Guard Fusilier Regiment

Guards Fusilier regiment
Lineup	March 30, 1826
Country	Prussia
Armed forces	Prussian Army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Guard regiment
Insinuation	Guard Corps
Former locations	Potsdam and Spandau (1826–1847), Spandau (1847–1851), Berlin (from 1851)
Origin of the soldiers	Kingdom of Prussia and the Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine
Nickname	Cockchafer
motto	Long live the regiment that proudly calls itself cockchafer!
Colours	Blue skirt, red collar, red Swedish cuffs, white braids, yellow shoulder pieces, silver guard eagle

Flag of the III. Battalions

The Guard Fusilier regiment was an infantry joined the Guard Corps of the Prussian army garrisoned in Berlin . In keeping with the distinguished character of the troops, the ranks of the officers' corps were predominantly aristocrats . At the time of the empire it had to assign soldiers to the guard .

history

In 1826 the Guard Reserve Infantry (Landwehr) Regiment was founded, which was renamed the Guard Reserve Infantry Regiment in 1851 and was given the name Guard Fusilier Regiment as part of the Roon army increase in 1860. The regimental staff and the 1st battalion were initially in Potsdam , while the 2nd battalion was stationed in Spandau . From 1851 to 1918 the whole regiment had its garrison in the cockchafer barracks in Berlin.

German war

In 1866 it fought in the German War in the battle at Königinhof and in the Battle of Königgrätz .

Franco-German War

In the war against France in 1870/71 , it was involved in the battles of Gravelotte and Sedan and the siege of Paris .

First World War

The regiment in its position before the storming of the Zwinin in Feb. or March 1915

At the beginning of the First World War , the regiment made mobile and was assigned to the newly established 6th Guard Infantry Brigade in the 3rd Guard Division . The regiment remained in this subordinate relationship throughout the war. A considerable part of the reservists of the Guard Fusiliers were assigned to the newly established training infantry regiment, which as a sister regiment in association with the active main regiment belonged to the same brigade. With the Guard Reserve Corps , the fusiliers took part in the advance of the 2nd Army through neutral Belgium and were used in the conquest of the Namur fortress . After the unexpectedly quick end of the siege of Namur, the march back to Aachen was ordered, and the brigade was transported with the Guard Reserve Corps and another army corps to reinforce the 8th Army to East Prussia , where the Battle of Tannenberg was underway. In it, however, the reinforcements withdrawn from the west were no longer used. The Guard Fusiliers stayed on the Eastern Front and fought first in the Battle of the Masurian Lakes , then with the newly formed 9th Army in the Battle of the Vistula and the Battle of Łódź . After heavy losses at Brzeziny , the remnants of the regiment had to be combined into a battalion. On December 1, 1914, the association was initially formed in two battalions of three companies each, and from December 22nd of four companies each. In January 1915 the III. Battalion was restored and towards the end of the month the regiment was transferred to the Carpathian Mountains . For the next few months there were trench warfare on the Zwinin until the ridge could finally be conquered in April 1915. After further skirmishes on the Eastern Front, the regiment came to the West in mid-April 1916, was involved in trench warfare in Champagne and on the Yser, and took part in the Battle of the Somme . Again briefly deployed on the Eastern Front from September to November 1916, the association returned to the West and took part in the trench warfare in Lorraine . Here the regiment was expanded by a 2nd and 3rd MG company in December 1916 . In addition to the trench warfare , 1917 was marked by the battles at Arras , Flanders and Cambrai . At the beginning of the German offensive in the spring of 1918 , the Guards Fusiliers suffered heavy losses near Beaumetz and then formed anew to only two battalions of three companies each. After the regiment consisted of three battalions again from April 5, 1918, the association was expanded to include a mine throwing company on September 14, 1918 .

Whereabouts

After the end of the war , the regiment was demobilized in Berlin on December 14, 1918 and finally dissolved. Two free formations were formed from parts , which were later incorporated into the Provisional Reichswehr .

The tradition in the Reichswehr was adopted by the 7th and 8th companies of the 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment on August 24, 1921, by decree of the Chief of Army Command, General der Infanterie Hans von Seeckt .

