Kiesling, Hans von b. (Exact date unknown) 1873; Munich, Bavaria d. Unknown
German officer who served numerous stints as an instructor at the Chilean war academy. Kiesling joined an infantry regiment in 1892 and graduated from the Bavarian War Academy in 1903.
From 1903 to 1907 he worked for the Bavarian General Staff. A year later he unsuccessfully applied for a position in the Turkish army. His efforts to gain entry into the Chilean army in 1909—1910 were more successful. He went to Chile in 1910 as a member of a group of German officers who had served the Chilean government since Emil Korner had first introduced the Prussian military system in that country. For four years Kies- ling served as instructor at the Chilean war academy. During World War I Kiesling served in the Middle East. Leaving the army in 1919, he lived for various years as a freelance writer close to Munich and worked for the early Volkischer Beobachter (Folkish Observer), the notorious Nazi organ. Kiesling did not actively participate in the counterrevolutionary Freikorps but welcomed the “liberation” of his hometown from Socialist rule in 1919.In 1924, sponsored by important enterprises of German heavy industry, Kiesling returned to Chile as chief organizer of a settlement project that soon failed. From the beginning, however, he intended to join the Chilean army again and thus kept in contact with his former comrade Wilhelm Faupel, who at that point had already regained his position in the Argentinean military. Due to the resistance of French diplomats, Kiesling was initially permitted only to lecture unofficially in Chilean military circles.
It was the military coup of 1924—1925 that finally paved the way for Kiesling. Colonel Carlos Ibanez, an avid student of the Prussian military system, became the ruler in Chile. Kiesling received an official contract as instructor to the war academy in 1926 and contracted several German officers to serve as advisers under his command.
He also organized study trips of Chilean officers to Germany. In addition, Kiesling was instrumental in negotiating deals for the German arms industry in Chile. The fall of Ibanez in 1931 due to the economic crisis of the Great Depression severely limited Kiesling’s influence. Although he was promoted to the rank of general in 1933 and allowed to stay in the Chilean service until 1937, the bonanza of German military instruction in Chile had finally come to an end.Stefan Rinke
See also Chile; Faupel, Wilhelm; Latin America, German Military Advisers in
References and Further Reading
Kiesling, Hans von. Soldat in drei Weltteilen. Leipzig: Grethlein, 1935.
Rinke, Stefan. “Eine Pickelhaube macht noch keinen PreuEen: Preuβisch-deutsche Militarberater, ‘Militarethos’ und Modernisierung in Chile, 1886—1973.” In Preuβen und Lateinamerika: Im Spannungsfeld von Kommerz, Macht und Kultur. Eds. Sandra Carreras and Gunther Maihold. Munster: Lit, 2004, pp. 259-283.
Schaefer, Jurgen. Deutsche Militarhilfe an Sudamerika: Militar- und Rustungsinteressen in Argentinien, Bolivien und Chile vor 1914. Dusseldorf: Bertelsmann, 1974.