Guard Rifle Battalion

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Guard Rifle Battalion

GSB Arnould.jpg

Soldier and sergeant of the Guard Rifle Battalion around 1890
active 1814 to 1919
Country Prussia
Armed forces Prussian Army
Branch of service Light infantry
Type Protect
Location Berlin

The 1814 built Guards Rifles Battalion (initially because of its recruitment in francophone canton of Neuchatel also battalion of sharpshooters de la Garde was called) an infantry joined the Prussian army . With the Guard Jäger Battalion , it formed the light infantry of the Guard Corps .

history

prehistory

Guard riflemen, sergeant in winter uniform and rifleman in summer uniform (1815)

After the rulers of Orléans-Longueville had expired in the Principality of Neuchâtel in 1707 , 15 nobles applied for successor. Ultimately, the decision was made in favor of Friedrich I , King of Prussia, who was particularly preferred by Bern , and against the candidate favored by the French King Louis XIV . However, Ludwig accepted the new prince in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1714 . As ruler of Neuchâtel, the Prussian king held the title “sovereign prince of Orange, Neuchâtel and Valangin” and had the principality ruled by governors. These resided in the castle of Neuchâtel or in Berlin and introduced numerous changes in the royal name: the judiciary was reformed, torture abolished and various manufacturers and an academy founded (from which the University of Neuchâtel later emerged).

During the upheavals after the French Revolution , Neuchâtel, unlike the Old Confederation , which was informally allied with it , was excluded from French occupation and not part of the Helvetic Republic proclaimed in 1798 . In the Rheinbund act , however, Prussia left the country to Napoleon Bonaparte . This put Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier as Prince of Neuchâtel. In 1807 he set up an infantry battalion for the Grande Armée, known as Canaris (" canaries ") because of its yellow uniforms . Berthier, who was never present himself, abdicated in favor of Prussia as early as 1814, after the fall of Napoleon. This prompted Friedrich Wilhelm III. in the same year on a visit to Neuchâtel, the first and only visit of a Prussian king. At the same time, he agreed to allow Neuchâtel to join the Swiss Confederation as the 20th canton on the basis of the federal treaty as early as 1814 . In 1815 the curious status of the country as a "Swiss Canton and Prussian Principality" was confirmed by the Congress of Vienna .

Formation history

The Neuchâtel Council of State ( Conseil d'Etat ) requested King Frederick William III with the intention of securing royal benevolence and with the ulterior motive of being able to get rid of the Napoleonic wars with the help of recruiting unadapted war returnees and other uprooted people . von Prussia in 1814 for permission to set up a "special battalion for special service for Her Majesty", whereupon the Prussian battalion des Tirailleurs de la Garde was set up in Paris after its immediate consent .

It was planned to make 2/3 of the teams from Neuchâtel volunteers and 1/3 from volunteers from other Swiss cantons who were at least 1.68 meters tall. This composition could never be achieved in the following period. The colloquial and command language was initially French, only from 1816 onwards verbal and written commands could only be given in German.

The 1814 of the Neuchâtel State Council with Friedrich Wilhelm III. Completed surrender (agreement) with 15 articles provided for a strength of 429 men in 4 companies (Art. 1) with 4 platoons each (= 22 soldiers per platoon) with the following target numbers (Art. 2):

The soldiers should be made up as follows:

  • «Freely recruited for 4 years of service» [Art. 4],
  • «Recruited from Neuchâtel, the king accepting a maximum of 1/4 remaining Swiss» [Art. 5],
  • «Between the ages of 17 and 40» [Art. 6],
  • «Healthy, without disabilities, of good reputation and behavior, strong enough to endure the hardships of war and at least 1.60 m tall (measured barefoot!)» [Art. 7],

Musicians were exempt from the stipulations for height and age (Art. 8) and the Prussian eviction officer in Neuchâtel had the final decision (Art. 9). The seniority (seniority) was retained on re-entry within six months of dismissal (Art. 8). After 25 years of service, the soldier was entitled to a pension without any condition, from the age of 15, if he could prove an incapacity, the amount depending on the years actually worked.

