Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz ( 12 August 1843 – 19 April 1916 ) also known as " Goltz Pasha " , was a Prussia n Field Marshal and military writer . Military career . Goltz was born in Bielkenfeld , East Prussia ( later renamed Goltzhausen ; now Ivanovka , near Polessk , Kaliningrad Oblast ) , into an impoverished noble family . He grew up at the manor house of Fabiansfelde near Preußisch Eylau , which had been bought by his father in 1844 . His father spent some nineteen years in the Prussian Army without rising above the rank of lieutenant , and his efforts at farming were similarly unfruitful , and he eventually succumbed to cholera while on a trip to Danzig ( now Gdańsk ) when Colmar was six years old . Goltz entered the Prussian infantry in 1861 as a second lieutenant with the 5th East Prussian Infantry Regiment Number 41 , in Königsberg ( now Kaliningrad ) . During 1864 he was on border duty at Thorn ( Toruń ) , after which he entered the Berlin Military Academy , but was temporarily withdrawn in 1866 to serve in the Austro - Prussian War , in which he was wounded at Trautenau . In 1867 he joined the topographical section of the general staff , and at the beginning of the Franco - Prussian War of 1870 - 71 was attached to the staff of Prince Frederick Charles , commanding general of the Prussian Second Army . He took part in the battles of Vionville and Gravelotte and in the siege of Metz . After its fall he served under the Red Prince in the campaign of the Loire , including the battles of Orleans and Le Mans . Goltz was appointed professor at the military school at Potsdam in 1871 , promoted to captain , and placed in the historical section of the general staff . It was then that he wrote " Die Operationen der II . Armee bis zur Capitulation von Metz " ( " The Operations of the Second Army until the surrender of Metz " ) and " Die Sieben Tage von Le Mans " ( " The Seven Days of Le Mans " ) , both published in 1873 . In 1874 he was appointed first general staff officer ( Ia ) of the 6th Division , and while so employed wrote " Die Operationen der II . Armee an der Loire " ( " The Operations of the Second Army on the Loire " ) and " Léon Gambetta und seine Armeen " ( " Léon Gambetta and his armies " ) , published in 1875 and 1877 respectively . The latter was translated into French the same year , and is considered by many historians to be his most original contribution to military literature . Goltz stressed how , despite the rapid initial victory against the Imperial French forces at Sedan , the new French Republic had been able to mobilise national will for a Volkskrieg ( " War of the People " ) which dragged on for many more months ( the Siege of Paris , the campaign on the Loire and the partisans behind German lines , the latter tying down 20 % of German strength ) , the implication being that it was therefore unrealistic to expect a quick victory over France in any future war . The views expressed in the latter work were unpopular with the powers that be and led to Goltz ' s being sent back to regimental duty for a time , but it was not long before he returned to the military history section . In 1878 Goltz was appointed lecturer in military history at the military academy at Berlin , where he remained for five years and attained the rank of major . He published , in 1883 , " Roßbach und Jena " ( new and revised edition , " Von Rossbach bis Jena und Auerstadt " , 1906 ) , " Das Volk in Waffen " ( " The Nation in Arms " ) , both of which quickly became military classics , and during his residence in Berlin contributed many articles to the military journals . Service with the Ottoman Empire . After defeat in the Russo - Turkish War ( 1877 - 1878 ) , Sultan Hamid , ruler of the Ottoman Empire , asked for German aid in reorganizing the Ottoman Army , so that they would be able to resist the advance of the Russian Empire . Baron von der Goltz was sent . He spent twelve years on this work which provided the material for several of his books . After some years he was given the title Pasha ( a signal honor for a non - Muslim ) and in 1895 , just before he returned to Germany , he was named Mushir ( field - marshal ) . His improvements to the Ottoman army were significant and the Turkish army stopped at the gates of Athens in the Greco - Turkish War ( 1897 ) , only when the Czar Nicholas II of Russia threatened the Ottoman Sultan that he would be attacking the Ottoman Empire from eastern Anatolia , unless the Ottoman Army stopped the campaign . On his return to Germany in 1896 Goltz became a lieutenant - general and commander of the 5th division , and in 1898 , head of the Engineer and Pioneer Corps and inspector - general of fortifications . In 1900 he was made general of infantry and in 1902 commander of the I . army corps . In 1907 he was made inspector - general of the newly created sixth army inspection established at Berlin , and