Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz
(12.08.1843 - 19.04.1916)
place of birth:  Bielkenfeld, Ostpreußen  (Ivanovka, PL)
Königreich Preußen:  Gen-Gouv von Belgien,  OBH,  Generalfeldmarschall


German baron and military theorist, Freiherr von der Goltz was one of Germany's ten active duty field marshals during the Great War. Born the second son of an impoverished Prussian landowner and former military officer, Colmar von der Goltz was commissioned as a Sekonde-Lieutenant at the age of 18. His initial military engagement was during the Second Schleswig War of 1864, where he served with Ludwig von Falkenhausen in the 1. Garde-Regiment zu Fuß. He later served in both the Austro-Prussian War (wounded at Trautenau) and the Franco-Prussian War, where as a general staff officer he saw action at Mars-la-Tour and Le Mans. Baron von der Goltz was married to Therese Dorguth, with whom he had five children.

Colmar von der Goltz spent much of his post-1871 career in staff positions, taking this time to also serve from 1878 to 1883 as a history lecturer at the Military Academy, and to pen the military histories noted for their scholarly analysis: "Roßbach und Jena" and "Das Volk in Waffen" (A Nation in Arms).  He thereafter was promoted to major and in his restlessness was sent to Turkey as military advisor to the Ottoman Empire (1883-1895), where he helped modernize the Ottoman Army. Upon his return to Germany, Generalleutnant von der Goltz served as a divisional commander before being selected as Chief of Combat Engineers and Inspector General of Fortresses.

At the turn of the century, von der Goltz consistently warned of an impending military conflict with England. His attitude ruffled some feathers at Great General Staff, and so in 1902 he was brushed off to the province of East Prussia where he commanded I. Armee-Korps. He had been in line to succeed von Schlieffen as Chief of General Staff, but instead remained in Königsberg until 1907. Goltz was then transferred to Berlin as Inspector General of the Sixth Army Inspectorate, simultaneously serving as commander of all troops based in East Prussian. In early 1911, he was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall but retired from military service two years later.

As Germany marched to war, Field Marshal von der Goltz returned to active duty in 1914 to serve as military governor of  Belgium. In November 1914, he transferred back to Constantinople as Sultan Mehmed V's senior military advisor and eventually replaced General Liman von Sanders as commander of the Bosporus Army in Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq. Later, as commander of the Ottoman Sixth Army, he fought Sir Charles Townsend's Anglo-Indian forces at Ctesiphon and supervised the five-month siege of Kut-al-Amara. On 19 April 1916, a few days before the garrison surrendered, von der Goltz died in Baghdad due to complications from typhus; he was also (falsely) rumored to have been poisoned by the so-called Young Turks. 

	Generalfeldmarschall	01.01.1911
	Erinnerungs-Kreuz	Deutscher Krieg  1866
	Eisernes Kreuz II	Deutsch-Französischer Krieg  1870–1871
	Schwarzer Adler	27.01.1907  (17.01.1908:  Kette)
	Pour le Mérite	19.01.1911  (für Wissenschaften und Künste)