Recruitment in Neuchâtel

The recruitment of the Guard Rifle Battalion turned out to be much more difficult than the State Council had imagined. In the first euphoria, well-off sons of the Neuchâtel upper class reported as officers who received their patent under more generous conditions than usual in Prussia. Not always fond of or equal to the ascetic Prussian soldier life under barren conditions, but not a few submitted their farewell after a short time. Only when more and more Prussian officers joined the Guard Rifle Battalion, who were first detached and later permanently assigned, did the officer corps stabilize and match that of the rest of the Prussian army. The first non-commissioned officers were experienced Neuchâtel veterans from the Napoleonic period under Prince Berthier. Some of them have served in Prussia for more than 25 years. After that, the new generation from Neuchâtel stalled, so that, as with the officers, they had to fall back on Prussian cadres. The promotion of the teams proved difficult. The general tiredness of war, the distant and unknown Prussia as employer, the not always competitive salary and the foreign German language had a negative effect on the willingness of the Neuchâtel to sign up as soldiers in Prussia.

The first contingent ( companies 1 and 4) was two months after the start of the advertising with 232 men under the leadership of Major de Meuron on foot on the way to Mainz. After the entry draft there, the arduous walk followed through war-torn German landscapes to Berlin, with the first desertions . Many of the less disciplined Neuchâtel were not up to the effort. Arrived in the Prussian capital about a month after the march in Neuchâtel, they were initially billeted in private households, which made it even more difficult to maintain the previously poor military order. The second contingent (companies 2 and 3) did not leave until 1815 late and incompletely. With the absence of the commander, Baron de Meuron, who stayed in Berlin, interest in the advertisements among the Neuchâtel population sank dramatically and the level of the dumped fell further.

The recruitment, the basic equipment (without weapons) and the first military training, as well as the trimester-wise replenishment of the recruits to Mainz, took place at the expense of Neuchâtel. The relocation of the recruits accepted in Mainz to Berlin took place at the expense of the battalion. At the Berlin location they went through four months of basic training before they could be assigned to the battalion's companies.

The supply of new recruits dried up completely at times, despite the increase in the premiums, the ongoing weakening of the requirement criteria, the increase in the number of recruits to six sergeants and all the efforts of the Neuchâtel authorities. The focus of the recruiter shifted more and more to the mere quantity of those to be raised and the quality of the applicants began to be neglected. At one point, 31 of the 50 recruits who arrived in Mainz on an exceptionally larger transport are said to have been rejected: 3 were too old, 3 physically handicapped, 5 permanently drunk, 3 had a damaged disc or hernia, 4 could not walk 10 km at a stretch marching, 1 was caught stealing, 2 were obviously insane, 5 too small and 6 were recaptured on the march as deserters. The target number of the battalion was never fully reached under the circumstances described and the number of Neuchâtel citizens and other Swiss in the troops steadily decreased. In the spring of 1815 the actual number was only 282 guardsmen. Again and again the surrender conditions were interpreted more generously and sometimes adventurers from all over the world, applicants with dubious reputations and behavior, unpopular people, drunkards, delinquents and deserters from foreign services were recruited. This increased the rejection rate of the Prussian eviction officer in Neuchâtel, who ultimately had to be assigned a military doctor from Berlin. The desertion rate in the team also reached a drastic level at times. The negative reports from the deserters who returned home also spoiled the willingness of the Prussians to serve in the population. The reputation of the battalion in Berlin, where it was initially regarded by the population as "French" and therefore hostile, also suffered greatly.

During a target practice in the Hasenheide (before 1843)

The Guard Rifle Battalion was busy with monotonous garrison service in Berlin during the long peace era between 1815 and 1848 . The usual activities included daily drills and the target shooting exercises , which were not very popular with the team, which took place once a week in winter and daily during the rest of the year (with the exception of the maneuvering time in autumn). There were awards and privileges to be won for particularly good shooters. Parades at the regular military and court celebrations were a welcome change. In the course of time, contemporaries judged that most of the team had been able to get used to the proverbial Prussian discipline.

The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. was generally favored by the Swiss, but like all Berliners also had xenophobic prejudices. After finding a corpse wearing only a shirt in the Hasenheide (near the guard barracks), he is said to have said half jokingly that it couldn't have been a guard because he would have taken the shirt off the dead man too.

