Volunteer hunters

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Volunteer hunters were members of the 1813 formed in Prussia hunter - detachments , as part of the regular troops in itself procured uniforms to the wars of liberation took part. There were similar units in Bavaria, Mecklenburg, Kurhessen and other German states.

Prussia

Farewell to two volunteer hunters (1813)

The Prussian reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst had already proposed in his memorandum of March 8, 1809 that in the event of war the army should be increased by hunter companies made up of volunteers with their own equipment and weapons. To this end, on February 3, 1813, the Prussian government issued the “Announcement regarding the hunter detachments to be set up”. This was primarily intended to provide civil volunteer applicants with entry into the army and a basis for replacing officers during the war. The ordinance decreed that for every infantry battalion and cavalry regiment, a hunter detachment was to be formed from volunteers in company or squadron strength. The men between 17 and 24 years of age, who had just been released from compulsory military service, were called to enter. They could dress, equip and mount themselves at their own expense. They could choose their regiment and, after three months of service, their officers and NCOs from their own ranks. As a rule, the volunteer hunters wore the uniform of the regiment to which they were detached, but the skirt was a dark green base color with the trim colors and other insignia of their regiment. The chakko served as headgear everywhere, even if a helmet was actually worn, as with the cuirassier regiments. The regiment of the Gardes du Corps had instead of the hunter detachment a Guard Volunteer Cossack Squadron, who wore dark blue uniforms in Russian style. In the cavalry in particular, the litewka was worn instead of the skirt . With the hussars, who were regularly equipped with dolman and fur , the hunters sometimes also wore these items of clothing. In view of the improvised nature of these units and the predominantly privately procured uniform parts, the degree of uniformity rarely corresponded to that which was usually expected from the Prussian army. Most of the weapons were provided to them. In terms of pay and military jurisdiction , these hunters were treated equally with the regular troops, but expressly exempted from garrison service and labor, transport and baggage commands. The volunteer hunters served mainly as scouts and also as skirmishers in the infantry . At the same time, they were personnel reserves for the filling of officer and non-commissioned officer positions in line troops and Landwehr , which strengthened the bourgeois element in the Prussian officer corps . The influx was relatively large, with volunteers also being equipped by cities and municipalities. By the end of May 1813, around 7,000 men were under arms in the cavalry alone. An infantry detachment consisted of 100 to 150 men on average and 60 to 80 men in the cavalry . In the artillery and the pioneers no detachments were formed, so that few volunteers were there. The first volunteer hunters took part in the spring campaign in 1813 and were dissolved by royal decree in May 1814 after Napoleon's first abdication. They were the model for the employment relationship created by the Prussian War Law of September 3, 1814, for one-year volunteers .

Among the volunteer hunters, Jews joined the Prussian army for the first time as combatants. In the Prussian Jewish edict of 1812 , military service was excluded from the granting of equal rights. Friedrich Wilhelm III. did not like to see the Jews in his army and gladly accepted the ransom of several circles from the military obligation. Nevertheless, Jews also volunteered to join the hunters in 1813, but were initially turned away because no corresponding orders were available. But at the end of February the decision was made to accept Jewish volunteers in principle, but many of them did not reveal themselves at all. A study by Martin Philippson attempted to record Jewish volunteers and lists over 400 by name, some of whom had been awarded the Iron Cross and promoted to officers. All of them left the army after the war, with the exception of Meno Burg , who, with the intervention of Prince August , was able to become major and lecturer at the artillery school . Despite the changes in legislation on February 3, 1813, Jews were still excluded from filling positions in the civil service, according to which former volunteer hunters were given preferential consideration.

Other German states

At this time, other German states set up similar units, partly as detachments of the line troops, partly as independent units.

After the heavy losses of the Bavarian army in the Russian campaign, a royal appeal led to the formation of various volunteer associations, including a corps of volunteer hunters. These were also self-dressing, but received compensation of 30 guilders for the uniform . Her green uniform skirt had yellow collars and buttons, and her long green trousers had wide yellow piping. Instead of the usual Bavarian caterpillar helmet, a shako with yellow metal fittings and yellow hangings was worn. The hangings were green for carbine companies (snipers with socks) and red for grenadier companies , plus high shako braces and woolen fringed epaulettes in the same colors.

The Electorate of Hesse set up volunteer hunters on foot and on horseback based on the Prussian model. The newly established Mecklenburg-Strelitz Hussar Regiment received a detachment of hunters. The Bremen volunteer battalion had a hunter company . Mecklenburg-Schwerin set up an independent regiment of volunteer hunters on foot and on horseback, the Grand Duchy of Würzburg a corps of volunteer hunters on foot in battalion strength. Saxe-Weimar , together with Saxe-Gotha, set up a small corps with sections on foot on horseback, as did the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt .

literature

  • Art. Voluntary hunters . In: Dictionary of German military history . Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1985, Volume 1, p. 219.
  • Richard Knötel , Herbert Knötel, Herbert Sieg: Colored Manual of Uniform Studies. The development of the military costume up to 1937 , Volume 1: The German states, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland . Spemann, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-440-81072-0 .
  • Peter Hofschroer, Bryan Fosten: Prussian Line Infantry 1792-1815 . Osprey, Oxford 1984, ISBN 0-85045-543-X .
  • Peter Hofschroer, Bryan Fosten: Prussian Cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars , Volume 2: 1807-15 . Osprey, Oxford 1985, ISBN 0-85045-683-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry on "Freiwillige Jäger" in: Dictionary of German Military History, 1st edition, Military Publishing House of the GDR (VEB) - Berlin, 1985, Volume 1, page 219
  2. ↑ The voluntary hunters of the Wars of Liberation, lecture given at a colloquium on October 16, 1993 in Plauen on the occasion of the 180th anniversary of the Leipzig Battle of the Nations ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Johann Baptist Cantler (Text: Rotraud Wrede): The Bavarian army all the uniforms from 1800 to 1873, publication of the Bavarian Army Museum , Schwarzenbach 1976