Comments by "Britta Kriep" (@brittakriep2938) on "The Armchair Historian"
channel.
-
97
-
39
-
To the armed forces of imperial Germany. The german army consisted of four armies : 1) The royal prussian army, including the troops of the greatdukes and dukes, also the soldiers of the principalities and free towns. The non prussian troops had the right to keep their regiment flags and regiment names. 2) The royal saxon army 3) The royal wurttembergian army. The saxon and wurttembergian armies could keep their regiment flags, their regiment names and their Generalstab/ general staff, but their general staffs had been allways under prussian command. 4) The royal bavarian army. They could keep their regiment flags, tegiment names and their general staff. The bavarian general staff was only in wartime under prussian command. Also the jackets of bavarian soldiers had been in , bavarian blue', the non bavarian soldiers had jackets in ,prussian blue'. The helmets had been the same in all german armies, but the coat of arms and cocardes had been different. Also the leatherhelmet with point was only used by line infantry and dragoons. Artillery gunners used a similar helmet with a ball to prevent accidents, and light infantry ,technical troops and parts of reserve units used the Tschako. Hussars had a cylindric hussars cap made of fur ( See Feldmarschall von Mackensen) and lancers/Ulanen used a small leather helmet with a tip down pyramide to remember the polish origin of the Ulanen ( The polish ceremonial guard still uses caps with square/ quadratisch top). Heavy cavallry and palace units used pointed helmets made oft steel vor copperbased metal.
13
-
The ,prussian' army? The army of the german states had been may be 65% prussian soldiers. You totally have forgotten the soldiers of Bayern, Sachsen, Württemberg, Baden, Hessen- Darmstadt, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg- Schwerin, Mecklenburg- Strelitz, Sachsen- Weimar- Eisenach, Anhalt, Braunschweig, Sachsen- Altenburg, Sachsen- Meiningen, Sachsen- Coburg- Gotha, Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg- Sondershausen, Waldeck- Pyrmont, Lippe- Detmold, Reuß- Greitz, Reuß- Schleitz, Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck.
12
-
9
-
8
-
7
-
6
-
5
-
5
-
5
-
5
-
4
-
4
-
4
-
4
-
3
-
3
-
@dflatt1783 : There was a naval blockade against Germany from the Britisch Channel to the coast of Norway, so Germany could not import food. On paper Germany could import food from neutral countries Switzerland, Denmark, Norway or Sweden. But: Because of the war of 1864 Denmark was Allied friendly. Up to 1903 the king of Sweden was also king of Norway, a socalled ,personal union'. But from 1903 to 1906 the Norwegians tried to get an own king and had sucess. In this non violent fight for total independence from Sweden, France and Great Brittain supported Norway, Germany supported Sweden. So Norway was Allied friendly, Sweden Germany friendly ( When WW l started, a large number of swedish officers wanted, that Sweden enters the war on german side to reconquer the in 1809 lost Finnland, but the swedish King and Gouvernement had been more intelligent than the officers). Switzerland had a food problem in both world wäre, they could not sell food to Germany. In policy the swiss gouvernement had agreements with France and Germany: In case of a german attack the swiss army would follow the French High Command, in case of an allied attack the swiss troops would follow the German High Command. So there was a great food problem in Germany , the people had not enough food and lots of germans died. The people had to eat ,Steckrüben' , i don' t know the english name of this plant. It has rather few calories and is today sold as ,weight losing diet food'. In one of the german language military history magazines i read, the toppic ,Steckrüben' was also noted.
3
-
3
-
@billyfoster1868 : I am german and in daily life i prefer my swabian dialect over Standard german. But the people, prefering dialect become in all regions of Germany fewer and fewer. In my swabian dialects, such long , for non swabians sometimes funny ,swears/ Flüche, are common. My english is not so fluent, but i try to explain some. ,Dir henk e s' Kreiz aus' ( Standard german: Dir hänge/ henke ich das Kreuz aus) means in english about: I will remove your backbone. , Wenn e mid dr ferdich be, kaaschd da Asch en dr Schleng hoimdraga'( Standard german: Wenn ich mit dir fertig bin, kannst du den Arsch in der Schlinge heimtragen).In English about: When i have finished you , you can carry your arse home in a ( medical) sling ( like a broken arm). ,Di vrhopf'e' ( Standard german: Dich zerhüpfe ich). In english about: I jump on until you die. ,Dir schlag e d Laif aa, daß' d of de Stomba hoimmausla kaasch' ( Standard german: Dir schlage ich die Arme und Beine/Läufe ab, daß du auf den Stümpfen heimkriechen kannst.), Läufe is the huntsman word for animal legs, so in english: I cut away your arms and lege, so that you can crawl home on the remaining arm and leg pieces. So this swabian swears/ curses sound funny, but would be a cruel thing if done in reallity.
