Guard Engineer Battalion

Guard Engineer Battalion
active	1816-1919
Country	Prussia
Armed forces	Prussian Army
Branch of service	Pioneers
Insinuation	Guard Corps
Former locations	most recently Berlin

The Guard Pioneer Battalion was a pioneer battalion of the Prussian Army . It was subject to the Guard Corps or the 1st Pioneer Inspection .

prehistory

A guard is both a bodyguard of the ruling class and “that division of the army which, through the selection of men and better equipment, is determined to form an exemplary core force. It is usually concentrated in the capitals and distinguished by more shiny uniforms and other features. ”- After Louis XIV of France had established the guards as representative guards ( garder = to protect, guard, guard), this found many imitators in other European countries, so also in Prussia under Frederick I , but above all under Frederick the Great . Accordingly, the clothing of the Prussian guard pioneers was representative, the officers had plenty of gold-adorned spiked bonnets and parade uniforms. Items received from the Guard Pioneer Battalion such as pewter jugs, letter seals and fascine knives can be found on the Internet as coveted collector's items.

The Guard Pioneer Battalion Berlin was formed around 1810 by increasing personnel from the existing pioneer department of the Berlin garrison and had a strength of around 600 men.

Formation history

Guard pioneer barracks (1896)

• By AKO on February 12, 1810: formed from remnants of the former pontooners , from miners' commandos in Spandau , Cosel , Neisse and from ranciers as the Märkisch-Pomeranian Pioneer Company .
• 1812: The company became the trunk of the 2nd Field Pioneer Company.
• March 4, 1813: The company (now called the Brandenburg-Pomeranian or Brandenburg Fortress Pioneer Company ) provided the 5th Field Pioneer Company (No. 5 received this unit on August 2, 1813) and the Pomeranian Fortress Pioneer Company (December 28, 1813).
• March 27, 1816: Reorganization, the company was merged with the 5th Field Pioneer Company to form the Guard Pioneer Division (for the whereabouts of the other companies, see the current Pioneer Battalions No. 2 and No. 8 ).
• 1832: Creation of a Mariniers section, which was handed over to the Navy in 1850 .
• July 28, 1859: Establishment of a 3rd company.
• April 1, 1861: establishment of a 4th company.
• April 1, 1887: Establishment of a 5th (experimental) company.
• October 1, 1899: The 5th Company was transferred to Telegraph Battalion No. 1 .

Naming

• until 1816: see above under formation history .
• March 27, 1816: Guards Pioneer Department
• 04th July 1860: Guards Pioneer Battalion

Locations

→ Main article : List of fortresses in Prussia

date	Locations
1810	Berlin Fortress
1811-1813	Kolberg , see also Siege Kolberg 1807
1815-1816	The field company in the occupation army in France, the fortress company in the fortress Stettin , fortress Magdeburg and Cölln
1816	The field company in the Ehrenbreitstein fortress
1816-1820	Berlin, Spandau Fortress, Fortress Szczecin , Fortress Küstrin
from 1820	Berlin-Kreuzberg , Köpenicker Strasse 11-15. The four-story barracks were destroyed in World War II and the rubble was later removed.

uniform

Guard Pioneers (1835)

general description

In Prussia , miners and pontooners initially wore dark blue uniforms with orange cloaks and cuffs. In 1788 the engineers were given black collars, skirt flaps, cuffs and lining. In 1798 the entire Prussian pontoon corps was equipped in this way. From 1808 the pioneers wore the uniform of the foot companies of the artillery: black collars, black (so-called Swedish) cuffs and black armpit flaps, but with white buttons and black leather gear. The armpit flaps remained black with a red protrusion until 1830, when they became ponçeau red. If you disregard the usual changes in taste, the uniform remained unchanged until 1914. During parades, the pioneers were trained and equipped like the infantry, so they wore white trousers and had rifles, ammunition pouches and knapsacks in addition to the Württemberg people. Their appearances were accompanied by hoboists (only people trained in signal blowing) who ticked swallow nests.

