General Government of Belgium
Imperial German General Governorate of Belgium | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1914–1918 | |||||||||
| Capital | Brussels | ||||||||
| Common languages | German, Dutch, French | ||||||||
| Government | Occupation authority | ||||||||
| Military Governor | |||||||||
• 1914 | Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz | ||||||||
• 1914-1918 | Moritz von Bissing | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 26 August 1914 | ||||||||
• Armistice, withdrawal of German forces | 11 November 1918 | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | BE | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Belgium | ||||||||
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The Imperial German General Governorate of Belgium (German: Kaiserliches Deutsches Generalgouvernement Belgien) was a German military government established in occupied Belgium during the First World War. The governorate was set up on 26 August 1914, when Field Marshal Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz was appointed the military governor of Belgium.[1] He was succeeded by General Moritz von Bissing on 27 November 1914.[1]
Soon after Bissing's appointment, the German High Command divided Belgium into three zones.[2] The largest of the zones was the General Governorate, which included the capital Brussels and the surrounding countryside.[2] The second zone, under the control of the German Fourth Army, included the cities of Ghent and Antwerp.[2] The third zone, under the auspices of the German Navy, included all Belgian coastal zones under German occupation.[2]
The German occupation tried to keep the pre-war Belgian administrative system as intact as possible and guide it using a small group of German officers and officials with adequate lingual and administrative skills.[2]
The German High Command hoped to exploit the ethnic tension between the Flemish and Walloons, and envisioned a post-war German protectorate in Flanders, while Wallonia was to be used for industrial materials and labour along with much of northeastern France.[2]