Hunter Regiment on Horseback No. 6

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Hunters of the Hunter Regiment on Horseback No. 6
Jäger Gerhard Wiechmann (1895–1978), Jäger Regiment on Horseback Number 6, Erfurt. Photo by Georg Kahlmeyer, Oldenburg in Oldenburg , March 17, 1917. The photo was probably taken on vacation from the Eastern Front. Wiechmann was a member of the regiment from December 9, 1916 until his discharge on December 22, 1918.
Uniform of the Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 6 around 1912
Regimental standard

The Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 6 was a cavalry association of the Prussian Army , which was stationed in Erfurt .

history

Lineup

With the Highest Cabinet Order (AKO) of March 21, 1910, the formation of a regiment of hunters on horseback with the number 6 was ordered on October 1, 1910. Five squadrons from existing regiments were used for this purpose:

In order to accommodate the regiment, the city of Erfurt had signed a contract with the military treasury in November 1907 to allocate barracks in the south of the city (south of the south cemetery, since 1970 Südpark, on what was then Jäger-Strasse, now Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse) build and rent to the army until 1940. The barracks were handed over to the first commander of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel von Arnim, on September 28, 1910. The soldiers and their approximately 1,000 horses arrived in the following days, and the regiment was ceremonially welcomed into town on October 24th.

Association membership

When erected in 1910
Commanding General : General of the Infantry Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel
Commander : Lieutenant General Alfred von Strubberg (1855–1920)
Commander: Colonel Wilhelm Baron Digeon von Monteton
During the mobilization in 1914

During the German mobilization in 1914, the regiment was assigned to the newly established 8th Cavalry Division of the Saxon Army .

  • XI. Army Corps in Kassel
Commanding general: Lieutenant General Otto von Plüskow
  • 8th Cavalry Division (Royal Saxon)
Commander: Lieutenant General Günther Graf von der Schulenburg-Hehlen
  • 38th Cavalry Brigade in Erfurt
Commander: Major General Paul Weinschenck

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War , the regiment was part of the 38th Cavalry Brigade (8th Cavalry Division) until March 1918, together with the Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 2 , with border guards and reconnaissance battles from August 5th to 19th in Lorraine . This was followed by the Battle of Lorraine (August 20-22) and the Battle of Nancy - Épinal (August 22nd to 31st).

After that, the entire division was relocated to East Prussia from August 31 to September 4 , where the hunters participated in the Battle of the Masurian Lakes from September 9 to 15 , the battles for Warsaw on 9/10. Participated in October 1914 and the Battle of Łódź from November 16 to December 15, 1914. In 1915 the regiment was transferred to Lithuania , where it was deployed from March 19 to 26, 1916 in the battle of Jakobstadt and in 1917 in the battles off Daugavpils and Riga . In October / November 1916 the horses were surrendered because they were no longer of use in the now prevailing trench warfare, and in December 1916 the regiment was therefore renamed the Jäger-Schützen-Regiment auf Pferde No. 6 . The division and the regiment fought in the Baltic States until the ceasefire on December 7, 1917, and then again from February 18 to April 4, 1918 as part of Operation Faustschlag , when they fought first in a coup d'état and then large areas between Lake Peipus and the occupied upper Daugava .

In March 1918, the 8th Cavalry Division was disbanded and the regiment moved to the Zossen military training area , where it received infantry training. From April 1918, the Jäger-Schützen-Regiment on horse No. 6, in the association of the former 38th Cavalry Brigade renamed in Kavallerie-Schützen-Kommando 38 and belonging to the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division , fought in the defensive battles of the Western Front in Room Soissons - Reims a. The division then fought from July 15 in the Battle of the Marne and in Champagne, from August 17 to September 4 between Oise and Aisne , and finally covered the retreat of the 1st Army from October as an intervention reserve .

Whereabouts

After the Armistice of Compiègne came into force , the regiment began marching back home on November 12, 1918 from Charleville on the Meuse under Major von Petersdorff . It reached Potsdam on December 8th and Berlin on December 10th, 1918 . The older soldiers were sent to Erfurt for demobilization . During the Christmas battles on December 24, 1918, the younger soldiers were deployed as part of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division against the mutinous People's Navy Division, entrenched in the Berlin City Palace and the Marstall . During the demobilization of the regiment, which began in earnest in January, the active members were still involved in the suppression of the so-called Spartacus uprising in January 1919 and in the Berlin March fighting .

