Oskars Jekabs Dankers Latvian general, officer of the Russian tsarist army Date of Birth: 26.03.1883 Country: Latvia

Biography of Oskars Ekabs Dankers

Oskars Ekabs Dankers was a Latvian general and an officer in the Russian Imperial Army. He was born on March 14, 1883, in the village of Irlava near Tukums, to a family of a priest named Karl Dankers and his wife Dorotea. He studied at the Alexandrovskaya Gymnasium in Jelgava and graduated from the local technical school in 1902. After completing his studies, he joined the military and served in the 180th Infantry Regiment in Jelgava.

In 1906, Dankers graduated from the military academy in Vilnius and transferred to the 197th Forest Infantry Regiment in Helsingfors, where he eventually became a staff captain in 1913. During World War I, he served as an officer in the Russian Army and fought in the 197th Infantry Regiment. He was wounded and injured multiple times during combat. Dankers was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on February 4, 1916. Two months later, he was captured by the Austrians. After his release, he lived in Helsinki.

In 1918, Dankers became an officer in the German expeditionary corps under General von der Goltz. From May 1919, he served in the Latvian Army. During the tumultuous years of war, Dankers was appointed as the commander of various army units, including the 7th Sigulda Regiment in 1919. In October of the same year, Dankers became the commander of the Lower Kurzeme Military District. Under his leadership, the district successfully repelled the advance of Bermont's army towards Liepaja. After the reorganization of the district's forces into the Zemgale Division, Dankers became its first commander. He led the division in battles against the Bolsheviks on the Latgale Front.

In 1920, after the proclamation of Latvian independence and the convening of the Constituent Assembly, Dankers, as a former officer of the Russian Army, actively participated in the formation of the Latvian National Armed Forces. He held the position of commander of the Zemgale Division from 1919 to 1932. In late 1932, the supreme army leadership decided to transfer Dankers to the General Staff. In 1933, he took command of the 1st Kurzeme Division and served as its commander until December 1939, when he retired from the army due to health reasons.

After the Soviet forces entered Latvia, Dankers and his family fled to Germany on June 21, 1940. Shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War, his identity as a retired fugitive commander drew the interest of the semi-conspiratorial "Rosenberg Service," later renamed the Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories, which was subordinate to Alfred Rosenberg, the ideological architect of Nazi Germany's official anti-Semitic concept. In early June 1941, representatives of the Eastern Ministry established contact with Dankers.

The interest of the Rosenberg Service in Dankers contradicted the plans of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW), which favored the candidacy of Colonel Aleksandrs Plensners, the former military attaché of the Latvian Republic in Germany, who also gained support from the Abwehr regarding the prospects of collaboration with the Nazis on the already occupied Latvian territory. However, Dankers' candidacy was considered only after the invasion of the Soviet Union, when the German military command (the civil administration was not yet responsible for the territory since Latvia was initially in the rear zone) had to choose between two self-proclaimed collaborationist governments—the Central Committee of Liberated Latvia under Colonel Krišjānis Krēsliņš and the Temporary Administrative Council led by former Minister of Transport Einbergs. Dankers seemed like a neutral candidate for the senior ranks of the Wehrmacht since they received a directive from the Reich not to engage with hastily formed local authorities. The Germans planned to create a puppet "Council of Trustees," but initially, Dankers' chances of leading it seemed slim, as Colonel Plensners enjoyed the favor of General von Roca, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht. However, circumstances soon changed in Dankers' favor.

Representative of the Eastern Ministry, Kleist, authorized by Rosenberg to negotiate with von Roca about the formation of the "council," expressed dissatisfaction with the inclusion of Valdemārs' political supporters in the council, whom the Germans considered unreliable. Shortly after, Lieutenant Colonel Deglavs, an associate of Plensners, committed suicide due to disappointment with the new regime. Due to these events, Plensners chose to step back and dissolved the council, marking the beginning of a new phase in the power struggle in occupied Latvia.