Freikorps in the Baltic
After 1918, the term
1917: Russia cedes the Baltic lands to Germany
The Russian
1918: Germany loses World War I, Red Army threatens
Under the terms of the
Meanwhile, the People's Council of Latvia proclaimed Latvia's independence from Russia on November 18, 1918. Latvian leader Kārlis Ulmanis requested German Freikorps support for assistance against the Bolsheviks. The British observer, General Sir Hubert Gough, invoked Article 12 of the Armistice Agreement, which provided that German troops must evacuate all territories belonging to the Russian Empire, but only "as soon as the Allies shall consider this desirable, having regard to the interior conditions of these territories."
1919: Iron Brigade
Wonderful Settlement Opportunity! Anyone who wants to own his own estate in the beautiful Baltic, report to one of the following recruitment offices....
Advert in a newspaper for German soldiers, 1919 (quoted in Waite's Vanguard of Nazism)[4]
As many of the demoralized German soldiers were being withdrawn from Latvia, Major Josef Bischoff, an experienced German officer, formed a Freikorps unit called the Eiserne Brigade (translated: "Iron Brigade"). This unit was deployed to Riga and used to delay the Red Army advance. Meanwhile, volunteers were recruited from Germany, with promises of land, a chance to fight Bolshevism, and other enticements of dubious veracity.[5] These soldiers, along with remnants of the German 8th Army and the Eiserne Brigade, were reconstituted into the Eiserne (Iron) Division. Also, the Baltic Germans and some Latvians formed the Baltische Landeswehr. The official mission assigned to this force was to prevent any Red Army advance into East Prussia, but its real mission was to help the Baltic Germans re-establish their own state or dominance in Latvia.[3]
Initially, the Iron Division was commanded by Bischoff, and the Baltische Landeswehr by Major Alfred Fletcher, a German of Scottish ancestry. In late February, only the seaport of Liepāja and its surroundings remained in the hands of the German and Latvian forces. In March 1919, the Iron Brigade helped the German detachments win a series of victories over the Red forces. The main blow in the campaign was delivered by the Baltische Landeswehr, which first occupied the port of Ventspils and then drove south to Riga.[3] This attack appears to have been coordinated with the Estonians who drove the Bolsheviks from the northern part of Latvia.
The Allies ordered the German government to withdraw its troops from the Baltic after the defeat of Bolsheviks. The German forces attempted to seize control of Latvia with the assistance of the local ethnic German population. On April 16, they organised a coup d'état in Liepāja, the provisional national government of Latvia took refuge aboard steamship Saratow. A new
Conflict with Estonia and Latvia
We were a band of fighters drunk with all the passions of the world; full of lust, exultant in action. What we wanted, we did not know. And what we knew, we did not want! War and adventure, excitement and destruction. An indefinable, surging force welled up from every part of our being and flayed us onward.
Ernst von Salomon, The Outlaws (Die Geächteten), quoted in Waite's Vanguard of Nazism[6]
After the capture of Riga, the Freikorps were accused of killing 300 Latvians in
On June 19, 1919, the Landeswehr and the Iron Division launched an attack to capture Cēsis. Initially, the Freikorps captured the town of Straupe and continued their advance toward the town of Limbaži. The Estonians launched a counterattack and drove the Freikorps out of the town. On June 21, the Estonians received reinforcements and immediately attacked the Landeswehr under Fletcher, who was forced to withdraw from an area to the northeast of Cēsis. The Iron Division attacked from Straupe towards Stalbe in an effort to relieve pressure on the Landeswehr. On the morning of June 23, the Germans began a general retreat toward Riga.[7]
The Allies again insisted that the Germans withdraw their remaining troops from Latvia, and on July 3 intervened to impose a Strazdumuiža armistice between Estonia, Latvia, and the Landeswehr and Freikorps when the Latvians and Estonians were about to march into Riga. Major Bischoff created a German Legion from over a dozen Freikorps units and turned the units over to the West Russian Volunteer Army. In all, the Iron Division transferred over 14,000 men, 64 aircraft, 56 artillery pieces, and 156 machine guns. Six cavalry units and a field hospital also went over. The offensive by the reformed German army was subsequently defeated by the Latvian Army, which received assistance from British and French warships and Estonian armoured trains.[3]
Retreat
The Freikorps had saved Latvia from capture by the Red Army in the spring of 1919. However, the Freikorps' goal of creating a German-dominated state in Courland and Livonia failed. Many of the German Freikorps members who served in the Baltic left Latvia with the belief that they had been "stabbed in the back" by the Weimar Republic, under President Friedrich Ebert. Hundreds of Baltic Freikorps soldiers had planned to settle in Latvia, and for those who had fought there, the land made a lasting impression, and many of them longed for the day that they could return there. The Baltic Freikorps characterized their struggle against the Reds as the "Drang nach Osten", (the drive towards the East), and some Freikorps units returned to Germany and planned for the day of their return.
According to historian Robert GL Waite, the retreat from the Baltic caused discipline in the Freikorps to break down, and many fighters "ran wild through the country side marauding in complete disorder" [8]
Some Freikorps members, like Otto Zeltiņš-Goldfelds, stayed in Latvia, joined the Latvian Army and became citizens.
See also
- West Russian Volunteer Army
- Aftermath of World War I
- Latvian Riflemen
- Latvian War of Independence
- Estonian War of Independence
- United Baltic Duchy
- Ober Ost
References
- ^
ISBN 9781135137052. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
German occupation gradually extended through almost all the Baltic Provinces (complete occupation occurred during the Brest-Litovsk treaty negotiations). Latvia was a nation occupied [...]. [...] Latvians at home lived under German military occupation while tens of thousands of refugees were scattered across a Russia at civil war.
- ^
Ehret, Joseph (1919). Litauen in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft (in German). Kommissionsverlag von A. Francke. p. 234. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
Die Anerkennung Litauens als freier und unabhängiger Staat durch das Deutsche Reich am 24. März 1918.
- ^ a b c d e f Colonel Jaan Maide (1933). Ülevaade Eesti Vabadussõjast (1918–1920) (Overview on Estonian War of Independence) (PDF) (in Estonian).
- ^ Waite, p.105 quoting Reichswehr, Jun 18 1919
- ^ Waite, p.105
- ^ Waite, p.106 quoting a translation
- ^ Estonian War of Independence 1918–1920. Jyri Kork (Ed.). Esto, Baltimore, 1988 (Reprint from Estonian War of Independence 1918–1920. Historical Committee for the War of Independence, Tallinn, 1938)
- ^ Waite, p. 131
External links
- Archive World War I documents assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List
- World War I Resources on the web
- Axis History Factbook; Freikorps section – By Marcus Wendel and contributors; site also contains an apolitical forum
- Latvia - Encyclopædia Britannica Article
- Pygmy Wars (personal site) with emphasis on the Battle of Cēsis
Bibliography
- Robert G L Waite, Vanguard of Nazism, 1969, W W Norton and Company