2nd Lower Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 137

2nd Lower Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 137
active	March 11, 1887 to April 15, 1919
Country	Kingdom of Prussia
Armed forces	Prussian Army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry regiment
Insinuation	XV. Army Corps
Location	Haguenau
management
Commanders	See commanders

The . 2. Under-Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 137 was an infantry - Association of the Prussian army .

history

The association was established by AKO on March 11, 1887 (Foundation Day) as Infantry Regiment No. 137 . The formation took place by the 8th , 17th and 18th divisions . After the formation of three battalions with four companies each , the regiment of the 62nd Infantry Brigade of the XV. Army corps and was assigned to Hagenau as a garrison . Two battalions were housed in Strasbourg in the first few years due to the lack of appropriate barracks . After the barracks started in 1890 were completed, the II. And III. Battalion to Haguenau.

On October 1, 1893, an IV (half) battalion with a 13th and 14th company was created from levies from the existing companies. In the same year the association took part in the Imperial Maneuver in Alsace . In 1895 the Prussian garrison building administration had barracks built in Hagenau for the IV (half) battalion. The system was built according to the plans of the garrison building officials Gabe and Buschenhagen, and included u. a. two crew buildings, a residential building for married couples and a farm building with a gunsmith's workshop. The IV. (Half) Battalion was disbanded on March 31, 1897 with the surrender to the formation of Infantry Regiment No. 171 .

For the first time on September 5, 1896, the 3rd Company was awarded the Emperor's Badge for the best shooting performance in the corps area and received a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1897, 1898, 1900 and, for the last time, in 1911, companies of the regiment secured the coveted Emperor's badge. The respective company commander was awarded the Red Eagle Order IV class with the crown.

On January 27, 1902, Wilhelm II issued the army order that the associations, which had not yet been given a rural name, were given a name extension in order to better distinguish between them and to establish tradition. From this point on, the regiment was known as the 2nd Lower Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 137 .

On October 1, 1911, the regiment received an MG company equipped with the MG 08 .

Boxer Rebellion

On the occasion of the establishment of the East Asian Expeditionary Corps to suppress the Boxer Uprising in 1900/01, the regiment was involved in the formation of the 4th East Asian Infantry Regiment . Two NCOs and 29 men voluntarily transferred to the 4th East Asian Infantry Regiment and took part in the fighting in China. Three men volunteered for the 2nd Sea Battalion and a further eleven men served in various other units in China.

Uprising of the Herero and Nama

On the occasion of the suppression of the Herero uprising in 1904 in the colony of German South West Africa , members of the regiment again volunteered. 25 men joined the protection force and served in the colony. Some of them were also used during the Nama uprising in 1904/06.

First World War

The regiment made of the outbreak World War on August 2, 1914 mobile . As part of the 62nd Infantry Brigade of the 31st Division , it was initially used on the Western Front . It took part in the battles in Lorraine and Nancy - Epinal . During the Battle of the Somme , the regiment suffered great losses, as a result of which the III. Battalion had to be disbanded on October 1, 1914. The remnants were combined into a company and subordinated to the II Battalion. During the subsequent positional war on the Somme, the III. Battalion re-established on October 11, 1914. In mid-January 1915 the association moved to the east and fought in the winter battle in Masuria . This was followed by skirmishes on Bobr , Sejny , Krasnopol and Krasne and other positional battles. After the Battle of Vilna , the regiment was subordinated to the 5th Infantry Brigade of the 108th Division at the beginning of October 1915 and continued to take part in the fighting on the Eastern Front in the period that followed. In September / October 1916 the regiment received a 2nd and 3rd MG company using the MG supplementary platoon No. 503.

After the ceasefire on the Eastern Front at the beginning of December 1917 , the unit was transported to the Western Front until the middle of the month and was used in the trench warfare on the Ailette until mid-April 1918 . This was followed by fighting on the Avre , Montdidier and Noyon, and on the Ancre and Somme until August . The association then took part in the defensive battle between Somme and Avre, as well as the battle of Albert and Péronne . On September 6, 1918, the subordination changed for the last time. The regiment was now subordinate to the 80th Infantry Brigade of the 15th Division , fought off Verdun and from the end of the month until the end of the war was in permanent defensive battles in the Champagne and on the Meuse .

Whereabouts

Since the old Hagenau garrison could no longer be reached after the end of the war , the remnants of the regiment marched to Zeitz , where demobilization took place at the end of December 1918 . On April 15, 1919, the association was finally dissolved.

In January 1919 a volunteer company was set up from demobilized parts , which was merged with the formation of the Provisional Reichswehr in the 50th Reichwehr Rifle Regiment.

The tradition in the Reichswehr was adopted by the 6th Company of the 17th Infantry Regiment in Göttingen by decree of the Chief of the Army Command, General of the Infantry Hans von Seeckt , on August 24, 1921 .

Commanders

Rank	Surname	date
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Friedrich Messow	March 22, 1887 to March 23, 1890
Colonel	Bodo von Bodenhausen	March 24, 1890 to December 18, 1893
Lieutenant colonel	August of Holstein	December 19, 1893 to March 16, 1894 (in charge of the tour)
Colonel	August of Holstein	March 17, 1894 to April 16, 1897
Colonel	Ludwig von Eynatten	April 17, 1897 to April 17, 1901
Colonel	Hugo Flessing	April 18, 1901 to November 26, 1902
Colonel	Ludwig Schelle	November 27, 1902 to March 21, 1907
Colonel	Ludwig Hasse	March 22, 1907 to November 15, 1910
Colonel	Erich Krause	November 16, 1910 to September 30, 1913
Colonel	Paul Winiker	0October 1, 1913 to December 23, 1914
Lieutenant colonel	Karl Hermann Lockemann	December 24, 1914 to April 15, 1915
Colonel	Erwin Voigt	April 16, 1915 to April 18, 1916
bay. major	Friedrich von Weech	April 19, 1916 to April 12, 1917 (in charge of the tour)
Colonel	Erwin Voigt	April 13, 1917 to September 1918
Lieutenant colonel	Erich Verch	00September 17 to December 17, 1918
Major general	Erwin Voigt	December 18, 1918 to February 1919

literature

• Alexander Schwencke: History of the 2nd Lower Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 137. Publishing house of Uhlandschen Buchdruckerei GmbH. Stuttgart 1912.
• Jürgen Kraus : Handbook of the associations and troops of the German army 1914-1918. Part VI: Infantry. Volume 1: Infantry Regiments. Publishing house Militaria. Vienna 2007. ISBN 978-3-902526-14-4 . P. 221.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistical evidence of remarkable high-rise buildings of the Prussian garrison building management completed in the years 1890 to 1896: Supplement to the Zeitschrift für Bauwesen, Vol.XLIX (1899), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-90599 . Margin number 2, pp. 48–51.
2. ^ Günter Wegmann (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Formation history and staffing of the German armed forces 1815-1990. Part 1: Occupation of the German armies 1815–1939. Volume 2: The staffing of the active infantry regiments, as well as jäger and MG battalions, military district commands and training managers from the foundation and / or list until 1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-1782-8 , p. 345.