Otto Liman von Sanders
Otto Viktor Karl Liman von Sanders (German: [ˈɔtoː ˈliːman fɔn ˈzandɐs]; 17 February 1855 – 22 August 1929) was an Imperial German Army general who served as a military adviser to the Ottoman Army during the First World War. In 1918 he commanded an Ottoman army during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign.[1] On the whole Sanders provided only limited help to the Ottoman forces.[2]
Dr. phil. h. c.
Otto Liman von Sanders
Otto Viktor Karl Liman
17 February 1855
Stolp, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia
(now Słupsk, Poland)
22 August 1929 (aged 74)
Munich, Bavaria, Weimar Republic
1874–1918
General of the Cavalry (Germany)
Field Marshal (Ottoman Empire)
- Grossherzoglich-Hessisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 115
- Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 23
- I. Armee-Korps
- 22nd Division
- Husaren-Regiment Nr. 6
- Fifth Army (Ottoman Empire)
- Yildirim Army Group (Ottoman Empire)
- Amelie Lily Karoline Gabriele von Sanders (1858–1906)
- Elisabeth Alberti
Early life and career[edit]
Otto Liman was born in Stolp (now Słupsk, Poland) in the Province of Pomerania in the Kingdom of Prussia. He was the son of Carl Leonhard Liman and his wife Emma née Michaelis. Carl Liman was a prosperous businessman, who purchased the lordship of the manor (Rittergut) of Schwessin (now Świeszyno, Poland). Although divergent details of Carl Liman's paternal ancestry are recorded, it is generally agreed that his father and Otto's grandfather was born to a Jewish family by the name of Liepmann and was later baptised a Christian.[3]
After gaining his diploma (Abitur) at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Berlin, Otto Liman entered the army on 13 March 1874 as a Fahnenjunker in the Leibgarde-Infanterie-Regiment (1. Grossherzöglich Hessisches) Nr. 115. From 1878 to 1881 he attended the Military Academy (Kriegsakademie) in Berlin, and was subsequently transferred to Garde-Dragoner-Regiment (1. Grossherzöglich Hessisches) Nr. 23. In 1885 he was promoted to Oberleutnant and in 1887 seconded to the General Staff. Promoted to Hauptmann in 1889, he was appointed a squadron commander (Eskadronschef) in 1891. In 1900 he was assigned command of Husaren-Regiment "Graf Goetzen" (2. Schlesisches) Nr. 6, first as Major, and from 1904 as Oberst. He was promoted to Generalmajor in 1908 and given command of the 22nd Division, based at Kassel.[4] He attained the rank of Generalleutnant in 1911.[4]
On 16 June 1913, on the occasion of the 25th Jubilee of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Liman was ennobled. As his nobiliary suffix he chose the maiden name of his late first wife, Amelie von Sanders (1858–1906). He was thereafter known as Otto Liman von Sanders. In accordance with the rules of German nomenclature, this surname is correctly abbreviated "Liman" (and not "von Sanders" or "Sanders", as is often the case in English-language publications).[5]
Alleged war crimes[edit]
After one group of 300 Armenians were deported from Smyrna, Liman von Sanders blocked additional deportations by threatening to use military force to obstruct them. However, this action was not motivated by humanitarianism, but by his insistence to avoid chaos in a war zone.[7]
Liman von Sanders has been accused of perpetrating war crimes in his dealings with the Greek civilian population of Aivali, by proposing to the Ottoman authorities their deportation "for the security of the army"[8] (the deportation did occur in 1917 and led to the death of many[8]), or by directly ordering, as an autocratic military dictator, the mass deportation of Greeks and Armenians.[9] British Admiral Sir Somerset Gough-Calthorpe accused him of being behind the deportation of 35,000 Greeks from Aivali "under horrible conditions", as part of the deportation and partial assassination of 300,000 Ottoman Greeks under his complete authority, and that the 1915 expulsion of 1.5 million Armenians and 450,000 Greeks was overseen by von Sanders.[10] Von Sanders was also accused of "deliberately" cutting a trench system through the British war cemeteries at Gallipoli[9] and of the maltreatment of British prisoners of war.[10]
British authorities arrested him in 1919 on war crime charges, concretely for sanctioning massacres of Greeks and Armenians, kept him for half a year on Malta with the Malta exiles, but then released him.[8][11]
Later life[edit]
After being released, Liman returned home and retired from the German army later that year.[8] After former Ottoman Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha was assassinated by Armenian revolutionary Soghomon Tehlirian in Berlin in March 1921, Liman was called upon to testify as an expert witness at Tehlirian's trial. Tehlirian was ultimately acquitted.[12]
In 1927 he published Fünf Jahre Türkei (tr. Five Years in Turkey), a book he had written in captivity in Malta about his experiences before and during the war.[13]
Liman von Sanders died in Munich on 22 August 1929, at the age of seventy-four.[1]