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
@Ruhrpottpatriot : After the spectacular defeat of 1806 ( Jena and Auerstädt), Prussia lost a lot of territory and the army was limited to 42000 men by Napoléon. So the prussian army analyced the mistakes ( to old officers in high ranks, only noble officers, to much parade training but to few field training, training and thinking only on regiment level, recruting etc.), this change was one of the reason, why prussian became so good in many military thngs after 1813. In the time of German Federation (1815 - 1866) only Austria,, the kingdoms and great dukes had the money and capability for usefull troops. The contingents of the Dukes, princes and free towns, often fewer than 300 men, had so low training, that they could only be used as guards, escorts, patrol men or fortress men.
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
@dpeasehead : In my country, Germany, after reformation in 16th century, there had been for decades some tensions/quarrels between the protestantic and the catholic states. In 1618 a violent event in Bohemia, in those days a part of Germany, escalated to a war. It was rather long, many parts of Germany had been involved, but it was an ,average' innergerman war ( the last one was 1866). In 1630 the war was basicly over with a victory of the imperial / catholic side. But now France and Sweden intervented with troops, the war lasted until 1648. Most parts of Germany had been destroyed, and diseases, hunger and the fury of war killed 30% of german population, in some regions nearly 90%. And Germany had up to early 18th century problems with rebuilding. So the intervention of foreign armies into a german civil war caused the greatest destruction of my country, not ww ll.
2
-
@zefft.f4010 : From 1815- 1866 the German Federation existed, including Luxemburg, Liechtenstein and the german part of Austria. This federation consisted of about 36 independent states at the start, later fewer for historical reason. The federation army consisted of 300000 men, plus the Reservedivision ( about 12000 men). Every state had to send a contingent of 1% of population. So the coningent size varied from 90000 men of german austria, 80000 men of german prussia ( the parts of prussia and austria with no or few germans had not been in German Federation) at one end, and 180 men of Hohenzollern- Hechingen and 55 men of Liechtenstein. So only Prussia, Austria, and to a lower degree, Bavaria,Saxony, Württemberg, Hannover and some greatdukes could field usefull troops. The contingents of the dukes, princes and free towns had only low training and equipment. So Prussia realy had the best army in the german language countries. After 1866 Austria, Luxemburg and Liechtenstein ( Army disbanding 1867) left Germany and the remainng german Staates adopted prussian army training. In 1648 Switzerland left Germany, during an offical visit in 1912 Wilhelm ll watched swiss ( militia) soldiers and said to Swiss Gouvernement: Your soldiers are well trained.
