Kurhessisches Jäger Battalion No. 11
The Kurhessischer Jäger Battalion No. 11 was an association of the Prussian Army from 1866 to 1919 . The battalion's last peacetime location was Marburg .
After the German War of 1866, the Electorate of Hesse was annexed by Prussia and the Hessian regiments were incorporated into the Prussian Army.
history
Because they were first mentioned in 1631, the Hessian hunters are considered to be the oldest hunters' association in a German army. Old Prussia, based on the Hessian model, later adopted the concept of the Hessian hunter troop, which was mainly recruited from trained foresters and professional hunters. In contrast to the line regiments equipped with muskets, the hunters were mostly equipped with their own, precise shooting rifles with rifled barrel. The professional hunters and foresters who made up the core of the units came mainly from families who had been in direct government service for generations, so they were state children and were also used to moving and orienting themselves freely in unknown terrain. The hunter units often operated as scouts, couriers, snipers and skirmishers and in the military security service. Their operational tactics and fighting style, which differed from the line regiments, anticipated modern mission tactics.
1631-1632
The history of the Hessian hunters can be traced back to the time of the Thirty Years' War . Under Landgrave Wilhelm V , a troop of three hunters was formed. She was armed with rifles and took part in the storming of Fritzlar in August 1631 and in the storming of Volkmarsen in 1632. After 1648 the troop was disbanded.
1688-1689
In the period from 1688 to 1689, Hessian hunting companies were again mentioned under the orders of the chief forester Oesterling. It was a company of "foot hunters" and a company of mounted hunters who fought against the French King Louis XIV in the war of the League of Augsburg .
1758-1762
During the time of the Seven Years' War , Hessian hunters fought alongside Frederick the Great against France. They served in the English-Hanoverian army of Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig as the Hessian "Jäger Brigade" under the command of Major von Buttlar. Initially the Jäger Brigade consisted of two companies, but was soon supplemented by another company on foot and a mounted company. In the recruitment files, it is specifically noted that only foresters, or men with a good physical and mental education, were drafted into the hunters. The salary was higher than for line infantrymen, the tone better and the punishments lower. The hunters fought in Westphalia, Hanover and Hesse. The battle calendar includes fights for Sandershausen , Landwehrhagen, Bergen, the storming of Osnabrück , the defense of Friedewald Castle and, among other things, the battle near Lünen on the Lippe.
1763-1776
After the end of the Seven Years' War, the hunter companies were disbanded except for a fifteen man (one officer, two chief hunters and twelve hunters). Only at the end of April 1774 was another military police company made up of trained hunters with a strength of 102 men. In February 1776, a body hunter company was formed from this unit.
1776-1784
Almost the entire Hessian infantry and artillery took part in the campaign against the rebellious colonies in America under English pay . Two hunter companies were formed again. The troops took part in the march to New York in 1776, in the Battle of Long Island it was able to capture 5 cannons. As well as in subsequent battles on Manhattan during September 16. in the Battle of White Plains the regiment fought at Chatterton-Hill, later it occupied Fort Lee . It then fought in the raid of Trenton where the Hessians suffered considerable losses. In the winter campaign of 1776/77 the regiment fought at Bound Brook , where Captain Ewald distinguished himself. It fought near Quiddletown and took part in the expedition to Chesapeake Bay, where the battle of Iron Works Hill broke out . During a British advance, resistance was met at White Clay Creek. In the following Battle of Brandywine a cannon was captured near Chadds Furth . It also fought at Goschen, French Creek and Philadelphia. During the advance to Germantown , Colonel von Donop and 49 other men fell in the storm on Fort Mercer . It later took part in the Battle of Gloucester and the capture of Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery. The troop was increased by three more foot companies and one horse company. These six hunter companies became an independent unit under the command of Colonel von Wurmb under the name "Feldjägerkorps". The bravery of the Hessian hunters is reflected in a daily order from General Howe dated September 4, 1777.
In 1778 they withdrew to New York, where the task was still to defend the position of New York, during the Battle of Monmouth the unit fought at Monmouth Court House .
In the year 1779 the expedition to Connecticut, the conquest of Stony Point, in the action at Younghouse on February 3rd, 1780 an American post was overturned, Springfield . as well as the campaign to Charlestown.
In 1780 Charleston and Savannah were occupied and two companies were moved to Yorktown to secure the local deep-water port.