The cholera epidemic in Berlin in 1825 did not claim any victims in the troops thanks to rigorous quarantine measures. The battalion became popular in the capital because it was the first time that one-year-old volunteers from the middle-class could do their shortened military service. In 1830, thanks to this permission for Prussian volunteers and the transfer of eight NCOs and 32 soldiers from Prussia, the number of personnel in the battalion rose to 402 men. After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm III. His successor Friedrich Wilhelm IV allowed three-year-old volunteers from 1841 to do their service in the battalion. As a result, in addition to Germans, Balts and Poles now appeared in the team lists. The battalion grew to 426 soldiers (as of 1841), of which a third no longer came from Neuchâtel or the rest of Switzerland. In 1843 the long jacket was replaced by a short tunic and the shako by a leather helmet with a point . After the riflemen of the Prussian line troops had been converted into hunters in 1845 , the Guard Rifle Battalion was the only remaining rifle association in the Prussian army. As with the hunters, the spiked bonnets were replaced in 1854 by hat-like shakos with eye and neck shields, which the battalion kept in roughly the same shape until it was disbanded in 1919.

Until the democratic revolution in Neuchâtel, the Council of State there ( Conseil d'Etat ) had the right to propose the officer positions of the battalion. Only the commander was chosen by the Prussian king. In the spring of 1848, the 4th Company was the only one left with just under two Neuchâtel trains , including only five of its own officers: Captain de Merveilleux and the two lieutenants de Pourtalès and Gélieu, as well as the two second lieutenants Colomb and Moser. This “hard core” proved itself in the battles of 1848/1849 with distinction.

The Prussian King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV. Takes off a parade of guardsmen (around 1840)

Since only a minority of Swiss served in the Guard Rifle Battalion, in 1848 they tacitly and without an official decision began to move the recruits no longer in Neuchâtel but in Potsdam. In 1857, in the so-called Neuchâtel trade , the Hohenzollern were forced to renounce their rulership in the Principality of Neuchâtel and were only allowed to use the associated title. Recruiting in Switzerland was now excluded. Even after the personal union of Neuchâtel and Prussia was dissolved, the Guards Rifle Battalion remained with the Prussian army and for decades remained a contact point for Swiss officers who were in Prussia for training or employment, and some of them also settled there. Although the battalion now consisted of Prussian nationals, the nickname "Neffschandeller" persisted in Berlin, based on the fact that Neuchâtel was often incorrectly referred to as "Neufchâtel" in Prussia. The French-speaking tradition of the battalion was also reminiscent of the custom of addressing the commander not with his rank, but with “Herr Kommandant” (derived from the French officer's address “mon commandant”, which is used to address a major). With the loss of Neuchâtel as a source of replacement, the battalion was mainly recruited from the bourgeoisie and, like the hunter battalions, preferably from members of the forestry sector. Since 1871 he was assigned the same number of trained hunters as the Guard Jäger Battalion. After twelve years of service (non-commissioned officers after nine years) they were able to acquire the “forest supply certificate”. There were also peasant sons from the Prussian provinces. The officer corps was composed almost exclusively of members of the Prussian nobility. The rankings of the battalion call until the start of World War virtually no civil officers.

The Guard Machine Gun Division No. 2 , established on October 1, 1902, was assigned to the battalion until 1913. In 1913 a cyclist and machine gun company was formed and the Guard Machine Gun Division 2 was incorporated into Queen Augusta's Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 4 .

On the occasion of his state visit to Switzerland in 1912, the German Emperor Wilhelm II wore the uniform as head of the Guards Rifle Battalion, which on the Swiss side with regard to the disputes between Prussia and Switzerland over the status of the Principality of Neuchâtel from 1856 / 57 was received with incomprehension.

The war formations of the Guard Rifle Battalion established in 1914 were the Guard Reserve Rifle Battalion and the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 16 .

The Guard Rifle Battalion was disbanded after the First World War in 1919. Individual members of the battalion, including Robert Kempner , joined the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division after the November Revolution of 1918 . In January 1919 a " Freikorps Guard-Schützen" was set up, which existed until the spring of 1920 and was used in the Baltic States and West Prussia .

Mission history

Wars of Liberation (1815)

Shortly after its establishment, the association took part in the summer campaign of 1815 and was sent to France, but was not used due to various shortcomings. Instead of returning to Berlin after the end of the war, large parts deserted - up to 50 men a day - and brought the commandant, Major de Meuron, into considerable difficulties, which and others he finally put an end to by his resignation.

