High command in the brands
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The High Command in the Marche was a command authority of the Prussian Army between 1848 and 1920.
In the course of the revolution of 1848/49 there were political upheavals in Prussia . In September 1848 Ernst von Pfuel was appointed Prussian Prime Minister and Minister of War. Since this had already shown during the March Revolution in Berlin that he was more in favor of a compromise and a constitutional policy, many officials and government representatives considered him unreliable. In a certain way, the "High Command in the Marches" established on September 13, 1848 (i.e. in the area of the former Mark Brandenburg ) formed a kind of reinsurance for King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. In the event of unrest, this new authority should have all troops between the Elbe and Oder who are otherwise tactically III. Army Corps and the Guard Corps . In relation to these general commands , the commander-in-chief in the Marken should also be directly authorized to issue instructions in times of unrest. On September 13, 1848, the general of the cavalry Friedrich Graf von Wrangel was appointed as the first commander-in- chief, who was considered absolutely loyal. This ensured that the military would support the monarch in the event of further unrest in the capital. The office was permanently budgeted by a cabinet order of July 28, 1849.
Its seat was Berlin and the high command initially consisted only of the commander-in-chief himself and a staff officer. In peacetime it was not subject to any troops, so that it only played a role in civil unrest or mobilization. The powers to be applied in this regard were regulated in the Act on the State of Siege of 1851 and in the War Ministry's instruction "On the use of weapons by the military and their participation in suppressing civil unrest". Often one of the corps commanders was also appointed commander-in-chief in the Marche and governor of Berlin.
The establishment of the high command in the Marche was retained even after the revolution and was a special feature. In the German Reich , the position of the commanding general was the most influential in times of peace , which even included an immediate right to the monarch. Only in the Berlin area was the Commander in Chief of the Marches superordinate to the respective corps commanders, even if only in the event of unrest. During the First World War , the Commander-in-Chief in the Marches acted as military commander for Berlin and the province of Brandenburg , with the deputy general command of the III. Army Corps and the Guard Corps were subordinate. During the First World War, the commander in chief in the Marche was also the only military commander with whom the emperor had official business. Colonel-General Gustav von Kessel, as Commander-in-Chief in the Marche, announced the state of war for his area of command on July 31, 1914 and assumed executive power. In the course of mobilization, the agency was expanded and played an important role in suppressing unrest such as the January strike . During the Kapp Putsch , the Commander-in-Chief in the Marken General der Infanterie Walther von Lüttwitz was one of the leading putschists and deployed his troops against the government. After the failure of the action, the command authority was therefore dissolved on March 20, 1920.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dermot Bradley (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939. Volume 1. Biblio Verlag. Osnabrück 1990. p. 33.
- ↑ Dirk Blasius : Friedrich Wilhelm IV. 1795-1861 - Psychopathology and History , Göttingen 1992, p. 149
- ^ A b Dictionary of German Military History , Vol. 2, Berlin 1985, pp. 719f
- ^ Wilhelm Deist: Military, State and Society - Studies on Prussian-German Military History , Munich 1991, pp. 130, 137f, 157