belgium’s first training hospital and school for nurses. There was no established nursing profession in Belgium at the time of her appointment, and Cavell’s pioneering work led her to be considered the founder of modern nursing education in that country.
Cavell was in Norfolk visiting her mother when Britain decided war on Germany in early August 1914. Upon hearing of the threat to Belgium from advancing German troops, she felt it was her duty to return to Brussels immediately.
By August 20th, the Belgian capital was occupied by the Germans. The nursing school became a Red Cross hospital, treating casualties from both sides. It also continued to treat the civilian populace.
One month later, Cavell was asked to help two wounded British soldiers trapped behind enemy lines following the Battle of Mons. She treated the men in her hospital and then arranged to have them smuggled out of Belgium via neutral Holland. Cavell became part of a network of people who sheltered Allied soldiers and Belgians eligible for military service, arranging their escape. Over the next eleven months, she helped around two hundred British, French and Belgian soldiers, sheltering them in hospital and arranging for guides to take them to the border.
But on August 5, 1915, Cavell was arrested by German authorities for this activity. She was placed in solitary confinement at Saint Gilles Prison in Brussels.
Edith Cavell was tried and court martial on October 7, 1915 along with thirty-four others involved in or connected to the network. She was found guilty and sentenced to death. Five days later, Cavell was shot by firing squad at the Tir National, the Brussels firing range.
Although her execution (signed by Bissing) was legal under international law, it caused outrage in Britain and many neutral countries, including the United States. Edith Cavell became a symbol of the Allied cause, and her memory was invoked in recruitment posters and messages around the world. It further turned public opinion against Imperial Germany with regard to its treatment of “brave little Belgium”.
In the spring of 1917 a chronic lung ailment forced Bissing to resign his post as Governor-General of occupied Belgium. A few days later (April 18th), he succumbed to his illness just outside Brussels. Buried at the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, Moritz von Bissing was seventy-three years old.