Russian-German Legion
The Russian-German Legion was a troop contingent established at the suggestion of the expelled Duke of Oldenburg , Peter Friedrich Ludwig , and on behalf of Tsar Alexander I.
Lineup
The Legion was set up by the Tsar in Russia in 1812 at the suggestion of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig von Oldenburg . She was in Russian service, but was paid and equipped by the ally Great Britain and was supposed to support the freedom struggle against Napoleon . The main propagandist for joining the Legion was Ernst Moritz Arndt , the private secretary of Freiherr vom Stein , who was in Russian service . He stayed in Petersburg in 1812 and called for a patriotic struggle for freedom against the French occupation in Germany.
German soldiers were to be motivated to overflow with leaflets. Former Prussian officers, now in Russian service, tried this directly at the front. Lieutenant Colonel Tiedemann was shot dead. In July 1812, 30 Dutch Guards Uhlans joined the Legion. This was followed by 50 Prussian infantrymen and 40 hussars who had been captured in the Riga area. A Prussian hunter battalion overflowed almost completely on August 22nd. In mid-October the Legion was relocated to Finland and lost all of its equipment in a shipwreck. At the end of December, the Legion reportedly consisted of about 4,000 men. A report from December 10th indicates the strength lower: 1,618 men, 477 sick, 68 commanded, 48 officers, 5 sick and 4 commanded. There was a typhus epidemic in Russia at the time , hence the high number of sick people. In the months before that, the Legion had already lost many soldiers to this disease.
Structure and strength
In the Legion, Lieutenant General Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn (from June 26, 1813) served as Commander-in-Chief , Colonel Wilhelm von Arentschildt and Major General Wilhelm von Dörnberg as Brigadiers and Lieutenant Colonel Carl von Clausewitz as Chief of the Quartermaster's Staff . Werner von Haxthausen was the supreme commander's adjutant .
The Russian-German Legion consisted of a total of 8 battalions of infantry , 1 company of hunters , 2 regiments of hussars and 2 mounted batteries with a total of 9,379 soldiers. But in June 1813 only 5,000 men from Russia could leave for the theater of war. The Russian armories were exhausted by the war and could only provide 1,500 rifles. Thus only about every third soldier had a rifle. The rifles were only borrowed and had to be returned in Königsberg.
infantry
1st Battalion - Commander Capitain von Natzmer I, from August 16, 1813 Capitain von Schaper . Erected in Reval from July to September 1812. The majority of the soldiers were Prussians, plus a few Dutch. In April 1815 he entered Prussian service as 1st Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 30.
2nd Battalion - Commander Major von Fircks. Erected in Walk from September 1812 to February 1813. The battalion consisted of Prussians, Bavarians and Dutch. Formed the 2nd battalion in the Prussian infantry regiment No. 30 from April 1815.
3- Battalion - Commander Lieutenant Colonel Wardenburg , from February 17, 1814 Capitain von Tiedemann I. The battalion was established in Mitau from February to March 1813. From April 1815 as 2nd Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 31 in Prussian service. The soldiers came mainly from the contingents of the smaller German states and from the Kingdom of Westphalia .
4th Battalion - Commander: Major von Horn. Erected from March to May 1813 in Königsberg. Existed almost exclusively from Westphalia.
5th Battalion - Commander Capitain von Dobschütz. Formed May to June 1813 in Königsberg. The soldiers came from different German countries, almost all of them convalescents. Military discipline and order never succeeded. On December 11, 1813, the battalion was disbanded for cowardice in front of the enemy.
6th Battalion - Commander: Capitain von Natzmer II. Created in Landsberg / Warthe on June 29th and 30th, 1813. The soldiers came from the royal Saxon regiment Prince Maximilian and initially continued to wear their Saxon uniforms. Transfer to Prussian service in April 1815 as a fusilier battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 31.
7th Battalion - Commander Major von Reiche. Was built in Langenbielau and Dömitz from July to October 1813. The battalion consisted of deserters as well as Coburgs, Saxons and Westphalia. After joining the Prussian Army, Fusilier Battalion in Infantry Regiment No. 30.
8th Battalion - Commander: Capitain von Gregersdorf. Beginning of the establishment of the battalion from September 1813 in Brandenburg. Was only considered a replacement battalion as it never reached full strength.
Jägerkompanie - Commander: Unterleutnant Müller I. The establishment of the company began in August 1812 in Reval. The formation of the unit was not completed until January 1813 in Borgo. The soldiers came from Prussia. From August 9, 1813, the unit formed the trunk of the 3rd Prussian Jäger Battalion.
cavalry
1st Hussar Regiment - Commander Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Wilhelm von der Goltz . The establishment of the regiment began in Reval in August 1812. It was completed in January 1813 in Tsarskoye Selo, near St. Petersburg. The soldiers came from East Prussia, Lithuania, Württemberg, Saxony, Bavaria, Kur- and Livonia. There were also some Germans from St. Petersburg. Takeover in the Prussian army as 1st and 2nd squadron of the Prussian Uhlan Regiment No. 8 .