in 1908 was given the rank of colonel - general ( " Generaloberst " ) . Following the 1911 manœuvres Goltz was promoted to " Generalfeldmarschall " ( Field Marshal ) , and retired from active service . In 1911 he founded the " Jungdeutschlandbund " ( Young German League ) , an umbrella organization of right wing German youth associations . Recalled from retirement : World War I . In German service ( 1914 – 1915 ) . At the outbreak of the First World War Goltz was recalled to duty and appointed the military governor of Belgium . In that position , he dealt ruthlessly with what remained of Belgian resistance to German occupation , mostly sniper - fire and damaging rail and telegraph lines . As Martin Gilbert notes in " The First World War , " in early September 1914 , the newly appointed Goltz proclaimed : " It is the stern necessity of war that the punishment for hostile acts falls not only on the guilty , but on the innocent as well . " On 5 October , he was even clearer when he ordered : " In the future , villages in the vicinity of places where railway and telegraph lines are destroyed will be punished without pity ( whether they are guilty or not of the acts in question ) . With this in view hostages have been taken in all villages near the railway lines which are threatened by such attacks . Upon the first attempt to destroy lines of railway , telegraph or telephone , they will immediately be shot . " Goltz ' actions were praised by Adolf Hitler , who in September 1941 linked Nazi atrocities in Eastern Europe with those in Belgium during World War I . In Ottoman service ( 1915 - 1916 ) . Soon afterward Goltz gave up that position and became a military aide to the ( essentially powerless ) Sultan Mehmed V . Baron von der Goltz did not get along with the head of the German mission to Turkey , Otto Liman von Sanders , nor was he liked by the real power in the Ottoman Government , Enver Pasha . Despite the mutual dislike , in mid - October 1915 , with the British under General Townshend advancing on Baghdad , Enver Pasha put Goltz in charge of the Fifth Army ( see the Mesopotamian Campaign ) . Baron von der Goltz was in command at the Battle of Ctesiphon - which was a draw , as both sides retreated from the battlefield . However , with the British retreating , Goltz turned his army around and followed them down the river . When Townshend halted at Kut , Goltz laid siege to the British position ( see the Siege of Kut ) . Much like Julius Caesar ' s legions at the Battle of Alesia , the Turkish 6th Army under the command of Halil Kut Pasha had to fight off a major British effort to relieve the Kut garrison while maintaining the siege . All told the British tried three different attacks and each one failed at a total cost of 23 , 000 casualties . The battles included The Battle of Wadi , The Battle of Hanna and the Battle of Dujaila . Armenian Genocide . During the 1915 campaign of the Russians in eastern Anatolia , German officers had recommended the selected deportation of local Armenian population in Eastern Anatolia , in case the Russian advance caused an uprising . When Enver Pasha showed such orders to Goltz he approved of them as a military necessity . In the words of one historian , " Goltz ' s later actions to stop deportations indicate it is unlikely that he understood its larger significance . " In December 1915 Goltz directly intervened , threatening to resign his command if the deportations were not halted . It was a measure of Goltz ' s stature in the Ottoman Empire that he , as a foreign military officer , was able , if briefly , to influence domestic policy . However , he was able to effect only a temporary reprieve , and then only in Mesopotamia . It would have been almost unheard of for a soldier to resign during wartime , and in the end Goltz did not do so . Death . Goltz died on 19 April 1916 , in Baghdad , just two weeks before the British in Kut surrendered . The official reason for his death was typhus , although apparently there were rumors that he had been poisoned by the Turks . In accordance with his will , he was buried in the grounds of the German Consulate in Tarabya , Istanbul , overlooking the Bosporus . Coincidentally , one year later General Frederick Stanley Maude died in the same house as Goltz . Writing career . From the 1870s until World War I , Baron von der Goltz was more widely read by British and American military leaders than Clausewitz . In addition to many contributions to military periodicals , he wrote " Kriegführung " ( 1895 ) , later titled " Krieg und Heerführung " , 1901 ( " The Conduct of War " ) ; " Der Thessalische Krieg " ( " The War in Greece " , 1898 ) ; " Ein Ausflug nach Macedonien " ( 1894 ) ( " A Journey through Macedonia " ) ; " Anatolische Ausflüge " ( 1896 ) ( " Anatolian Travels " ) ; a map and description of the environs of Constantinople ; " Von Jena bis Pr . Eylau " ( 1907 ) ( " From Jena to Eylau " ) .