In 1781 the regiment fought in South Carolina in Guilford , at Mac Kays-Mill it was able to capture 3 cannons. In the battle at Kingsbridge he came to the heroic deed of Sergeant Turnip King, who captured, threatened with instant death if he made a sound, exclaimed with all his might: "Watch out, hunter! the rebels are there. ”- Loss of 36 men. At Portsmouth the then Major Ewald and 33 men defended a pass against 800 men under Lafayette . After three unsuccessful storm attempts, La Fayette gave up.
1784-1792
After the end of the war, the hunter unit was disbanded except for a regular troop. In 1786 the Hessen-Hanauische Jäger-Kompanien were incorporated and the core troops were brought back to a strength of two companies. In 1787 the hunters were increased to a total of four companies through the formation of two new companies. In the following year two companies were split and the light infantry battalion "von Lenz" was formed from them.
1792-1795
The Feldjägerkorps, two companies strong, fought with other Hessian units against the troops of revolutionary France in 1792. Together with the units of Prussia and Austria, the hunters moved towards the Rhine and into the Champagne region . The hunters' troops proved their worth again and captured numerous cannons, among other things, through raids. During the storming of the Weißenburg lines alone , the hunters fell into their hands with nine cannons and seven flags. In the course of this war the hunters were honored again by a mention in the divisional order (January 10, 1795).
1795-1806
After the peace of 1795 the hunters were united under the command of Colonel von Prüschenk. From then on they carried the name "Hessisches Feldjägerkorps" and the company strength was now 200 men per company. 1799 it was renamed "Hunter Battalion" and three companies formed foot and a mounted company. Together with two fusilier battalions it now formed the "brigade of light troops". During this time the battalion was first in Ziegenhain , later in garrison in Schmalkalden .
In 1805 the Hessian troops, including the Jäger Battalion, were mobilized. Napoleon's quick victory at Austerlitz changed the situation for the Electorate of Hesse and the troops were ordered back to their garrisons .
After the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , Hesse was added to the Kingdom of Westphalia under the rule of Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte and the Hessian army was dissolved. The officers were interned as prisoners of war in the fortresses of Luxemburg and Metz .
Franco-German War
The combat calendar of the 11th Jäger Battalion contains the following battles and skirmishes:
- 4th August 1870: Battle of Weissenburg
- August 6, 1870: Battle of Wörth
- Bombardment of Pfalzburg
- September 1, 1870: Battle of Sedan
- Skirmish on Mont Mesly near Le Val and Notre Dame de Clamart
- September 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871: Enclosure and siege of Paris .
After the occupation of Paris on March 1, 1871, German troops were stationed in the suburbs. After the official end of the war on May 10, 1871 , the Marburg Jäger Battalion supported the French government troops from May 21 to 30 in the crushing of the Paris Commune by preventing the men, women and children fleeing the city from fleeing.
First World War
Italy did not belong to the Central Powers and was later even an enemy of the war. Therefore, at the beginning of the World War, the portrait of Queen Margaretha of Italy, the nominal boss of the battalion, was covered with a black cloth. This portrait hung in the officers' mess of the Marburg hunters and has been preserved to this day. It is owned by the Marburger Jäger comradeship. In addition, the hunters took off the epaulettes with the "M" and the Italian crown and wore simple epaulets with the number "11" during the World War.
The battalion's battle calendar includes the following battles and engagements:
1914
- August 1st --- First day of mobilization
- August 14th to 20th --- Reconnaissance battles and forceful reconnaissance of the enemy positions near Dinant
- August 15-18 --- Battle at Dinant
- 23 to 24 August --- Participation in the Dinant massacre
- August 23rd --- Battle at Houy - Leffe
- August 24th to 27th --- Intervention of the 3rd Army in the battle of the 2nd Army near Namm in the direction of Mettet - Philippeville and subsequent pursuit in a south-westerly direction to the Sormonne .