The tradition took over in the Reichswehr by decree of the Chief of the Army Command General of the Infantry Hans von Seeckt from August 24th 1921 the 3rd Squadron of the 16th Cavalry Regiment in Erfurt.

uniform

The uniform was based on the style of the cuirassiers . The tunic was gray-green with Swedish facings . Collars, lapels and lugs were light green, while the badge color was dark blue. Buttons and crest were white, boots and leather gear were natural brown. The helmet was like that of the cuirassiers, but made of blackened sheet metal with a dragoon eagle as an ornament; Edging rails, scale chains and lace were made of tombac . The regimental number was on the epaulets. The NCOs and men wielded a tubular steel lance with a black and white lance flag as part of the peace uniform.

Already ordered by AKO on February 14, 1907 and gradually introduced from 1909/1910, the colorful uniform was replaced for the first time by the field-gray field service uniform (M 1910) on the occasion of the imperial maneuver in 1913. This was completely like the peace uniform. The leather gear and boots were natural brown, the helmet was covered by a reed-colored fabric cover. The bandolier and the cartridge were no longer applied to this uniform.

Commanders

Rank Surname vocation Recall
major Emil von Armin October 1, 1910 February 17, 1913
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Ernst von Wilms February 18, 1913 September 14, 1917
major Werner von der Planitz September 15, 1917 November 14, 1918
Lieutenant colonel Bodo von Petersdorff November 15, 1918 January 9, 1919
Colonel Ernst von Wilms January 10, 1919 July 19, 1919

The memorial for the fallen

On November 16, 1924, an expressionist monument was erected for the fallen soldiers of the regiment in front of the Reglerkirche in Erfurt, which was created by the sculptor Hans Walther . It consisted of a naked equestrian statue and a naked foot soldier kneeling down when shot. The memorial was inaugurated in the presence of District President Fritz Tiedemann and Lord Mayor Bruno Mann .

On April 8, 1939, under pressure from NSDAP Mayor Walter Kießling , the Erfurt cavalry comradeship agreed to approve the demolition of the monument without compensation. Kießling had previously publicly referred to the monument as a "distorted structure"; former officers of the regiment as "culture disgrace" and " degenerate art ". The broken memorial was deposited in the main cemetery; since then it has been lost.

literature

  • Hugo FW Schulz: The Prussian Cavalry Regiments 1913/1914. Weltbild Verlag 1992.
  • Stefan rest (ed.), Jürgen Kraus: The German army in the First World War. Ingolstadt 2004.
  • Freiherr von Berlepsch: The Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 6 in World War 1914–1918. Kirchner. Erfurt. undated (1925).
  • Eleonore von Bojanowski (Hrsg.): Thuringia in the world war. Patriotic war memorial book in words and pictures for the Thuringian states. Part 1. Leipzig (Verlag der Literaturwerke "Minerva". Lippold.) Undated (1919).
  • Eberhard Menzel: The Royal Prussian Jäger Regiment on horseback No. 6 in Erfurt. in: City and History. Magazine for Erfurt. Volume 11, 2011, pp. 20-21.
  • Bernd Könnig: The Prussian-German garrison Erfurt from 1860 to 1918. Verlag epubli, Berlin, 2012. ISBN 978-3-8442-3061-1 .
  • Ruth Menzel, Steffen Raßloff : Monuments in Erfurt. Sutton Publishing House. Erfurt 2006. p. 94f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Könnig, p 64
  2. ↑ 1905–1908 Commander Uhlan Regiment No. 3, 1908–1910 Commander Officer's Riding School Hanover, 1910–1912 Commander 38th Cavalry Brigade, 1912 Major General zbV, 1914 Commander Mobile Etappen-Kommandantur No. 67.
  3. ^ 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 active regiments, battalions and departments from the foundation or formation until August 26, 1939. Cavalry, artillery, pioneers, motor and driving departments, armored forces, traffic forces and intelligence departments. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1993. ISBN 3-7648-2413-1 . P. 193.