Commanders

Rank	Surname	date
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Karl August von Esebeck	1826 to March 29, 1829
Lieutenant colonel	Ernst Ludwig Otto von Zieten	March 30, 1829 to March 29, 1832
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Alexander von Knobelsdorff	March 30, 1832 to March 29, 1838
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	August Alexander von Zenge	March 30, 1838 to 1841
Lieutenant colonel	Wilhelm von Doering	December 14, 1841 to April 25, 1842 (in charge of the tour)
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Wilhelm von Doering	April 26, 1842 to July 12, 1848
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Eduard von Schlichting	July 13, 1848 to May 31, 1850
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Gustav von der Schulenburg-Altenhausen	0October 3, 1850 to May 9, 1855
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Eugene from Le Blanc Souville	May 10, 1855 to May 21, 1858
Lieutenant colonel	Julius von Loewenfeld	May 22, 1858 to April 14, 1859 (in charge of the tour)
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Julius von Loewenfeld	April 15, 1859 to March 6, 1863
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Hugo von Obernitz	0March 7, 1863 to May 19, 1866
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Bernhard von Werder	May 20 to September 16, 1866 (in charge of the tour)
Colonel	Bernhard von Werder	September 17, 1866 to November 6, 1869
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Viktor von Erckert	0November 7, 1869 to August 18, 1870
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Otto von Papstein	August 21, 1870 to March 12, 1875
Colonel	Ferdinand von Sannow	March 13, 1875 to January 17, 1878
Colonel	Arthur of Lattre	January 18, 1878 to April 11, 1881
Lieutenant colonel	Hermann von Stülpnagel	April 12, 1881 to November 12, 1882 (in charge of the tour)
Colonel	Hermann von Stülpnagel	November 13, 1882 to May 25, 1887
Colonel	Hermann Blecken from Schmeling	May 26, 1887 to March 21, 1889
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Adolf von Keller	March 22, 1889 to July 27, 1892
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Max von Krosigk	July 28, 1892 to May 29, 1896
Colonel	Remus of Woyrsch	May 30, 1896 to August 31, 1897
Colonel	Dietrich von Hülsen-Haeseler	0September 1, 1897 to March 24, 1899
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Kurt von Knobelsdorff	March 25, 1899 to May 17, 1901
Colonel	Karl Hoyer von Rotenheim	May 18, 1901 to May 30, 1904
Colonel	Magnus von Eberhardt	May 31, 1904 to April 4, 1907
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Henning von Bonin	0April 5, 1907 to April 20, 1911
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Arnold von Hammerstein-Equord	April 21, 1911 to January 2, 1913
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Ernst Armin von Nostitz	0January 3, 1913 to September 29, 1914
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Karl von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg	September 30, 1914 to February 21, 1918
major	Friedrich von Amann	December 18, 1918 to February 1919 (Führer)

Other members of the regiment

Most of the Prussian military doctors had received military training in this regiment, so that there was a close connection to the Pépinière military medical training institute and its student associations , the Pépinière Corps . But many other celebrities also served at the guard fusiliers.

Nickname

Commemorative medal from 1926 on the occasion of the 100th foundation day

Before moving to the new barracks in 1851, the two battalions met every year in May in Potsdam for drill. The advancing 2nd Battalion was greeted by the boys looking for cockchafer with the shout of " cockchafer " due to the colorful regimental uniform (red Swedish cuffs with white braid, yellow shoulder pieces, brown piping ) . The name quickly carried over to the whole regiment and, after Friedrich Wilhelm IV. As Crown Prince, once addressed the regiment with “cockchafer”, it became almost official.

Trivia

Captain von Köpenick's command consisted of four soldiers from the Guards Fusilier Regiment and six soldiers from the 4th Guards Regiment on foot .

Web links

Commons : Guard Fusilier Regiment  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

• von der Mülbe: The Guard Fusilier Regiment. Second edition, Verlag R. Eisenschmidt, Berlin 1901.
• Carl H. von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg:  History of the Guard Fusilier Regiment. Souvenir sheets of German regiments (Prussian part, volume 157), Gerhard Stalling publishing house, Oldenburg 1926. Digitized version of the Württemberg State Library .

Individual evidence

1. ^ 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. 27.