- August 25th --- Battle of Mariembourg
- August 26th --- Battle at Rocroi
- August 27th to 30th --- Battle of the Meuse and pursuit as far as the Aisne
- August 27th --- Battle at Tremblois
- August 29th --- Battle at Novion Porcien
- August 30th --- Battle of Rethel - Battle of the Aisne and pursuit up to the Marne
- August 31 to September 5 --- Battle of Menil-Anncelles
- September 1st --- Battle of Pauvre
- September 3rd --- Battle of Mourmelen - le Petit
- September 3 to 4 --- Battle of the night at Livry
- September 6th to 11th --- Battle of the Marne
- September 7th --- Skirmishes at Sompuis
- September 11th --- Battle at Bussy-Lettres
- September 15th to October 5th --- Fights near Reims
- from December 25th --- at Richebourg Avone
1915
- until March 6th --- at Richebourg Avone
- March 7th to 9th --- at Neuve-Chapelle
- March 10-14 --- Battle of Neuve-Chapelle
- March 20 to May 8 --- Trench warfare in French Flanders near Auchy-chez-la-Bassée
- May 7th to July 23rd --- Battle of La Bassée
- July 24th to September 24th --- Trench warfare in French Flanders near Auchy-chez-la-Bassée
- September 25th to October 13th --- Autumn battle at La Bassée
1916
- July --- Relocation of the battalion to the Carpathian Front
- August --- Fighting in the Ludowa area and battle near Skupowa
- August 19th --- Storming of Crete and Stepanski
- September 1st to 30th --- September battle in the Carpathians
- from October 1st --- Position battles in the Forest Carpathians - Smotrezhöhe and Staijki
1917
- until July 24th --- Position battles in the Forest Carpathians - Smotrezhöhe and Staijki
- July 25th to August 10th --- Liberation of the Bukovina - Skirmishes in the Czeremosztal, near Mihowa, near Moldavian Banilla and Augustendorf
- August 11 to September 16 --- Trench warfare in the east of Bukovina
- October 16-23 --- Trench warfare on the Isonzo
- October 24th to 27th --- Breakthrough through the Julian Alps - storming the Jeza and the height of La Lima
- October 28th to November 3rd --- Battle of Udine
- November 4th to 11th --- Pursuit battles from Tagliamento to Piave
- November 12th to December 2nd --- Trench warfare on the lower Piave
- December 3rd to 31st --- Fights in the Venetian Alps - Storming of Monte Valderoa and battle on Monte Fontana-Secca
1918
- March 12-28 --- Trench warfare in Lorraine
- March 29th to April 6th --- Great battle in France
- April 6th to May 20th --- Fights on the Ancre , Somme and Avre
- July 15 to 19 --- Crossing over the Marne
- July 20th to August 5th --- retreat to Vesle
- August 21st to September 24th --- Position battles in Champagne
- September 25th to October 6th --- Defensive battle in Champagne
- October 21 to November 3 --- Trench warfare on the Sambre-Oise Canal
- November 4th --- Defensive battle on the Sambre-Oise Canal
- November 5th to 11th --- Retreat fighting in northern France
The battalion lost 37 officers, 125 chief fighters and 1,030 fighters in the First World War. Four officers, 25 chief hunters and 251 hunters are missing. So a total of 1472 men.
Formation of the individual parts of the battalion and change of names
- 1813–1814 Kurhessisches battalion trained hunter
- 1814–1821 Kurhessisches Jäger Battalion
- 1821–1832 Kurhessisches Guard Jäger Battalion
- 1832–1834 Kurhessisches 1st Rifle Battalion
- 1834–1866 Kurhessisches Jäger Battalion
- 1821–1832 Kurhessisches Fusilier Battalion of the 2nd Line Infantry Regiment
- 1832–1834 Kurhessisches 2nd Rifle Battalion
- 1834–1851 Kurhessisches Rifle Battalion
- 1851–1856 Kurhessisches Fusilier Battalion
- 1856–1856 Kurhessian light infantry battalion
- 1856–1866 Kurhessisches Rifle Battalion
- 1856–1866 Nassau Jäger Battalion of 5 companies
- 1866–1899 Hessian Jäger Battalion No. 11
- 1899–1919 Kurhessisches Jäger Battalion No. 11
organization
Position of the regiment in the army organization in 1914
Subordination of the regiment in the First World War
Battalion chief
- 1897–1919 Queen Margaret of Italy