German Revolution (1848/49)

Königgrätz 1866, bottom left the 4th Company of Guards Riflemen (painting by Christian Sell )

At the beginning of the revolution of 1848/49 , the battalion was used in street fighting in Berlin on March 18, 1848 . Whether, as Karl August Varnhagen von Ense wrote in his Journal of the March Revolution, fraternization between guardsmen and the revolutionaries has not been proven. After the fighting on March 18, 1848, the battalion was relocated with the rest of the troops from Berlin.

Schleswig-Holstein War (1848/51)

In the war against Denmark in 1848/49 , it fought on April 23rd near Schleswig , on May 8th at the bombardment of Fredericia and on June 5th near Sattrup / Horsens . In the course of the reactionary era , it was used in the Spreewald to support the gendarmerie in arresting revolutionaries.

From 1856 to 1858 one of his companies was in Hohenzollern Castle . Officers of the battalion were involved in the unsuccessful royalist uprising of 1856 in Neuchâtel.

German War (1866)

In 1866 it took part in the battle of Königgrätz in the war against Austria . The capture of Austrian batteries in the battle near the village of Lipa between Sadowa and Königgrätz by the 4th Company of Captain Bernard de Gélieu , who was the last officer in the battalion to come from Neuchâtel, was the subject of several battle paintings of that time, including a large painting by Christian Sell . In Berlin, a street near Gardeschützenweg was named after him.

Franco-German War (1870/71)

In the war against France in 1870/71 , the battalion fought at Gravelotte , Sedan , Le Bourget and during the siege of Paris .

First World War (1914-1918)

Guards returning home in front of the Brandenburg Gate, 1918
Guard Rifle Battalion

During the First World War , the battalion was one of the first units to move to the Western Front. As part of the Guard Corps ( 2nd Guard Division under Lieutenant General Arnold von Winckler ) on the left wing of the 2nd Army, it took part in the attack on Belgium and the invasion of northern France. After a battle at Aire an der Aisne on September 13, 1914, only 213 of the original 1,250 men were not wounded or died. The battalion was then replenished by reservists and volunteers. After fighting in Champagne , the battalion was deployed between April 1915 and November 1916 in Alsace at Hartmannsweiler Kopf . Company commander Willy Rohr distinguished himself in the Vosges fights . For this reason, the leader of the Gaede Army Department , General Gaede , entrusted him with the management of the newly arrived storm department, from which the storm battalion No. 5 (Rohr) developed. In November 1915, the Guard Rifle Battalion was transferred to the Serbian front in Macedonia , where it was deployed until the end of February 1918. Relocated to Alsace again from March 1918, it did not take part in major fighting until the armistice. The guards rifles belonged to the ten German divisions which, based on an agreement between Chancellor Friedrich Ebert and the Supreme Army Command , moved through the Brandenburg Gate to Berlin on December 10, 1918 and were incorrectly greeted by Ebert as "undefeated" with the words: " Welcome wholeheartedly, comrades, comrades, citizens. No enemy has conquered you. "

Guard Reserve Rifle Battalion

The Guard Reserve Rifle Battalion was set up on August 1, 1914 and equipped in Lichterfelde after the active battalion had left. It mainly accepted the younger age groups of reservists, including many conscripts from the Rhineland and Westphalia. On August 9th the battalion was ready to march. It belonged to the Guard Reserve Corps and was first put on the advance through Belgium with the 2nd Army. On August 20 and 21, 1914, the battalion, together with parts of the 28th pioneers, was largely responsible for the bloody actions against the civilian population in the Belgian city of Andenne , which killed over 250 people. The attacks were dealt with in 1920 at the Leipzig trials , in which various members of the formation testified as witnesses to the events; The Reichsgericht refrained from prosecuting the officers involved . A few days later, the battalion was first involved in combat during the siege of Namur . Immediately afterwards the march back to Aachen was ordered, and the Guard Reserve Corps, together with the XI. Army Corps was transported to East Prussia, where the battle of Tannenberg was underway, but in which the reinforcements withdrawn from the west were no longer used. The guard reserve riflemen took part in the battle of the Masurian Lakes , were then transferred to Upper Silesia and fought in Russian Poland, where they participated in the attack on the Ivangorod fortress in October 1914 and stayed in Silesia after the retreat of the Germans. At the end of May 1915 the battalion was relocated to the Baltic States , lay on the Düna until the beginning of 1917 and fought in the winter battle on the Aa , in which more than 70 guard reserve riflemen were killed. After the Russian Revolution to support the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army in defending against the surprising Russian intrusion during the Kerensky Offensive in July 1917, the battalion then fought on the Italian front in October 1917 during the Caporetto Battle , which was catastrophic for Italy as far as Udine in the northern Italian lowlands. In April 1918 it was moved to the western front, where it was used in the Hermann and Siegfried positions.

