Moritz von Bissing

Moritz Ferdinand Freiherr von Bissing (30 January 1844 – 18 April 1917) was a German officer from Prussia.

Life and pre-WWI army career
Bissing was born at Ober Bellmannsdorf in the Province of Silesia. He was the son of Moritz von Bissing, a member of the landed gentry who was known to speak his mind to the Kaiser. In 1865 Bissing entered the Prussian Army as a lieutenant in the cavalry, and he soon saw active service in the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War. Gaining steady promotion, in 1887 the young Major was appointed as an aide-de-camp to the crown prince, who later became the Emperor Wilhelm II. He 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 promoted to General of the Cavalry, and he retired from the army in 1908.

First World War
Upon the outbreak of the First World War, Bissing was recalled to active duty as deputy commander of the VII Army Corps, serving in that post from August until November 1914. After the fall of Belgium during the early months of the War, Bissing was promoted to Generaloberst and appointed as Governor-General of occupied Belgium, serving from December 1914 until a few days before his death in 1917.

As governor-general, Bissing executed the German Flamenpolitik, during which he netherlandized the Ghent University to make it the first solely Dutch-speaking university in Belgium. As the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg encouraged Flemish nationalist leaders to declare independence and to integrate into the German sphere, Bissing convened a commission to organise the division of Belgium, issuing a decree on 21 March 1917 which separated Belgium into two administrative areas, Flanders and Wallonia. This was the first attempt at dividing Belgium along linguistic lines.

Taking into account the decision by Walloon nationalists in 1912 to recognize Namur as the central city of Wallonia, Bissing established the Walloon administration there. Wallonia then consisted of four southern Belgian provinces and the district of Nivelles, part of the province of Brabant, thus realizing another revendication of the Walloon movement, the creation of a Walloon Brabant. The Flemish region had Brussels as its capital and was made up of the four northern provinces of Belgium, as well as the districts of Brussels and Leuven.

Among many others, Bissing signed the warrant for the execution of Edith Cavell.

In April 1917 a chronic lung ailment forced Bissing to resign his post as Governor-General, and he succumbed to his illness a few days later, dying near Brussels on 18 April. He is buried at the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin.

Honours
• Kingdom of Prussia:

• * Iron Cross (1870), 2nd Class

• * Knight of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class with Bow, 17 June 1890; 2nd Class with Oak Leaves and Crown, 1895; with Star, 15 June 1898; Grand Cross

• * Knight of the Royal Crown Order, 1st Class with Swords on Ring

• * Commander's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern

• * Service Award Cross

• * Knight of the Black Eagle, with Collar

•  Baden: Grand Cross of Zähringer Lion, 1900

•  Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight of the Military Merit Order, 1st Class

•  Brunswick: Commander of the Order of Henry the Lion, 2nd Class

•  Lippe-Detmold: Cross of Honour of the House Order of Lippe, 1st Class

•  Mecklenburg-Schwerin: Grand Commander of the Griffon

•  Kingdom of Saxony: Knight of the Albert Order, 1st Class, 1871; Commander 1st Class, 1896; Grand Cross with Swords on Ring

•  Württemberg: Knight of the Friedrich Order, 1st Class with Swords, 1871

•   Austria-Hungary:

• * Knight of the Iron Crown, 2nd Class, 1889

• * Commander of the Order of Franz Joseph, with Star, 1892

• 🇧🇪 Belgium: Commander of the Order of Leopold

• 🇩🇰 Denmark: Commander of the Dannebrog, 1st Class, 30 November 1891

•  Kingdom of Italy:

• * Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus

• * Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy

• 🇳🇱 Netherlands: Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau

•  Ottoman Empire: Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class

•  Kingdom of Romania:

• * Grand Officer of the Star of Romania

• * Grand Officer of the Crown of Romania

•  Russian Empire: Knight of St. Anna, 2nd Class

• 🇸🇪 🇳🇴 Sweden-Norway: Commander of the Sword, 2nd Class, 31 August 1888