1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Goltz, Karl, Count von der

GOLTZ, KARL, (1864-), German lieutenant-general, was born at Brühl June 28 1864. He commanded a division of the Landwehr at the battle of the Masurian Lakes in Feb. 1915. In the spring of 1918 he led the Baltic Div. (Ostsee Div.) into Finland and was appointed chief-in-command in the Baltic countries in Nov. 1918. In the following year his position became anomalous. He was leading a volunteer army professedly against the Bolshevists, but his recall was demanded by the Allied and Associated Powers. His removal was effected only with great difficulty by the Berlin Government, as he had taken the bit in his teeth. He was suspected of cherishing designs for leading his Baltic volunteers back at some suitable moment into Germany in order to place them as an instrument at the disposal of the royalist and reactionary movement. Sections of them (Das Baltikum) actually took part in the military occupation of Berlin which attended the Kapp coup in March 1920, and great difficulty was afterwards experienced in disbanding them. Count von der Goltz wrote Meine Sendung in Finnland und im Baltikum (1920), describing his experiences in the Baltic countries in 1918-9.