Konstantinos Nider

Theodoros Manetas
Nider (right), with his chief of staff, Colonel Theodoros Pangalos, at the Macedonian Front during World War I
Born	1865
Died	1942 (aged 76–77)
Place of birth	Missolonghi
Place of death	Athens
Allegiance	Kingdom of Greece
Service/branch	Hellenic Army
Years of service	1884–1923
Rank	Lieutenant General
Wars	Balkan Wars, Macedonian Front, Allied intervention in Southern Russia, Asia Minor Campaign

Konstantinos Nider (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Νίδερ, 1865–1942) was a Greek Army officer, who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and distinguished himself during the First World War and the subsequent Asia Minor Campaign.

Biography

Nider was born in Missolonghi in 1865, the son of the military doctor Franz Xaver Nider, one of the many Bavarians who had come to Greece with King Otto. 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 Geodetic Mission to Greece, which laid the foundations of the Greek Army's own Geographic Service. 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, 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. 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. 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, in June 1917. Venizelos' victory led to the immediate entry of the whole country into World War I on the side of the Entente, 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, fighting the Bolsheviks in the Crimea and Odessa. On 2 June 1919, he was appointed head of the Greek Army of Occupation for the zone around the city of Smyrna (Izmir). 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 officers, Nider was recalled to active service and placed at the head of the Army of Thrace 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 (at the time his former chief of staff, Theodoros Pangalos, who had become dictator in 1925) from April to August 1926, whereupon he retired from active service and public life. He died in 1942.

Sources

• (Greek) "Αντιστράτηγος ΝΙΔΕΡ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ του ΦΡΑΓΚΙΣΚΟΥ-ΞΑΒΙΕΡΟΥ, ΑΜ 3583.". Συνοπτική Ιστορία του Γενικού Επιτελείου Στρατού 1901–2001 [A Concise History of the Hellenic Army General Staff 1901–2001]. Athens: Army History Directorate. 2001. p. 137. http://www.sse.gr/files/03.ΝΙΔΕΡ_ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ.pdf.