Konstantinos Nider was a Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 Army officer, who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General

Lieutenant General

Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 and distinguished himself during the First World War and the subsequent Asia Minor Campaign.

Nider was born in Missolonghi in 1865, the son of the military doctor Franz Xaver Nider, one of the many Bavarian

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

s who had come to Greece with King Otto

Otto of Greece

Otto, Prince of Bavaria, then Othon, King of Greece was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended...

. He entered the Hellenic Army Academy and graduated in 1887 as an Engineer 2nd Lieutenant. Subsequently, Nider served for eight years in the Austro-Hungarian

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 Geodetic Mission to Greece, which laid the foundations of the Greek Army's own Geographic Service

Hellenic Military Geographical Service

The Hellenic Military Geographical Service or HMGS -History:Established in 1889 as the “Geodetic Mission” with the purpose of compiling the “Topographic and Cadastral Map of the Country”, the service acquired its current name in 1926...

. Promoted to Lieutenant in 1890 and Captain in 1898, he was ent to France for further studies in 1903. Upon his return he was promoted to Major and placed in the newly-established General Staff

Hellenic Army General Staff

The Hellenic Army General Staff is the general staff of the Hellenic Army, the terrestrial component of the Greek Armed Forces. It was established in 1906 as the Army Staff Service . Since 1950, the HAGS is subordinated to the Hellenic National Defense General Staff...

, and then in the staff of the 3rd Infantry Division. In 1910–1914, he served as head of the Personnel Office of the Army, and as Chief of Staff of the rear area and support troops during the Balkan Wars

Balkan Wars

The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...

. He was promoted to Lt Colonel in 1911.

In 1914 he was promoted to Colonel and became Chief of Staff of the I Army Corps. During the National Schism, he remained loyal to King Constantine I

Constantine I of Greece

Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...

. However, as he was not marked as an ardent royalist, he remained in the army following the King's exile and the assumption of power by the king's rival, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...

, in June 1917. Venizelos' victory led to the immediate entry of the whole country into World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 on the side of the Entente

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

, and Nider was given command of the 1st Infantry Division. In December 1918, he was given command of I Army Corps, which soon after participated in the Allied intervention in Southern Russia

Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War

The Allied intervention was a multi-national military expedition launched in 1918 during World War I which continued into the Russian Civil War. Its operations included forces from 14 nations and were conducted over a vast territory...

, fighting the Bolsheviks in the Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

 and Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

. On 2 June 1919, he was appointed head of the Greek Army of Occupation

Occupation of İzmir

The Occupation of Smyrna occurred from 15 May 1919 to 8 September 1922 by Greek forces under the High Commissioner Aristidis Stergiadis in the Smyrna district, aligned with the Allied partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. There were no military hostilities between Greece and the Ottoman Empire...

 for the zone around the city of Smyrna (Izmir

Izmir

Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

). He held this post until December, when he returned to his duties as CO of I Corps, which formed part of the occupation force. Nider fought in the subsequent battles of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 from the same post, until he was replaced in February 1922.

Following the Greek defeat in Asia Minor in August 1922 and the overthrow of the royal government by Venizelist

Venizelism

Venizelism was one of the major political movements in Greece from the 1900s until the mid 1970s.- Ideology :Named after Eleftherios Venizelos, the key characteristics of Venizelism were:*Opposition to Monarchy...

 officers, Nider was recalled to active service and placed at the head of the Army of Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

 until his resignation in December 1923. He became Vice Minister of Military Affairs in 1925, and head of the Military Household of the President of Greece

President of Greece

The President of the Hellenic Republic , colloquially referred to in English as the President of Greece, is the head of state of Greece. The office of the President of the Republic was established after the Greek republic referendum, 1974 and formally by the Constitution of Greece in 1975. The...

from April to August 1926, whereupon he retired from active service and public life. He died in 1942.

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