Guard Engineer Battalion

NCOs and men

Helmet: guard eagle with star, yellow scale chains, black bush

Tabard: white braids with black mirrors, armpit flaps without markings

Coat and litewka : strands on the collar flaps

NCOs

Patterned silver braids

Hoboists

there were short silver fringes on the swallow nests, which were covered with the same braid

Buglers

Swallow nests with white border and long wool fringes

Officers

had the same uniform as that of the line, but the guard eagle with a star, bush, and a star in the rear corners of the parade ceiling

Commanders

Rank	Surname	service
Colonel	Johann von Krohn	April 20, 1816 to April 2, 1820 (in charge of the tour)
captain	Adolf Snethlage	May 27, 1820
major	Joseph Hesse of Hessenthal	April 29, 1831
major	Friedrich von Studnitz	April 18, 1837
major	Julius of Mebes	0June 3, 1841
major	Karl Seeling	February 26, 1846
major	Eduard Burchardt	August 29, 1848
major	Albert Theodor Erich	September 30, 1851
major	Julius von Engelbrecht	0October 1, 1853
Major / Lieutenant Colonel	Carl von Keizer	October 23, 1855
	Thassilo Rückert called Burchardi	0June 5, 1858
Major / Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel	Ernst von Braun	0February 8, 1861 to May 16, 1867
Major / Lieutenant Colonel	Oskar Bogun von Wangenheim	June 17, 1867 to December 10, 1870
	Alfred von Krause	July 15, 1871
	Hans von Bock	May 18, 1876
	Wilhelm von Kleist	April 15, 1882
Major / Lieutenant Colonel	Conrad Schubert	November 19, 1889 to January 26, 1895
major	Friedrich of Ammon	January 27, 1895
Major / Lieutenant Colonel	Hermann Buek	August 18, 1897
major	Ernst von Reppert	June 19, 1902
Major / Lieutenant Colonel	Albert Stechow	October 18, 1903
Major / Lieutenant Colonel	Siegfried von Held	May 18, 1908
Major / Lieutenant Colonel	Ernst Nigmann	October 18, 1912
Lieutenant colonel	Hugo von Sommerfeld and Falkenhayn	November 13, 1915
major	Friedrich Lindow	0April 7, 1918
major	Conrad Ash	0March 8, 1919

Important members of the battalion

As a site manager for the log cabin Nikolskoe and Alexandrowka applies Adolf Snethlage of the Guard pioneer department.

The later General Bruno von Mudra from Muskau began his military career in 1870 as an ensign in the battalion. In 1913 he was raised to the hereditary Prussian nobility and in 1914 he received the Pour le Mérite in recognition of his services to pioneering and his achievements in the First World War. Most recently he was Commander-in-Chief of the 17th Army . Mudra became an honorary citizen of his hometown and namesake of barracks of the Bundeswehr in Cologne and Mainz.

The engineer Adolf Zoeppritz (1855–1939) from Garmisch served as a one-year volunteer in the battalion from 1875 to 1876 and passed the officer's examination here. He then worked successfully as an engineer in Davos and Garmisch, where, among other things, he designed the bobsleigh run in 1910, on which the bobsleigh competitions were held in 1936 during the 1936 Winter Olympics. Due to his diverse activities, including in the field of alpinism, Zoeppritz was made an honorary citizen of Garmisch in 1925 and the elevated road, which had existed since 1905, was renamed Adolf-Zoeppritz-Straße.

literature

• General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes. Conversation lexicon; 10th edition 1853, FA Brockhaus Leipzig; Volume 6: Garden.
• Berlin and its buildings. Volume II: Building Construction. Ernst & Sohn publishing house, Berlin 1896.
• The officers' dining establishment of the Guards Pioneer Battalion. Berlin 1910.
• Siegfried von Held: The Royal Prussian Guard Pioneer Battalion and its war organizations. 1914/1918. Potsdam Verlag Berg, 1932.
• Kurt Loof: The Royal Prussian Guard Pioneer Battalion 1910/1914. (From the 100th anniversary to the beginning of the World War), Edited from diaries and from contributions by comrades, Berlin 1934.
• Klemens Mersmann: History of the Royal Prussian Guard Pioneer Battalion. Berlin 1889 and 1910, (new edition). ( Digitized version )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Conversations Lexicon ... from 1853.
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 3: The occupation of the active regiments, battalions and departments by the foundation or list up to August 26, 1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2413-1 , pp. 337–338.
3. ↑ Senate Administration Berlin ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Homepage of the city of Muskau