Gustav Adolf Joachim Rüdiger Graf von der Goltz (8 December 1865 – 4 November 1946) was a German army general during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He commanded the Baltic Sea Division, which successfully intervened in the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

in the spring of 1918. Goltz stayed with his troops in Finland until December 1918 representing German interests, and in practice ruled the country as a military dictator during this period. After the

Armistice of 11 November 1918 The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed in a railroad car, in the Compiègne Forest near the town of Compiègne, that ended fighting on land, at sea, and in the air in World War I between the Entente and their las ...

, Goltz commanded the army of the local German-established government of

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, which in 1919 was instrumental in the defeat of the Russian

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

and their local allies in Latvia. The troops commanded by Goltz suffered a defeat against Estonia in 1919 and were eventually unsuccessful in retaining German control over Latvia and Estonia after World War I.

Early life

Born into the Goltz noble family in Züllichau,

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, he was the son of Count Gustav Albrecht von der Goltz (1831-1909) and his wife, Cäcilie von Perbandt (1839-1871).

Career

A Major-General commanding the 1st Foot Guard Regiment in France, Goltz was transferred to Finland in March 1918 to help the nationalist government in the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

there against the Finnish "Reds" and Soviet Russian troops. He commanded the German expedition unit (" Baltic Sea Division") which landed at Hanko, Finland, between 3 April and 5 April 1918, and then marched on the socialist-controlled capital

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, which surrendered after the

Battle of Helsinki The Battle of Helsinki was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought on 12–13 April by the German Empire, German troops and White Guard (Finland), Finnish Whites against the Red Guards (Finland), Finnish Reds in Helsinki, Finland. Together wit ...

on 13 April 1918. The German military intervention aided the nationalist government of Finland to gain control over most of the country by May 1918. Goltz stayed with his troops in Finland after the

until December 1918 and was a major political influence in the country, described by the Quartermaster General of the

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

Hannes Ignatius as being the "true regent of Finland". In the summer of 1918, Goltz wanted to replace the Finnish White forces with a new Finnish conscript army, where all leadership positions were to be staffed by German officers and conscripts were to be trained according to German-army standards. Finnish generals Ignatius, von Gerich and Theslöf resigned from the Finnish military staff in protest. The Germans wanted to use Finnish forces against the Allied units intervening in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. After the 11 November 1918

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

, von der Goltz and his division left Helsinki on 16 December 1918. The Inter-Allied Commission of Control insisted that the German troops remain in

and

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

to prevent the area from being re-occupied by the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. As many of the demoralised German soldiers were being withdrawn from Latvia, a

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenaries or private military companies, rega ...

unit called the "Iron Division" () was formed and deployed in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

and used to delay the Red advance. New volunteers arriving from Germany and remnants of the German 8th Army were subsequently added to the Iron Division, which was assigned under the command of Goltz. Also,

Baltic Germans Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettlement in 1945 after the end of World War II, Baltic Germans have drastically decli ...

and some

Latvians Latvians () are a Baltic ethnic group and nation native to Latvia and the immediate geographical region, the Baltics. They are occasionally also referred to as Letts, especially in older bibliography. Latvians share a common Latvian language ...

formed the , led by Major

Alfred Fletcher Alfred Fletcher (20 January 1875 Lampersdorf, Province of Lower Silesia, German Empire – 20 September 1959 Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, West Germany) was a German soldier, Major and politician. Life Fletcher fought as a soldier in World War ...

In late February 1919, only the seaport of Libau (Liepāja) remained in the hands of the German and Latvian forces. In March 1919, General von der Goltz was able to win a series of victories over the Red Army, first occupying Windau (Ventspils), the major port of

Courland Courland is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. Courland's largest city is Liepāja, which is the third largest city in Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were ...

, and then advancing south and east to retake Riga. After the Bolsheviks had been driven out from most of Latvia, the Allies ordered the German government to withdraw its troops from the Baltic region. However, the Germans succeeded in negotiating a postponement, arguing that withdrawal would give the Bolsheviks a free hand. General von der Goltz then attempted to seize control of Latvia with the assistance of the local German population. The Latvian nationalist government was deposed while the Freikorps, Latvian and White Russian units moved on to capture Riga on May 23, 1919. The Latvian nationalists sought assistance from the

n army which had been occupying northern Latvia since earlier that year. In June 1919, General von der Goltz ordered his troops to advance not east against the Red Army (as the Allies had been expecting), but north, against the Estonians. On June 19, the Iron Division and ''Landeswehr'' units launched an attack to capture areas around Wenden (Cēsis), but in the battles over the following few days, they were defeated by the 3rd Estonian Division (led by

Ernst Põdder Ernst-Johannes Põdder VR I/1 (10 February 1879 – 24 June 1932) was an Estonian military commander in the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence. In 1900, Põdder graduated from the Vilnius Military Academy. In the Russo-Japanese war he a ...