Reserve Hunter Battalion No. 16

The Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 16 was set up on September 1, 1914 by the replacement division of the Guards Rifle Battalion in Berlin-Lichterfelde and thrown to the Western Front in Flanders on October 11, 1914 . It was subordinate to the 44th Reserve Division and consisted mainly of volunteers with a trunk of serving guards, who made up about a third of the population. Many volunteers came from the Wandervogel movement , which in the near Gross-Lichterfelde located Steglitz in Berlin had its center. The insufficiently trained unit was first used north of Dixmuiden at the beginning of the Battle of the Yser and suffered very high losses. The formation lost 145 dead in the first few months of operation and all officers by November 1914.

Relocated to Galicia in 1915 and then to the Serbian front, the battalion took part in the fighting for Verdun from May 1916 . Between September 1916 and the spring of 1917 his relatives fought again in Galicia, only to be relocated back to Flanders, where they were used, among other things, at Passchendaele in one of the last great battles of the World War. The battalion remained in France until the armistice. On December 31, 1918, it arrived in Lübben and was demobilized .

Tradition and whereabouts

Memorial stone, Clayallee 91, in Berlin-Dahlem

The tradition of the Guard Rifle Battalion took over in the Reichswehr by decree of the Chief of Army Command, General of the Infantry Hans von Seeckt, of August 24, 1921, by the 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment . In the Wehrmacht the 9th Infantry Regiment led the Army of the Bundeswehr as part of the traditional decree, the Panzer Grenadier Battalion  1 (from 1980 Jägerbataillon 521 ) in Northeim sponsored the guards riflemen. After the 521 Jäger Battalion was dissolved, the traditional room in Northeim was taken over by the Berlin site command and relocated to the Julius Leber barracks .

Locations

The Guards Rifle Battalion had its location to 1884 in today's Berlin-Kreuzberg in the barracks of the Infantry Regiment of Pfuel in Kopenickerstrasse .

In 1884 it moved to the new Guards Rifle Barracks in the newly founded villa colony Groß-Lichterfelde . The government master builder Ernst August Roßteuscher had drawn up the drafts for the new barracks that he also implemented based on a draft sketch by Ferdinand Schönhals, the head of the building and building department . Around the same time, the Prussian main cadet institute moved into new facilities at the southern end of the villa colony. The founder of the villa settlement, Johann Anton Wilhelm von Carstenn , had campaigned for the settlement with other wealthy residents and provided parts of the urban infrastructure.

After the formation of the Reichswehr , the barracks in Berlin-Lichterfelde was initially used by the 29th Reichswehr Rifle Battalion belonging to Infantry Regiment 9. After 1945, the Roosevelt barracks of the US Army were located there . After reunification, the Berlin site command was temporarily housed there. Today, departments of the Federal Intelligence Service are housed in the largely preserved buildings on Gardeschützenweg in Berlin-Lichterfelde . In addition to Gardeschützenweg , Fabeckstraße , Gélieustraße , Lipaer Straße and Neuchâteller Straße in Lichterfelde are reminiscent of the battalion.

  • Barracks on
    Köpenicker Strasse

  • Guard barracks
    Groß-Lichterfelde (around 1885)

  • Former barracks in Gardeschützenweg (2012)

Appearance

Uniforms

The first uniform designed in Paris, consisting of a green skirt and gray (white for the parade) trousers, was based on that of the Silesian riflemen, but with black, red protruding badges and so-called "Neufchateler" cuffs. The soldiers wore black felt chakos .

1843 in place of the Koletts the tunic introduced. The shako was replaced by the Prussian leather helmet with a tip .

From 1854, the guards riflemen were equipped with a hat-like leather shako with an eye and neck shield, which was provided with a guard star and the Prussian cockade . They wore this headgear with slight changes until it was dissolved in 1919.