2
-
2
-
2
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
There wasn' t much. The german colony ,Tsingtao' in China was well fortfied, so the german garrison could resist for about three months against mostly japanese troops. The ammunition run out, and the japanese reached the weakest point of german fortifications, so the german troops surrenderd. In the South Sea there had been only few german soldiers and policemen, some hundreds of indigenous policemen/ soldiers divided to a lot of islands, japanese forces took it without resistance. From Tsingtao the german East Asia Navy Squad tried to reach Germany via Cap Horn, they won a small seabattle against a british squad of elderly ships, but lost a second battle at Falkland Islands, all german ships sunk and Admiral Graf( Count) Spee died in action. Another single german warship ,Emden' die some merchant raiding, also merchant raider ,Seeadler' a ship of sail ( !) under command of Graf Luckner reached Pacific.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
The prussian army had been in fact the troops of Kingdoms Prussia and Saxony, Great Duchies of Oldenburg, Hessen- Darmstadt, Mecklenburg- Schwerin, Mecklenburg- Strelitz, Sachsen - Weimar - Eisenach, Duchies of Braunschweig, Anhalt , Sachsen - Coburg- Gotha, Sachsen - Meiningen, Sachsen - Altenburg, principalities of Lippe- Detmold, Waldeck- Pyrmont, Schwarzburg- Sondershausen, Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt, Reuß- Schleitz, Reuß- Greitz, the hanseatic towns Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. Also the ,Felddivisions' of Württemberg and Baden seem unknown to you.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
No. The real founder of prussian army was his father Friedrich- Wilhelm l, ruling from 1714 to 1740. This king had a problem, when he started his reign. His pompeous and warlike ancestors had nearly bancrupted Prussia. So he did changes. He replaced pompeous french lifestyle with moneysaving prussian lifestyle. He sold expensive and useless african colonies. He changed administration: The official became wellpaid, and for this the king wanted loyal, disciplined and busy officials. He stopped all costintensive things, when you can not earn money with. He thought: A country without an army is a garden without a fence, everybody comes to steal. So he enlarged prussian army from 38000 men to about 70000 (or 80000?) men and spend lot of money for bis army. But he knew: a) An army is expensive. b) Warfare is more expensive. c) A defeat in war is much more expensive. So Friedrich- Wilhelm l, known as Soldatenkönig/ soldierking was militaristic, but was never involved in a war ( to expensive). But in contrast to his son , he was not interessted in art or philosophy, he was a simple man and described as a rather unfriendly, to some degree brutal man, so he is seen mostly negatve in Germany. But: Not wanting colonies and selling them, being not involved into war, and a money saving lifestyle is realy different to other monsrchs.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
Some small notes from Germany: The german ,ch' sound is not a ,k' . German ,th' is spoken ,t' , not the english way ( When Standard German was created in 19th century, and was officially adopted in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in early 1870s, the former custom of writing a ,h' after every ,t' ended, so today a ,th' appears only in in names or nongerman words, the only exeption is Thron/ throne, because Wilhelm ll in 1901 saved the ,h' in this word.) Also calling von Richthofen a Baron is not correct. In british nobility rank system Baron is the lowest rank of high nobility, while german nobility rank Freiherr is highest rank of low nobility ( knights), so Baronet would be more correct. Baron is in Germany often used for Freiherr, but only in Austria or Bavaria some few noblemen bot this title officially.
1
-
1
-
@LiterallyWho1917 : Not totally true, in case of line tactics. Both in Italy 1859, in Denmark 1864 and Königgrätz 1866 the Austrian troops used many parts of old napoleonic tactics. The problem was , that in the austrian army soldiers with german, hungarian, czech, slowakian, slowenian, croatian, italian, polish, ruthenic, romanian etc. native language served, so before 1867 ( the year of military, civil and administration reforms), commanding the modern tactics was a large Problem, so that Austria used old tactics, easier to command , longer. In the very informative Army Museum in the former Arsenal buildings of Vienna, i saw a manual for german language officers, how to speak orders for nongerman soldiers. The orders had been written, for example , in correct hungarian and then in a way , how a german would write it.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681 : Wrong button! The dragoons had been in Germany used as second wave in charge, or sometimes as infantry, they once had been ( They had been armed with a slightly shortened musket/ Dragonergewehr, similar to marines muskets, bayonnet and staight blade sword/ Pallasch like cuirassiers and gendarmes). During 18th century the german dragons had been used fewer and fewer as infantry ( Frederick ll of prussia: The dragons fight mostly in horseback, infantry training should not be forgotten, but the quality of regular infantry is not necessary). As light cavallry the Hussars ( of hungarian orgin) had been used in Germany , armed with ( curved) saber and carbines. Carbines in small numbers had also been used by cuirassiers and gendarmes, and pistols also by hussars and dragons. Cavallry with lances was very (!) rare in 18th century germany, perhaps some few polish soldiers in prussian/austrian service, and austrian Grenzer/ Bosniaken/ border guards at the austrian- ottoma Militärgrenze/ military border. During napoleonic wars, lancers (Ulanen) had been introduced into some german armies, and german/austrian dragons have nearly lost the infantry fight ability. This was reintroduced in not so proper way in late 19th century, so german dragons entered wwl with Leatherhelmet with point like line infantry, but with carbines. Because german cavallry started in wwl with carbines and no bayonnet, they had to use their lances as substitute. So to come back to your comment, the solution is simply another military tradition. And bavarian light cavallry used the french name Chevaux legets'- light horse.
1
-
1
-
1