). On the morning of June 23, the Germans began a general retreat toward Riga. The Allies again insisted that the Germans withdraw their remaining troops from Latvia and intervened to impose a ceasefire between the Estonians and the Freikorps when the Latvians were about to march into Riga. The British insisted that General von der Goltz leave Latvia, and he turned his troops over to the

West Russian Volunteer Army The West Russian Volunteer Army or Bermontians was a pro-German White Russian military formation in Latvia and Lithuania during the Russian Civil War from November 1918 to December 1919. History The , unlike the pro- Entente Volunteer Army ...

in the "

Mitau Jelgava () is a state city in central Latvia. It is located about southwest of Riga. It is the largest town in the Semigallia region of Latvia. Jelgava was the capital of the united Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1578–1795) and was the ad ...

mutiny' of August 1919. Count von der Goltz later claimed in his memoirs that his major strategic goal in 1919 had been to launch a campaign in cooperation with the White Russian forces to overturn the Bolshevik regime by marching on St. Petersburg (Petrograd) and to install a pro-German anti-Bolshevist government in Russia. He participated in the

Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an abortive coup d'état against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to ...

of 13 March 1920. As President of the (United Patriotic Associations of Germany) he participated in the Harzburg Front in the early 1930s. From 1924 to 1930, he headed a German association for the military education of the German youth named . On 17 July 1931 he delivered the to the Reich President

Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German military and political leader who led the Imperial German Army during the First World War and later became President of Germany (1919� ...

. He died on the Kinsegg estate, in the village of Bernbeuren, Germany, in 1946.

Personal life

On 3 March 1893 in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, he was married to Hannah Caroline Helene Marie von Hase (1873–1941), daughter of Karl Alfred von Hase (1842-1914) and his wife, Countess Klara von Kalckreuth (1851-1903), paternal granddaughter of Karl August von Hase. His three sons: * Count Gustav Adolf Karl Joachim ''Rüdiger'' von der Goltz (1894-1976), a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and politician; married Astrid Marie Hjort (1896-1948), daughter of Prof. Dr. Johan Hjort (1869-1948) and his wife, Wanda Marie von der Marwitz (1869-1952) and had issue * Count ''Hans'' von der Goltz (1895-1914); unmarried * Count ''Georg-Conrad'' Gustav Dankwart Carl Gottfried von der Goltz (1902-1985); married sister of his sister-in-law, Wanda Adelheid Hjort (b.1902) and had issue

Bibliography

# Goltz, Rüdiger von der:
Meine Sendung im Finland und im Baltikum
', (Leipzig, 1920) # Bermond-Awaloff, Pavel: ''Im Kampf gegen den Bolschevismus. Erinnerungen von Pavel Bermond-Awaloff'' (Berlin, 1925) # Bischoff, Josef: ''Die letzte Front. Geschichte der Eiserne Division im Baltikum 1919'' (Berlin, 1935) # ''Darstellungen aus den Nachkriegskämpfen deutscher Truppen und Freikorps'', vol. 2: "Der Feldzug im Baltikum bis zur zweiten Einnahme von Riga. Januar bis Mai 1919", Berlin 1937; vol. 3: "Die Kämpfe im Baltikum nach der zweiten Einnahme von Riga. Juni bis Dezember 1919" (Berlin, 1938) # ''Die baltische Landeswehr im Befreiungskampf gegen den Bolschevismus. Ein Gedenkbuch, herausgegeben vom baltischen Landeswehrein'' (Riga, 1929) # Kiewisz, Leon: ''Sprawy łotewskie w bałtyckiej polityce Niemiec 1914-1919'' (Posen, 1970) # Łossowski Piotr, ''Między wojną a pokojem. Niemieckie zamysły wojenne na wschodzie w obliczu traktatu wersalskiego. Marzec-kwiecień 1919'' (Warsaw, 1976) # Paluszyński, Tomasz: ''Walka o niepodległość Łotwy 1914-1921'' (Warsaw, 1999) # Paluszyński, Tomasz: ''Walka o niepodległość Estonii 1914-1920'' (Posen, 2007) # ''Von den baltische Provinzen zu den baltischen Staaten. Beiträge zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Republiken Estland und Lettland'', vol. I (1917–1918), vol. II (1919–1920) (Marburg 1971, 1977)

Notes

External links

* The name and pre-1918 data for this article seem to be garbled. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goltz, Rudiger Von Der 1865 births 1946 deaths

Rüdiger Rüdiger (English ''Ruediger'', ''Rudiger'', Roger) is a German given name. The meaning comes from Old High German: ''hruod'' (fame) and ''ger'' (spear). The name became popular because of the character Rüdiger von Bechelaren from '' Nibelung''. ...

People from Sulechów People of the Estonian War of Independence Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class German Army generals of World War I People of the Russian Civil War People of the Finnish Civil War (White side) Counts in Germany Military personnel from the Province of Brandenburg Major generals of Prussia German monarchists Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class) Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Liberty, 1st Class 20th-century Freikorps personnel German expatriates in Finland Baltische Landeswehr personnel