The trousers of the field uniform were initially green. During the First World War, the battalion was equipped with field gray uniforms, the shako was covered with gray fabric.

  • The uniforms of the battalion in 1814 and 1843

  • Neufchateler surcharges

  • Second Lieutenant of the Guards Riflemen with Helmet (1848)

  • Shako used from 1854

After 1918, the newly formed Prussian protection police ("green police") were equipped with the shako of the guardsmen, which remained part of police uniforms until the 1960s. It also wore the green of the Prussian rifle and hunter units.

Flags

Flag of the Guard Rifle Battalion
Standard bearer of the guards riflemen in parade gear (around 1914)

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, the battalion was awarded a flag . The flag consecration and handover to the battalion took place on May 2, 1825 in the garrison church and in the marble hall in the royal palace in Potsdam.

As a replacement for flags that were damaged or worn due to the war or due to old age, numerous flags were manufactured and awarded by order of Wilhelm II , in 1900 also for the Guard Rifle Battalion. White taffeta was used for the flag, dark green for the middle field and black gold brocade for the corner fields . The applications (eagle in the middle field, monograms and ornaments) were mainly executed in silver, gold and black embroidery. The yellow flagpole from 1825 has two flag rings with the inscriptions “Gd: SB” and “Again under King Wilhelm II. 1900”. The nailing and consecration of the flag took place in the armory in Berlin, the handover took place on the occasion of the imperial parade of the Guard Corps on the Tempelhofer Feld .

As an award for the military merits of the battalion or its long existence, the flag was awarded:

  • Ribbon of the military decoration 1848/1849 with swords
  • Ribbon of the memorial cross for 1866 with swords
  • Iron Cross from 1870 (in the top of the flag)
  • Black and silver flag ribbons 1900 with secular clasps (Foundation Day inscription "May 19, 1814" )
  • Secular flag ribbon 1914

According to AKO of August 2, 1914, the flag was not to be carried into the field at the beginning of the First World War and was transferred to the flag room of the Berlin City Palace with other standard symbols of the Guard Corps . In 1919 these flags came to the former War Ministry in Berlin and in 1921 they were housed in the Garrison Church in Potsdam. After being stored in various locations, they were given to the Military History Museum in Rastatt on permanent loan in 1970 and restored there in 1971. After reunification, the flags, including those of the Guard Rifle Battalion, were added to the holdings of the German Historical Museum in Berlin.

Armament

NCOs and were mixed with the 1.44 m long Vorderlader- Flintlock M1809 , manufactured by a weapon factory in Suhl, with an octagonal drive of the caliber 18.5 mm with 8 trains and round ball, a cartridge case for the paving (seal over between the load and Bullet) and cartridges, a shoulder bag for a pound of gunpowder and a hunting knife as a side gun. From 1820 it was replaced by the long M1816 infantry saber.

In 1831 the 1.35 m long M1839 percussion rifle, a make of the Potsdam weapons factory with a round barrel and 18.6 mm caliber, was introduced.

The battalion, together with the Guard Hunters, were the first to receive the M / 49 needle barrel to test for use by the troops.

The Mauser Model 98 was introduced around 1900 .

