Old Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 6 (1806)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Red grenadier battalion, king battalion, grenadier guard or naming according to owners

Oil painting

Grenadier Schwerid Rediwanoff from Moscow, one of the men Peter the Great sent to Berlin in exchange for the Amber Room
active 1675 to 1806 (surrender)
Country Prussia
Branch of service infantry
Former locations Wusterhausen , later Potsdam
Origin of the soldiers Cantons-free, from the rest of the army and advertising
Nickname "Long guys"
owner Crown Prince Friedrich (1675), Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm , from 1713 King (1688), Gottfried Emanuel von Einsiedel (1740), Wolf Friedrich von Retzow (1745), Friedrich Christoph von Saldern (1760), Hans Sigismund von Lestwitz (1766), Friedrich Wilhelm von Rohdich (1779), Friedrich Adrian Dietrich von Roeder (1796), Gebhard Friedrich Gottlob von Ingersleben (1798), Karl Ludwig von Le Coq (1801)
Tribe list Old Prussian infantry regiments
Trunk number No. 6th
Butcher War of the Austrian Succession
Hohenfriedberg (1745)
Thrush (1745)

Seven Years War

Rossbach (1757)
Leuthen (1757)
Hochkirch (1758)
Liegnitz (1760)
Torgau (1760) Wing grenadiers in further battles

Coalition wars

The Old Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 6 was founded in 1675 and existed until 1806 when it was disbanded as a result of the Prussian defeat in the war against France.

Lange Kerls is the popular name for the soldiers of this regiment, which is based on the then unusual average size of those serving there. Other well-known names for the regiment are Potsdamer Riesengarde and Grenadiergarde . The numbering (No. 6) was only introduced shortly before the dissolution in 1806.

history

The regiment was set up in 1675 as the “Regiment Kurprinz” with a strength of two battalions , the first chief being the son of the then Elector of Brandenburg, Elector Prince Friedrich of Brandenburg . In 1701 the name was changed to "Crown Prince Regiment", the chief at that time was Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, who later became the soldier king. The name change resulted from the coronation of Frederick III. of Brandenburg on January 18, 1701.

In 1710, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm formed this troop from members of his hunting guard and more or less voluntarily recruited tall young men. In 1711 they formed four companies . Since 1710 the designation was "Large Leibbataillon Grenadier".

In 1713 Friedrich Wilhelm I became king in Prussia and the regiment was upgraded to a guard . The new name of the regiment was: "His Royal Majesty Regiment" (also "Leibregiment" or "Königsregiment"). The royal regiment (No. 6) was created in 1717 from the merger of the regiment on foot "Crown Prince" with the Red Grenadiers , which had existed since 1709 , the latter being the 1st Battalion, the former 2nd and 3rd Battalion. Battalion formed.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The grenadiers of the royal regiment had to measure at least 6 Prussian feet (approx. 1.88 m, Rhenish measure), but in practice one had to be modest with significantly smaller recruits. The real "giants" - such as the Irishman James Kirkland with a height of 2.17 meters - were much admired exceptions. They were either the first member of the Body of Company incorporated the king or the so-called "Great Unrangierten housed", a department of the regiment replacement.

Special Representative of the Prussian king, the king regiment itself as a regimental commander board and duration support the regimental uniform were, Europe traveling to tall men with high signing bonus payments - to move to service acquisition in Prussia - partly under duress. Sometimes they were also "gifts" from friendly princes. This type of recruitment, but also the maintenance of the highly paid elite unit, devoured horrific sums of money. The size of the soldiers in the "Potsdamer Riesengarde" may well have had practical reasons: from tall men one expected better handling of the long-barreled muzzle - loading rifle and thus the possibility of shooting at greater distances. Zeisler (1993) thinks, however, that many of the “giants” suffered from pathological stature and were physically not very resilient. The regiment would therefore have been a pure parade troop, which was not suitable for combat missions. When Friedrich Wilhelm I died in 1740, the regiment consisted of around 3,200 men.

In the course of his accession to the throne in 1740, King Friedrich II dissolved the old guard regiment due to the high maintenance costs and only kept one battalion. The rest of the soldiers were distributed to other units. Some of the men were incorporated into the former Crown Prince Regiment (1806: No. 15), which now served as the new guard. The other members of the regiment were distributed among the regiments of Prince Ferdinand (1806: No. 34), Prince Heinrich (1806: No. 35) and the newly formed garrison battalion von Weyher.

The battalion was henceforth known as the “Bataillon Königs Grenadier-Garde” with all guard privileges (higher tract, etc.). The battalion's winged grenadiers formed from 1744 to 1763 with those of Regiment No. 3 a combined grenadier battalion. In the Silesian Wars , the regiment was used in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg and the Battle of Soor in 1745 and in the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 in the battles near Roßbach , Leuthen , Hochkirch , Liegnitz and Torgau .

From 1801 to 1806 the designation was "Grenadier Guard Battalion". The troops surrendered near Erfurt and Prenzlau in 1806 and were disbanded.

Tradition and maintenance of tradition

The tradition was later taken over by the 1st Guards Regiment on foot , which therefore led to the founding year 1688, which "did not, however, correspond to the usual principles".

Since 1990 the Potsdam Association has been striving to promote and maintain the tradition of the Potsdamer Riesengarde "Lange Kerls" e. V. with original uniforms and rifle replicas, the preservation and care of the regional heritage. The association operates public and private appearances and tries to achieve the greatest possible degree of authenticity through bivouacs, revues and drill exercises.

Image gallery

See also

literature

  • Hans Bleckwenn : The Frederician uniforms: 1753–1786 . In: The bibliophile paperbacks . No. 444. Hardenberg, Dortmund 1984, ISBN 3-88379-444-9 (license from Biblio-Verl. Osnabrück as: The Old Prussian Army; Part 3, Vol. 3, 4 and 5). Volume I: Infantry I; Volume II: Infantry II. Pp. 75ff.
  • Rolf Fuhrmann: The long guys - The Prussian giant guard 1675 / 1713-1806 . Zeughaus Verlag, Berlin 2007 ISBN 978-3-938447-29-1
  • Jürgen Kloosterhuis: Legendary "tall guys". Sources on regimental culture of the royal grenadiers of Friedrich Wilhelm I, 1713–1740 . Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-923579-03-9
  • Kurt Zeisler: The tall guys. The body and guard regiment of Friedrich Wilhelm I , Frankfurt / Main 1993
  • Volker Schobeß, Erhart Hohenstein: The Potsdam guard parade. From the tall fellows of the soldier king to the footguards of Frederick the Great . Potsdam 1997, ISBN 3-921655-84-6
  • Volker Schobeß: The tall guys from Potsdam. The history of the Leibregiment Friedrich Wilhelm I. 1713–1740 . Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-275-2
  • Julius Haeckel: The Potsdam giant guard . Potsdam 1913.
  • Potzdamer. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 28, Leipzig 1741, column 1921.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bleckwenn 1984 vol. I, p. 75