Commanders (1814 to 1904)
Kurhessisches Jäger Battalion
- 1814 to 1821 Ludwig Boedicker
- 1821 to 1833 Heinrich Schmidt
- 1833 to 1843 Georg Spangenberg
- 1843 to 1845 Gerhard Schlarbaum
- 1845 to 1851 Heinrich Schulz
- 1851 to 1852 Georg von Kaltenborn-Stachau
- 1852 to 1856 Ludwig Treusch von Buttlar
- 1856 to 1861 Bernhard von Wangenheim
- 1861 to 1862 Friedrich von Osterhausen
- 1862 to 1866 Ernst Wille
Boedicker
Schmidt
Spangenberg
Schlarbaum
Schulz
from Kaltenborn-Stachau
from Wangenheim
will
Ducal Nassau Jäger Battalion
- 1855 to 1862 Franz von Holbach
- 1862 to 1866 Carl von Hadeln
Kurhessisches Rifle Battalion
- 1834 to 1836 Ludwig von Berlepsch
- 1836 to 1847 Arnold d'Orville
- 1847 to 1850 Carl Hillebrand
- 1850 to 1851 Friedrich von Specht
- 1851 to 1854 Wilhelm von Baumbach
- 1854 to 1858 Reinier von Ende
- 1858 to 1859 Carl Henkel
- 1859 to 1859 Ludwig von Apell
- 1859 to 1861 Friedrich von Osterhausen
- 1861 to 1866 August von Oeynhausen
d'Orville
Hillebrand
from Baumbach
handle
Kurhessisches Jäger Battalion No. 11
- 1866 to 1868 Moritz von Frankenfeld-Ludwigsdorf
- 1868 to 1872 Hugo von Johnston
- 1872 to 1880 Gustav von der Mülbe
- 1880 to 1884 Arno Arndt
- 1884 to 1886 Erdmann von Schweinichen
- 1886 to 1888 Paul Kroll
- 1888 to 1893 Georg von Bose
- 1893 to 1894 Otto Emmich
- 1894 to 1897 by Glümer
- 1897 to 1904 Karl von Borries
- 1904 to 1907 Hans von Müller
- 1907 to 1911 Friedrich Wilhelm zur Lippe
- 1911 to 1914 Rudolf von Buttlar
- 1914 to 1917 Max von Soden
- 1917 to 1918 Wolff von Graeffendorff
- 1918 Hermann von Detten
Garrisons
Monuments
- The memorial, originally erected on Friedrichsplatz in Marburg for those who fell in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, is now a little apart on Ortenbergplatz. A plaque also commemorates the fallen of the First World War.
- After the war of 1870–71, a memorial for the fallen of the 11th hunters was inaugurated on August 6, 1895 on the battlefield of Wörth , today near the town of Morsbronn-les-Bains .
- In view of the participation of members of the battalion in the Boxer uprising in China, the genocide of the Herero and Nama in the former colony of German Southwest Africa (Namibia) 1904-07 or the Dinant massacre in 1914, the Marburg magistrate is planning a memorial installation in confrontation in 2018 with the war memorial in Ludwig-Schüler-Park.
Obelisk for the fallen of the 11th Jäger Battalion from 1870–71 and 1914–1918 in Marburg
Sandstone column for 4012 fallen soldiers of the Marburg hunters 1914–18 in Marburg
Contemporary drawing of the 11er monument near Morsbronn
Photo of the inauguration on August 6, 1895 near Wörth
literature
- Friedrich, Klaus-Peter; Kirschner, Albrecht; Lützoff, Corinna; Nickel, Katharina: On the history of the "Marburger Jäger" . Marburg city writings on history and culture 101. Marburg 2014.
- Moldenhauer, Siegfried: History of the Kurhessian Jäger Battalion No. 11 1st part - History of the regular troops up to 1866, Elwert'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung Marburg 1913
- Otto, Adolf, Ed .: War diary of the Kurhessian Jäger Battalion No. 11 1914–1918 , Feodor Willisch printer, Schmalkalden 1931
- Schaefer, Bertram u. Völke, Heinrich: History of the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 11 1914–1919 , Verlag Deutscher Jägerbund, Berlin - Printed by Verlag Gerhard Stalling , Oldenburg iO 1927
- Langkabel, Hermann: Marburg as a garrison town , lecture on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Bundeswehr garrison in Marburg 1981, (published by the Magistrate of the University of Marburg)
- Georg Alt, The Royal Prussian Standing Army , Volume 1, S.372ff
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the history of the “Marburger Jäger”, p. 27 ff.
- ^ "Kameradschaft Marburger Jäger" rejects the memorial. Upper Hessian Press, June 1, 2018
- ↑ https://www.marburg.de/portal/seiten/kunstwettbewerb-gedenkinstallation-schuelerpark-900001653-23001.html