2nd Hussar Regiment - Commander Count Friedrich von Dohna I. Formed in Mitau and Königsberg from February to May 1813. Consisted largely of former infantrymen, including Dutch, Croats, Illyrians, Poles, Swiss and French. The German soldiers from this regiment were transferred to the 3rd and 4th squadrons of the Prussian Uhlan Regiment No. 8 on April 20, 1815 .
artillery
Brigade Chief of Staff: Lieutenant Colonel Monhaupt
1st mounted battery - Commander Premier-Lieutenant Scheele, from October 11, 1813 Premier-Lieutenant Ramaër. Construction of the battery began in Reval in August 1812. In January 1813 it was finished in Pavlovsk. The soldiers came almost exclusively from the infantry. Taken into the Prussian army as mounted battery No. 18 in April 1815.
2nd mounted battery - Commander: Premier-Leutnant von Tiedemann II. Erected in Königsberg from April to May 1813. Here, too, the soldiers were almost exclusively former infantrymen. From April in Prussian service as mounted battery No. 19.
Foot battery - Commander Capitain of Magino. Erected in Barth from August to October 1813. Disbanded in August 1814.
The park company of the artillery was taken over in April 1815 as munitions column No. 19 in the Prussian army.
Struggles
On July 6, Great Britain took over the supply of the Russian-German Legion under the Treaty of Peterswaldau and thereby acquired the right to determine its use. Now Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn took over the command. The British Army provided a sufficient number of rifles, but some of them were in need of repair. As late as August 1813, the Legion was so poorly equipped that some of the soldiers were hidden during an inspection by the Swedish Crown Prince. Cannons and howitzers were not delivered until September. The Legion advanced on the Lower Elbe and fought in Mecklenburg and Holstein . The only significant battle in which the Legion took part was the Battle of the Göhrde . Later she took part in the siege of Harburg (Elbe) and marched on towards the Netherlands . In mid-March 1814 crossed the Rhine and fought in Flanders to Antwerp to block.
Prussian suzerainty
After returning from France in 1814, the Legion was taken over by Prussia, although the collaborators were viewed critically. On June 2, 1814, the name was changed to German Legion. In 1814 the Legion moved to Kurhessen and then took up quarters in Bergisch until 1815 .
resolution
After Napoleon's return from Elba on February 26, 1815, the soldiers were transferred to the infantry regiments No. 30 and 31 , the Uhlan regiment No. 8 and the 18th and 19th mounted batteries in the Prussian Army . On April 18, 1815, the Legion was dissolved.
Literary processing / fiction
The writer Martin Selber processes the history of the Russian-German Legion in his novel Die Moorjäger (1989).
See also
- Wilhelm Gustav Friedrich Wardenburg
- Infantry Regiment "Graf Werder" (4th Rheinisches) No. 30
- Infantry Regiment "Graf Bose" (1st Thuringian) No. 31
literature
- Karl Schröder: Eitorf under the Prussians, Heimatverein Eitorf 2002, ISBN 3-87710-321-9
- Barthold von Quistorp : The Imperial Russian German Legion. Berlin 1860, digitized
- (Richard) Putzki: The Russian-German Legion 1812-1814 , Charlottenburg 1912.
- Gabriele Venzky : The Russian-German Legion in the years 1811-1815 , Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1966.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Venzky, page 72
- ↑ Venzky, page 75
- ↑ Venzky, page 85
- ↑ Venzky, page 82
- ^ Felix Ferdinand von Natzmer, (* 1780; † 1815), favor with Ligny Cf. Wilhelm von Arentschildt # family
- ↑ Ferdinand von Fircks, † 1824 as lieutenant colonel
- ↑ Carl von Tiedmann, † 1848, Colonel a. D.
- ^ Friedrich von Horn, retired as lieutenant colonel in 1815
- ↑ Michael Friedrich August von Dobschütz (1783–1869) [1]
- ↑ Hans von Natzmer, † 1853
- ↑ Ferdinand of Gregersdorf from Kurland, † 1823
- ↑ Gottlieb Müller, † 1833 as head forester in Ostrovo near Posen
- ↑ He was actually listed as Count Dohna I. His relative Helvetius von Dohna (born March 13, 1789, † April 22, 1821) was Dohna II.
- ↑ († 1841) as a major in the 1st Artillery Brigade
- ↑ went into Dutch service
- ↑ from Piedmont
- ↑ All information according to Venzky, page 86 ff.