Georgian Legion

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The Georgian Legion ( Georgian ქართული ლეგიონი ) was a unit of the German army, to which mainly Georgians belonged. It existed during the First World War from 1915 to 1917 and during the Second World War from 1941 to 1945. Its war goal was the state independence of Georgia from Russia or the Soviet Union , which had been assured by the respective German authorities in a military cooperation.

1915 to 1917

During World War I, the Georgian Legion was set up in Samsun , Turkey . The unit consisted of around 1,500 soldiers. Its commander was initially the German lieutenant Horst Schliephack. The highest Georgian officer was Major General Leo Kereselidze .

The Legion was recruited in 1915 by Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg , who had been German consul in the Russian governorate of Tbilisi from 1911 until the beginning of the First World War . He won the soldiers in a specially set up Turkish prisoner-of-war camp for Georgians and Muslims from the Caucasus. He was supported by the Committee for the Independence of Georgia , which was founded in Germany . In 1915, the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army appointed von der Schulenburg as head of the Georgian Legion.

During the fighting between Russia and the Ottoman Empire , the Legion was stationed in the mountains east of Tirebolu on the banks of the Harschit River not far from the Black Sea . While the German government only wanted to use it in the event of an anti-Russian revolt in Georgia, Turkey endeavored to use it as a volunteer association in the war. She was therefore hardly involved in combat operations.

The Legion was dissolved in January 1917 after tensions between the Turkish government and the Committee for the Independence of Georgia . His Georgian officers later formed the core of the national army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia under Kereselidze .

1941 to 1945

Badge of the Georgian Legion

During the Second World War, the Georgian Legion (Georg.Leg.) Was set up by the Wehrmacht on the military training area in the center of Radom in the Generalgouvernement of Poland . It consisted of over 12,000 soldiers who served in 12 battalions , each of which comprised around 800 soldiers in five companies . In addition, there were around 3,000 soldiers from German support personnel. The commanding officer was the Georgian Major General Shalva Maglakelidze , Governor General of Tbilisi from 1919 to 1920 . He was assisted by a German command staff, which was subordinate to the command of the Eastern Legions .

The first soldiers were recruited by the Eastern Legions from among Georgian emigrants in Germany who had left their country in 1921 after the occupation by the Red Army . The Eastern Ministry of the Reich government guaranteed them that Georgia would regain its independence after defeating the Soviet Union. Later prisoners of war of the Soviet armed forces were recruited who had been approached in prisoner of war camps . In joining the Georgian Legion, they saw above all an opportunity to avoid hunger, disease and death in the camps.

Associations of the Georgian Legion were first deployed in the northern Caucasus in 1943 , then in the Crimea and from 1944 in France and the Netherlands . Many Georgian soldiers deserted and joined regional resistance movements.

In November 1943, the Army High Command considered disbanding the Georgian Field Battalion I./9 because of "unreliability" after the 10th Company had deserted. However, it was moved to the Crimea partly by air and partly by sea, and it was used at various locations in the railway security service. On April 15, 1944, it was evacuated to Romania by sea . Until May 17, 1944 walk to Békéscsaba . Rail transport to France and deployment in Mazamet and Agen in the railway security service. On the retreat from August 19, 1944, the unit capitulated to the Allies on August 31, 1944 in the canton of Chomérac in the Ardèche department .

The Georgian Infantry Battalion 822 led the Georgian uprising on Texel in the Netherlands in April 1945 .

List of units of the Georgian Legion

Other Georgian units

A total of around 30,000 Georgians served in the ranks of the Wehrmacht. In addition to the Georgian Legion, they could be found in the North Caucasian Legion , the 1st Battalion of the Special Association of Miners and the Volunteer Tribe Regiment 1 . There was also an SS-Waffengruppe Georgia , under the command of Standartenführer Micheil-Fridon Zulukidze. In addition, there were Georgian helpers in many units of the Wehrmacht. B. worked as a translator.

literature

  • Bruno Chaix: Le passage des troupes allemandes par le Coiron en août 1944 , Privas 2008 Online
  • Ulrich Kordes: From the Caucasus to the Ardèche , Essen 2008.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS 1939–1945 . Biblio, Osnabrück 1997, ISBN 3764817453 .
  • Klaus Thörner: German Caucasus Imperialism . In: Against the Zeitgeist: Analyzes of Colonialism, Capitalism and Imperialism . Library and information system of the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg 1996, pp. 119–156, (Online, PDF, 0.224 MB)
  • Vlis, JA van der; Tragedie op Texel. Vijftig ooggetuigen over de Georgische opstand tegen de Duitsers op 6 april 1945. Een gebeurtenis het eiland lasted 20 days changed in een gruwelijk slagveld; Den Burg 1978 (Langeveld en de Rooy)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Kordes: From the Caucasus to the Ardèche. Self-published, Essen 2008 940.548243  in the DDC (85 pages); Bruno Chaix: Le passage des troupes allemandes par le Coiron en août 1944 , Privas 2008.