Freikorps


Freikorps were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively served as mercenaries or private military companies, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries, the first so-called Freikorps were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades, and deserters. These sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry ; sometimes in just company strength and sometimes in formations of up to several thousand strong. There were also various mixed formations or legions. The Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger, dragoons and hussars. The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons.
In the aftermath of World War I and during the German Revolution of 1918–19, Freikorps, consisting partially of World War I veterans, were raised as paramilitary militias. They were ostensibly mustered to fight on behalf of the government against the German communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar Republic. However, many Freikorps also largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters, later aiding the Nazis in their rise to power.

Origins

The first Freikorps appeared during the War of the Austrian Succession and especially during the Seven Years' War, when France, Prussia, and the Habsburg monarchy embarked on an escalation of petty warfare while conserving their regular regiments. Even during the last Kabinettskrieg, the War of the Bavarian Succession, Freikorp formations were formed in 1778. Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, and South Slavs, as well as Turks, Tatars and Cossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained as the ethnic origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs were often referred to as "Hungarians" or just "Croats", and Muslim recruits as "Turks".
Inspired by the Slavic troops in Austrian service, France, the Dutch Republic and other nations began employing "Free Troops", usually consisting of infantry and cavalry units. The Dutch Republic employed a number of "Vrij compagnieën", raised between 1745 and 1747 and made up of volunteers and French deserters, such as the Walloon Grenadier Company. Although mostly used for reconnaissance and harassing enemy columns, the companies were organised into a battalion and engaged at the engagement at Wouw and the Battle of Lauffelt. Some companies were accompanied by a company of Dragons or Hussars, such as Roodt's Company and Cornabé's Legion. And in late 1747, a French company of Miners was captured and taken into service of the Republic.
France also made extensive use of Free Companies and Legions. At the Battle of Fontenoy, deployment of the British attack column was hampered by the French 'Harquebusiers de Grassins'. After the Battle of Lauffelt, French light troops pursued the retreating allies, but were engaged in a bloody guerilla war with Austrian and Dutch light troops and Free Companies for the remainder of the campaign.
For Prussia, the Pandurs, who were made up of Croats and Serbs, were a clear model for the organization of such "free" troops. On 15 July 1759, Frederick the Great ordered the creation of a squadron of volunteer hussars to be attached to the 1st Hussar Regiment. He entrusted the creation and command of this new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters. This squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first four squadrons of dragoons of the Freikorps were organised. They initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig, but later recruited deserters. The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used mainly as sentries and for minor duties. During the war, 14 "free infantry" units were created, mainly between 1756 and 1758, which were intended to be attractive to those soldiers who wanted military "adventure", but did not want to have to do military drill. A distinction should be made between the Freikorps formed up to 1759 for the final years of the war, which operated independently and disrupted the enemy with surprise attacks, and the free infantry which consisted of various military branches and were used in combination. They were often used to ward off Maria Theresa's Pandurs. In the era of linear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement and reconnaissance duties. During the war, eight such volunteer corps were set up:
  • Trümbach's Freikorps
  • Kleist's Freikorps
  • Glasenapp's Free Dragoons
  • Schony's Freikorps
  • Gschray's Freikorps
  • Bauer's Free Hussars
  • Légion Britannique
  • Volontaires Auxiliaires.
Because, some exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard and garrison duties. In the so-called "petty wars", the Freikorps interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare. In the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the Freikorps, which Frederick the Great had despised as "vermin", were disbanded. Their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments.
In France, many corps continued to exist until 1776. They were attached to regular dragoon regiments as jäger squadrons. During the Napoleonic Wars, Austria recruited various Freikorps of Slavic origin. The Slavonic Wurmser Freikorps fought in Alsace. The combat effectiveness of the six Viennese Freikorps, however, was low. An exception were the border regiments of Croats and Serbs who served permanently on the Austro-Ottoman border.
The Serbian Free Corps was established in 1788 and was used in the Austro-Turkish War.

Napoleonic era

During Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, the hussar Denis Davydov, a warrior-poet, formed volunteer partisan detachments functioning as Freikorps during the French retreat from Moscow. These irregular units operated in conjunction with Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov's regular Russian Imperial Army and Ataman Matvei Platov's Cossack detachments, harassing the French supply lines and inflicting defeats on the retreating Grande Armée in the battles of Krasnoi and the Berezina.
Freikorps in the modern sense emerged in Germany during the course of the Napoleonic Wars. They fought not so much for money but for patriotic reasons, seeking to shake off the French Confederation of the Rhine. After the French under Emperor Napoleon had either conquered the German states or forced them to collaborate, remnants of the defeated armies continued to fight on in this fashion. Famous formations included the King's German Legion, who had fought for Britain in French-occupied Spain and mainly were recruited from Hanoverians, the Lützow Free Corps and the Black Brunswickers.
The Freikorps attracted many nationally disposed citizens and students. Freikorps commanders such as Ferdinand von Schill, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow or Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, known as the "Black Duke", led their own attacks on Napoleonic occupation forces in Germany. Those led by Schill were decimated in the Battle of Stralsund ; many were killed in battle or executed at Napoleon's command in the aftermath. The Freikorps were very popular during the period of the German War of Liberation, during which von Lützow, a survivor of Schill's Freikorps, formed his Lützow Free Corps. The anti-Napoleonic Freikorps frequently conducted operations behind French lines, functioning as a form of commando or guerrilla force.
Throughout the 19th century, these anti-Napoleonic Freikorps were greatly praised and glorified by German nationalists, and a heroic myth built up around their exploits. This myth was invoked, in considerably different circumstances, in the aftermath of Germany's defeat in World War I, then misused by the Third Reich.
France later raised its own free corps. On 5 January 1814, at the start of the invasion of France, Napoleon decreed the formation of corps francs for territorial defense in the border departments. They were dissolved by an ordinance of Louis XVIII on 15 April 1814. The corps francs were restored on 22 April 1815, following Napoleon's return to power, and participated in the defense of France during the Hundred Days. They were again dissolved by Louis XVIII on 20 July 1815.

Freikorps poetry

The anti-Napoleonic guerrilla movements in Germany, Russia and Spain in the early 1810s also produced their own style of poetry, hussar poetry or Freikorps poetry, written by soldier-poets. In Germany, Theodor Körner, Max von Schenkendorff and Ernst Moritz Arndt were the most famous soldier-poets from the Freikorps. Their lyrics were for the most part patriotic, republican, anti-monarchical and anti-French. In Russia, the leader of the guerrilla army, Davydov, invented the genre of hussar poetry, characterised by hedonism and bravado. He used events from his own life to illustrate such poetry. Later, when Mikhail Lermontov was a junker in the Russian Imperial Army, he also wrote such poetry.

1815–71

Even in the aftermath of the Napoleonic era, Freikorps were set up with varying degrees of success. During the March 1848 riots, student Freikorps were set up in Munich.
In First Schleswig War of 1848 the Freikorps of von der Tann, Zastrow and others distinguished themselves.
In 1864 in Mexico, the French formed the so-called Contreguerrillas under former Prussian hussar officer, Milson. In Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi formed his famous Freischars, notably the "Thousand of Marsala", which landed in Sicily in 1860.
Even before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, Freikorps were developed in France that were known as franc-tireurs.