Known relatives

Commanders

Guard Rifle Battalion

Rank Surname date
major Carl Gustav von Meuron 0August 5, 1814 to October 30, 1816
major Konstantin von Witzleben 0November 6, 1816 to August 26, 1818
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich von Tilly August 27, 1818 to March 29, 1829
Lieutenant colonel Ferdinand von Grabowski March 30, 1829 to November 7, 1830
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Thadden November 21, 1830 to March 29, 1840
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Karl August von Brandenstein March 30, 1840 to March 26, 1847
major Gustav von Arnim March 27, 1847 to August 23, 1848
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein August 24, 1848 to May 3, 1850
major Karl von Thiesenhausen May 14, 1850 to July 14, 1851
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Robert von Eberstein July 17, 1851 to October 25, 1854
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Louis von Kalckstein November 14, 1854 to June 11, 1860
major Friedrich Lebrecht von Bülow 0July 1, 1860 to September 9, 1861
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Gustav von Fabeck September 20, 1861 to February 9, 1863
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Otto Knappe von Knappstädt February 10, 1863 to May 19, 1866
major Hugo von Besser May 20 to September 16, 1866 (in charge of the tour)
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Hugo von Besser September 17, 1866 to April 11, 1870
Lieutenant colonel Hugo Falkenstein from Fabeck April 12 to August 18, 1870
major Karl Wilhelm Josef von Boeltzig August 24, 1870 to March 28, 1871 (in charge of the tour)
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Karl Wilhelm Josef von Boeltzig March 29, 1871 to May 23, 1879
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand von Nickisch-Rosenegk May 24, 1879 to October 10, 1884
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Konrad von Beneckendorff and von Hindenburg October 11, 1884 to November 5, 1888
Lieutenant colonel Max Hermann von Scholten 0November 6, 1888 to June 15, 1894
Lieutenant colonel Max von Pawlowski June 16, 1894 to March 21, 1897
Major / Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel Diether Roeder von Diersburg March 22, 1897 to May 16, 1902
Major / Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel Arnold von Winckler May 17, 1902 to June 13, 1906
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Wolf von Helldorff June 14, 1906 to February 19, 1909
Major / Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel Bernhard Finck von Finckenstein February 20, 1909 to July 3, 1913
major Bernard of Gélieu 0July 4, 1913 to December 27, 1914
major Heinrich von Hadeln December 28, 1914 to June 9, 1916
major Albrecht von Stosch July 10, 1916 to August 27, 1918
major Johannes von Schierstädt August 28 to October 30, 1918
Captain Otto von Weiß 0November 1, 1918 to January 21, 1919
Lieutenant colonel Heinrich von Hadeln January 22, 1919 until dissolution

Guard Reserve Rifle Battalion

Reserve Hunter Battalion No. 16

  • September 1, 1914 - October 5, 1914: Captain Thilo Friedemann Freiherr von Werthern (1870–1918)
  • 25.10.1914 - 06.11.1914: First Lieutenant Baron von Berlepsch
  • 11/06/1914 - 11/09/1914: Lieutenant sergeant Auntie
  • November 9, 1914 - November 10, 1914: Sergeant Nausester
  • 11/10/1914 - 11/15/1914: Vice Sergeant Sieke
  • November 15, 1914 - November 19, 1914: Lieutenant retired Fiegen
  • November 19, 1914 - December 14, 1914: Captain of the Landwehr von Maltitz
  • 14.12.1914 - 11.07.1916: Captain of the Landwehr von Arnim
  • 07/10/1916 - 09/04/1916: Major von Schuckmann
  • 04.09.1916 - 09.09.1916: First Lieutenant dRaD Fiegen
  • 09.09.1916 - 18.09.1916: First Lieutenant dR Bäumler
  • September 18, 1916 - September 26, 1916: Captain dR Stegner
  • 09/26/1916 - 06/19/1917: Captain a. D. Korn
  • June 19, 1917 - June 20, 1917: Captain dRaD Fiegen
  • June 20, 1918 - July 22, 1918: Captain Loesch
  • 07/23/1918 - 08/06/1918: First Lieutenant dR Moser
  • August 6, 1918 - October 18, 1918: Captain dR Reimnitz
  • October 18, 1918 - October 19, 1918: Lieutenant of the Landwehr Schmücker
  • October 19, 1918 - November 9, 1918: Captain Pennrich
  • November 9, 1918 - December 31, 1918: Captain von Ruville

