The Germans beat Belgian cities with powerful howitzers called Debela Berta. They conquered Belgium in about twenty days. In the conquered area, they established the so-called Imperial German Governor-General of Belgium (Kaiserliches Deutsches Generalgouvernement Belgien).
On August 20, 1914, the German Imperial Army occupied Brussels in World War I. The German attack on neutral Belgium was considered a war crime in itself, as it circumvented neutrality agreements. The German attack on Belgium and their occupying power over that country is sometimes called the Rape of Belgium, and during that time the Germans committed crimes against the civilian population and against Belgian cultural monuments.
Imperial Germany attacked Belgium with as many as three armies and almost 750,000 soldiers (the entire Belgian army was 6-7 times smaller). The Supreme Commander of the German Army was personally Emperor (Kaiser) Wilhelm II, and the Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke (from the famous military family of Moltke, his uncle Field Marshal Count von Moltke was also formerly Chief of General Staff).
The German First Army under the command of Colonel-General Alexander von Kluck headed for Brussels. From her left advanced the Second Army under Colonel-General Karl von Bülow (the von Bülow family is one of the most famous in German military history, and its members held in politics and the positions of chancellor and minister).
The Germans beat Belgian cities with powerful howitzers called Debela Berta. They conquered Belgium in about twenty days. In the conquered area, they established the so-called Imperial German Governor General of Belgium (Kaiserliches Deutsches Generalgouvernement Belgien). Such a general governorship was probably a model for Adolf Hitler to establish a similar institution in the conquered Polish territories during World War II. The first German Governor General of Belgium in the First World War was Field Marshal Baron Colmar von der Goltz (known for his activity in Turkey, which is why he was also called Goltz-pasha).
