Foreign Volunteers in the German army

[Maz]

Hi

I wonder if anyone have any figures of foreign volunteers in the German army. I believe I read a book some years back where it said about 6,000 danes died in the German army. Also would these volunteers have been serving in special regiments or in regular German units.

Thanks for any help
Maz

[yerbamatt]

Hi

I wonder if anyone have any figures of foreign volunteers in the German army. I believe I read a book some years back where it said about 6,000 danes died in the German army. Also would these volunteers have been serving in special regiments or in regular German units.

Thanks for any help
Maz

Hello Maz,

Those mentioned six thousand Danes were German subjects from Northern Schleswig (dan. Nord Slesvig), drafted to the Imperial Army - they were not volunteers in any case but conscripts. Poles from Posen,West & East Prussia and Upper Silesia, French from Lorraine (Metz and Dieuze), even some Lithuanians from Memel and Czechs from Hultschin (Upper Silesia) met the same fate.

As for foreign volunteers, I know one - born on the fateful day of April 20th, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, unsuccessful painter, known of his weird both mustache and hair-do...

Regards...

[Mika68]

Yes, there were foreign volunteers in German army.

His Majestics Jaeger Batallion of Prussia Number 27 consisted of 2000 Finnish volunteers.
It fought against Russians in Baltic states 1916-18.

In the end of February 1918 the Finnish volunteers (Jaegers) came back home to participate civil war in Finland against "Reds".
The Finnish Jaegers were the base of "Whites", who won the civil war.
Later the Jaegers were in very important role on developing Army of independent Finland.

[Eden Zhang]

As for foreign volunteers, I know one - born on the fateful day of April 20th, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, unsuccessful painter, known of his weird both mustache and hair-do...

Also his temper tantrums and water paintings

Does anyone have any information on volunteers from Germany's African colonies? I read in "All Quite on the Western Front" about how the guys encountered black French soldiers.

[Chris Dale]

Hi Eden,
The French and British used colonial troops on the Western front. Germany did not. There were however at least two kettle drummers from the Agfrican colonies who served in German Cavalry regiments during the war. See- http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=22359 for previous discussions on them.
Cheers
Chris

[Peter H]

This might be of interest,a Swedish officer who served with the German Army:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... ht=swedish

[Eden Zhang]

Hi chrispaulodale

You said:

The French and British used colonial troops on the Western front. Germany did not

Was there any particular reason for this?

[Chris Dale]

Hi Eden,
The German Colonial forces were nowhere near as big as the British or French equivalents which had often fought overseas in the 19th Century. The German Schutztruppe were just protective forces used and equipped for policing, putting down local rebellions and not much more. They had enough on their hands when the allies invaded the colonies themselves- something which came as a surprise to the Germans who hoped the Treaty of Berlin 1886 guaranteed the neutrality of their colonies. Also the Germans didn't have control over the seas enough to resupply these forces let alone transport them to Europe.
The Germans thought allied use of colonial troops in Europe was barbaric, but there was probably an elemnet of sour grapes in that they were not able to do the same even if they had wanted to.
See more on my website at http://www.sacktrick.com/igu/germancolonialuniforms
Cheers
Chris