Others

literature

  • Hans Henning von Alten u. a .: History of the Guard Rifle Battalion 1914–1919. Verlag Deutscher Jägerbund, Berlin SW 48, 1928. Available online: Digitized version of the Württemberg State Library .
  • Alfred von Besser : History of the Guard Rifle Battalion. Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1910 OCLC 72018836
  • Alfred Guye: Le Bataillon de Neuchatel dit des Canaris au Service de Napoleon 1807–1814. Editions de la Baconnière, à Boudry, Neuchâtel 1964
  • Bruno Henke: Guard riflemen in Neuchâtel and on the Hartmannsweilerkopf. 1955 not specified
  • Arnold Freiherr von der Horst: The Guard Rifle Battalion, a brief outline of its history from the foundation to the present. Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1882
  • NN: The commemoration of the Guard Rifle Battalion of the war of 1870–1871. Published by R. Eisenschmidt, Berlin 1895
  • W. v. Stephani: Festschrift to celebrate the centenary of the Guard Rifle Battalion. Published by R. Eisenschmidt, Berlin 1914
  • de Vallière: Honneur et Fidélité, Histoire des Suisses from Service étranger. F. Zahn, editor, Neuchâtel
  • Eugène Vodoz: Le Bataillon Neuchâtelois des Tirailleurs de la Garde de 1814 à 1848. Attinger Frères, Editeurs, Neuchâtel 1902
  • The casernement of the Guard Rifle Battalion in Gross-Lichterfelde near Berlin . In: Journal of Construction . Year 41 (1891), col. 205–208, plates 36–38. Digitized in the holdings of the Central and State Library Berlin .
  • Beat Emmanuel May (by Romainmotier): Histoire Militaire de la Suisse et celle des Suisses dans les differents services de l'Europe , Tome VII, JP Heubach et Comp., Lausanne 1788, OCLC 832583553 .
  • Karl Müller von Friedberg : Chronological representation of the federal surrender of troops to foreign powers. Huber and Compagnie, St. Gallen 1793, OCLC 716940663 .
  • Moritz von Wattenwil: The Swiss in foreign military service. Separately printed from the Berner Tagblatt , Bern 1930, OCLC 72379925 .
  • Paul de Vallière, Henry Guisan , Ulrich Wille : Loyalty and honor, history of the Swiss in foreign service (translated by Walter Sandoz). Les editions d'art ancien, Lausanne 1940, OCLC 610616869 .
  • Rudolf Gugger: Prussian advertising in the Confederation in the 18th century (= sources and research on Brandenburg and Prussian history , Volume 12), Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-08760-7 (dissertation University of Bern 1995, 301 pages ), OCLC 38132858 .

Web links

Commons : Guard Rifle Battalion  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eugène Vodoz: Le bataillon neuchâtelois des tirailleurs de la garde from 1814 to 1848. In: Revue Militaire Suisse. Volume 46, 1901.
  2. ↑ von Stephani: Festschrift 1914. p. 10. According to other sources, the battalion commander Major von Tilly is said to have made this statement to the king.
  3. ^ Robert W. Kempner: Prosecutor of an Era. Berlin 1980
  4. ↑ Gélieustraße. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  5. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Between triumph, demonstration of power and humiliation. In: Die Welt from June 19, 2013, accessed on January 31, 2017.
  6. ^ Curt Klimpel: War History of the Guard Reserve Rifle Battalion. Berlin 1926; John Horne, Alan Kramer: German war atrocities 1914. The controversial truth. From the English by Udo Rennert, Hamburg 2004, pp. 53–61; Gerd Hankel: The Leipzig trials. German war crimes and their prosecution after the First World War. Hamburg 2003, pp. 212-216.
  7. ↑ The fact that the guard riflemen wore green trousers in their field uniform can be seen in the painting “The Beginning of the Persecution at Königgrätz” by Christian Sell, on which guard riflemen with green trousers are depicted
  8. ^ Hsi-Huey Liang: The Berlin Police in the Weimar Republic. Publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin 47, Berlin 1977
  9. ^ Carl F. Gumtau: The hunters and riflemen of the Prussian army . Berlin 1834, p. 389
  10. ↑ Reinhold Redlin-Fluri / Wehrgeschichtliches Museum Rastatt: Feldzeichen Part I The Royal Prussian Guard Corps. Freiburg i. B. 1982, p. 115 f.
  11. ^ Daniel Hohrath (ed.) On behalf of the German Historical Museum: Colors of history: flags and flags. Berlin 2007, p. 15.
  12. ^ 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 or list until 1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-1782-8 , pp. 30–31 .
  13. ↑ Master list of officers and medical officers of the Guard Rifle Battalion. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914.
  14. ↑ Represented by Major Franz von Lucadou during a four-month vacation in 1815 . Cyrille Gigandet: Meuron, Charles-Gustave de. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  15. ^ Hartwig Busche: formation history of the German infantry in the First World War 1914-1918. Institute for Prussian Historiography, Owschlag 1998, p. 139.
  16. ↑ Marti-Weissenbach, Karin: May, Beat Emmanuel (from Romainmotier). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  17. ^ Meuwly, Olivier: Valliere, Paul de. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .