thumb|A coin (2 [[kopek) from Ober Ost (1916), with inscription: Gebiet des Oberbefehlshabers Ost]]
The Area of the Commander-in-Chief in the East (), also known by its German abbreviation as , was an occupied territory encompassing German sections of the Eastern Front, during the World War I (1914–1918). It was headed by the Commander-in-Chief of all German Forces in the East (), one of the highest-ranking positions in the armed forces of the German Empire. Institutional development and territorial evolution of the Ober Ost was varying over the years, depending on political and military decisions related to governance over the occupied territories. After the creation of Government General of Warsaw in October 1915, the Ober Ost was encompassing former Russian provinces (governorates) of Courland, Grodno, Kovno, Suwałki, and Vilna. In 1917–1918, it was expanded further towards the governorates of Minsk, Livonia, Estonia, and other temporarily held regions to the east and north. It was governed in succession by field marshals Paul von Hindenburg and Leopold of Bavaria. It was abandoned after the end of World War I.
Extension
was set up by Kaiser Wilhelm II in November 1914, initially under the command of Paul von Hindenburg, a Prussian general who had come out of retirement to achieve the German victory of the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914 and became a national hero. When the Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn was dismissed from office by the Kaiser in August 1916, Hindenburg took over at the General Staff, and Prince Leopold of Bavaria took control of the .
By October 1915, the Imperial German Army had advanced so far to the east that central Poland could be put under a civil administration. Accordingly, the German Empire established the Government General of Warsaw and the Austro-Hungarian Empire set up the Government General of Lublin. The military Ober Ost government from then on controlled only the conquered areas east and north of central Poland.
After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918, the effectively spanned present-day Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, parts of Poland, and Courland, all of which had been part of the Russian Empire.
Policies
thumb|Postage stamps from Ober Ost
governed in a very strict and often cruel way. The movement policy () divided the territory without regard to the existing social structures and ethnic patterns. Movement between the districts was forbidden, which destroyed the livelihood of many merchants and prevented people from visiting relatives and friends in neighbouring districts. The Germans also tried to "civilise" the people in the Ober Ost-controlled lands, attempting to integrate German ideals and institutions with the existing cultures. They constructed railroads, but only Germans were allowed to ride them and schools were established and staffed with German instructors.
In 1915, when large territories came under Ober Osts administration as a result of military successes on the Eastern Front, Erich Ludendorff, von Hindenburg's second-in-command, set up a system of managing the large area now under its jurisdiction. Although von Hindenburg was technically in command, Ludendorff had actual control of the administration. There were ten staff members, each with a speciality (finance, agriculture, etc.) The area was divided into the Courland District, the Lithuania District and the Bialystok-Grodno District, each overseen by a district commander. Ludendorff's plan was to make Ober Ost a colonial territory for the settlement of his troops after the war and to provide a haven for German refugees from Russia. In the rural areas and amongst peasant populations soldiers had to rely on interpreters who spoke Lithuanian, Latvian or Polish.
{| class="wikitable" lang="de"
|-
! scope="col" | Bialystok-Grodno
! scope="col" | Kurland
|-
| Alekszyce || Bauske
|-
| Bialystok, Stadtkreis || Doblen
|-
| Bialystok, Landkreis || Goldingen
|-
| Bielsk || Grobin
|-
| Grodno, Stadtkreis || Hasenpot
|-
| Grodno, Landkreis || Libau, Stadtkreis
|-
| Lida, Stadtkreis || Mitau, Landkreis
|-
| Ost || Talsen
|-
| Planty || Tuckum
|-
| Radun || Windau
|-
| Sokolka ||rowspan="4"
|-
| Swislocz
|-
| Wasilischky
|-
| Wolkowysk
|}
{| class="wikitable" lang="de"
|-
! colspan="2" | Litauen
|-
| Augustow || Rossienie
|-
| Birshi || Russisch-Krottingen
|-
| Johanischkele || Saldugischki
|-
| Kiejdany || Schaulen
|-
| Koschedary || Schirwinty
|-
| Kowno, Stadtkreis || Sejny
|-
| Kowno, Landkreis || Siady
|-
| Kupzischki || Skaudwile
|-
| Kurszany || Suwalki
|-
| Maljaty || Telsze
|-
| Mariampol || Uzjany
|-
| Okmjany || Wiezajcie
|-
| Olita || Wilkomierz
|-
| Podbrodzie || Wilna, Stadtkreis
|-
| Pojurze || Wilna, Landkreis
|-
| Poniewiez || Wladislawow
|-
| Rakischki || Wylkowyschki
|}
The total area was , containing a population of 2,909,935 (by the end of 1916).
Aftermath
With the end of the war and collapse of the empire, the Germans started to withdraw, sometimes in a piecemeal and disorganised way, from around late 1918 and early 1919. In the vacuum left by their retreat, conflicts arose as various former occupied nations declared independence, clashing with the various factions of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War, and with each other. For details, see:
- Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919, part of the Polish–Soviet War (the largest of the resulting conflicts);
- Ukrainian–Soviet War and Polish–Ukrainian War;
- Estonian War of Independence;
- Latvian War of Independence;
- Lithuanian Wars of Independence.
By 1919, the remaining military units in the region were:
- the 10th Army ( or ), Commanding Officer , Grodno;
- the Army Group Mackensen ().
Parallels with Nazi German policy
The Lithuanian historian Vėjas Gabrielius Liulevičius postulates in his book War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I that a line can be traced from 's policies and assumptions to Nazi Germany's plans and attitudes towards Eastern Europe. His main argument is that "German troops developed a revulsion towards the 'East' and came to think of it as a timeless region beset by chaos, disease and barbarism", instead of what it really was, a region suffering from the ravages of warfare. He claims that the encounter with the East formed an idea of "spaces and races", which needed to be "cleared and cleansed". Although he has garnered a great deal of evidence for his thesis, including government documents, letters and diaries in German and Lithuanian, there are still problems with his work. For example, he does not say much about the reception of German policies by native populations.