Royal Hanoverian Land Dragon Corps

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Captain (captain) and gendarme of the Royal Hanoverian Landgendarmerie around 1840. Uniform in the style of the Hanoverian artillery.

The Royal Hanoverian Land Dragon Corps , later the Royal Hanoverian Land Gendarmerie Corps , formed the gendarmerie of the Kingdom of Hanover from 1815 to 1866 . In 1816 it served as a model for the formation of the ducal oldenburg land dragon corps . The land dragons were also referred to informally as police dragons. It is not known when it was renamed the Landgendarmerie. This was dissolved in 1866 in the course of the occupation of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia and replaced by the Prussian gendarmerie . The Land Dragon Corps was one of the first state police forces in what is now the state of Lower Saxony .

founding

The establishment took place on the basis of a "regulation, the organization and the service of the land dragoons" of April 25, 1815, which had been issued by Prince Regent Georg . The task of the corps was to maintain “public safety” and to handle “good police”. Above all, it should support the offices and local authorities. These tasks were not significantly changed by the regulations of August 30, 1822 and the ordinance of November 30, 1858. Officially, the Dragoons were subordinate to the civil authorities, and disciplinary to the military authorities.

Organization, strength, uniforms, tasks

When it was founded in 1815, the corps consisted of a staff and three divisions in Hanover , Celle and Nienburg / Weser , which in turn were divided into four to five districts, each with three to six sections. The staff consisted of

A division consisted of a first lieutenant, a second lieutenant, two sergeants and a number of sections on foot or on horseback . The section consisted on average of one sergeant and three land dragons and thus corresponded to a gendarmerie brigade based on the French model.

The personnel were preferably recruited from former military personnel or military personnel who were still recruited while on duty. The recruitment age was between 25 and 40 years. When the corps was founded, it consisted of 204 private and dragoons on horseback, four foot dragons, 22 non-commissioned officers and ten officers. The annual cost was 70,000 thalers .

The accommodation of the sections should be barracked if possible, with barracking being understood as the closed rental in town houses. Billing in inns was only planned in emergencies and on business trips.

In 1858 the Landgendarmeriekorps was no longer divided into three divisions, but seven districts. The staff strength was now:

  • a commander in the rank of general or staff officer
  • nine officers
  • a staff sergeant
  • 25 sergeant major
  • 75 constables
  • 315 gendarmes, 125 of them mounted
Royal Hannoversche Army 1866 (Verlag Volksschriften-Verein zu Hannover) 05 Picture side Ernst August Palais Uniforms General Cadet Infantry Sergeant Standard Bearer, lithograph Wasserkampf & Robby

Nothing is known about the early uniforms. It is possible that the Land Dragoons wore red uniform skirts like the Hanoverian army until the army reform in 1833 . According to a uniform table of the Landgendarmerie (status 1865) drawn by Richard Knötel , the uniform consisted of a blue skirt, gray trousers and a cap based on the Austrian model, presumably introduced in 1859 (as in the army) .

The main task of the Landdragoner was to support the lower police authorities, customs , the financial administration, the hunting and forestry officials, the toll collectors and the couriers . In an emergency, several sections could be brought together. If a section was housed at one location, it was subordinate to the military commander of the local garrison . During larger operations such as riots or the prosecution of criminals, the local troops were encouraged to support the land dragons. Mixed associations were then subordinate to the oldest officer according to the patent. If there was no military available, local authorities were required to support the dragoons.

Other tasks included patrolling military roads and towns, prosecuting criminals, arresting deserters and foreign recruits (for foreign military service), monitoring vagabonds , strangers and beggars, transporting prisoners, supervising the police at markets and trade fairs and, if necessary, the Accompaniment of public money transports, gunpowder transports , letter post and mail cars.

The dragoons were only allowed to make arrests if they were caught in the act or with an arrest warrant . Unnecessary severity was an offense. Bad treatment of those arrested was expressly prohibited.

The royal gendarmes

This involved the king's escort and bodyguard, a good 12 gendarmes. Around 1843 they wore a hussar uniform with blue attila , gray trousers and a red shako . The royal gendarmes, also known as body gendarme, were originally part of the army, but in 1858 they formed the gendarmerie corps together with the gendarme. In 1866 the normal uniform was red again.

See also

literature

  • Joachim Niedermeyer: The Royal Hanoverian Army. A contribution to the exhibition of the same name in the Bormann Museum in Celle , Celle (Bormann Museum) 1987.
  • H.-P. Düsterdieck: The army in the Kingdom of Hanover from 1820 to 1866. A contribution to the history of the Hanoverian army , Braunschweig (Phil. Diss.) 1971.
  • Heinrich Lankenau : The Oldenburg Land Dragon Corps (1817-1867) , Oldenburg (Gerhard Stalling) 1928.
  • Thomas Klein: § 9 Kingdom of Hanover , in: Kurt GA Jeserich u. a. (Ed.): Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte, Vol. II: From the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss to the dissolution of the German Confederation , Stuttgart 1983, pp. 678–719, here p. 691.
  • Friedrich Schirmer: Nec aspera terrent , vol. 2: An army lore of the Hanoverian army and its main troops from 1803 to 1866 , Hildesheim u. a. 1937.
  • Wilhelm Kobbe: Life memories. From the diary of a member of the former Royal Hanoverian Landgendarmerie , Hanover (Lüdemann) 1885.
  • Royal decree concerning the Landgendarmerie-Corps (effend). , Hanover (Klindworth) 1858.
  • OV: Instruction for land dragons. Edited according to the service regulations for the Royal Hanoverian troops and the regulations of the Landdragoner Corps of August 30, 1822 , Hanover (Kius) 1825.

Web links

Individual references, footnotes