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79-530: Because not enough volunteers could be found in time, regular Bavarian Army troops formed much of the actual corps that arrived with Otto in Greece in early 1833. The Bavarian Army regulars were gradually replaced by volunteers until 1834. These came chiefly from Bavaria, but also included men from diverse nations, and often of non-military background. Most of the Bavarians left by 1837, but many remained behind, dominating

158-466: A Grenadier Guard regiment, 16 regiments of Line Infantry, two battalions of Jäger, seven regiments of light cavalry (of which one was territorial), one regiment of Uhlans , two Hussar regiments, one regiment of Garde du Corps (mounted royal bodyguard), two regiments of foot artillery and one of horse-artillery. In 1815, the 7th (National) Light Cavalry regiment was formed into two Cuirassier regiments. The Hussars and Uhlans were disbanded in 1822. Following

237-580: A brewery, which became known by the Hellenized form of his name as "Fix". Bavarian Army The Bavarian Army was the army of the Electorate (1682–1806) and then Kingdom (1806–1918) of Bavaria . It existed from 1682 as the standing army of Bavaria until the merger of the military sovereignty ( Wehrhoheit ) of Bavaria into that of the German State in 1919. The Bavarian Army was never comparable to

316-545: A longer time). The reforms of 1868 abolished the use of substitutes, introduced compulsory conscription for three years, and instituted the {{lang|de| Einjährig-Freiwilliger}} ("One Year Volunteer") system. In 1809, after the French model, the territorial forces were converted into a national guard, which from 1814 to 1868 was known as the Landwehr of the Kingdom of Bavaria. During

395-661: A reward, but unrest erupted into a full-blown rebellion under Andreas Hofer in 1809, which could only be put down with French assistance. When Austria attacked Bavaria once more that same year in the War of the Fifth Coalition , Napoleon's army was concentrated in Spain , and it was troops of the Confederation of the Rhine , predominantly Bavarian, which led the early campaigning against Austria. At

474-724: A smaller proportion of aristocratic officers than the Prussian Army: in 1832 there were 1.86 common officers for every one noble; by 1862 it was 2.34 commoners for every noble and by the outbreak of the First World War 5.66. Since the dissolution in 1826 of the Lifeguard unit, there was no specific Guard regiment. Only in the following units was the proportion of aristocratic officers considerably higher than average: The Bavarian NCO Corps consisted of long-serving and career soldiers, usually recruited from those completing military service. There

553-459: A technician company. The corps was to be composed of volunteers, but until these could be recruited, regular Bavarian Army troops would be provided; half of the corps were to stay in Greece for two years, and the rest for four; the mission of the Auxiliary Corps was slated to end on 1 January 1837. The costs for the maintenance of the corps were set at 50,000 florins annually, to be covered by

632-717: The Raupenhelm (until 1886), the Light Cavalry and some other peculiarities. The officers and men of the Bavarian Army continued to swear their oaths to the King of Bavaria and not the German Emperor . Nevertheless, the uniform cut, equipment and training was standardised to the Prussian model. When field-grey uniforms were introduced, only the cockade and a blue-and-white lozenge edging to

711-561: The Battle of Leipzig . The attempt by Wrede to stop the victory of the Grande Armée in 1813 at the Battle of Hanau ended in a narrow defeat for his Austro-Bavarian corps. The campaign of 1814 began badly for the Allies, but Wrede made up for his earlier defeat with valuable victories over his former allies at the battles of Arcis-sur-Aube and Bar-sur-Aube . In 1814, the Bavarian Army consisted of

790-640: The Battle of Wagram , the contribution of Bavarian forces was decisive to the outcome. In the Russian Campaign , the Bavarian army suffered terrible losses - of about 33,000 men (including following reinforcements) who marched in 1812, only 4,000 returned. Pressed by the Crown Prince and General Wrede , King Maximilan I Josef turned with a heavy heart away from the French and changed to the Allied camp shortly before

869-633: The Battle of the Frontiers , the last time that it fought together as a single unit: the exclusive Bavarian command of Bavarian forces began to be diluted from the Imperial German Army reorganisations in Autumn 1914 onwards. Rupprecht held command for the duration of the war and was promoted to Field Marshal in 1916 largely on account of his outstanding ability; however, after Frontiers, the units under his command came largely from outside Bavaria. Although

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948-714: The German Empire fell in the German Revolution of 1918–19 , and King Ludwig III was forced to abdicate, Bavaria retained its military sovereignty. However, the rise of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and the confusion surrounding its overthrow and the defeat of its "Red Army" persuaded the drafters of the Bamberg Constitution of 1919 to relinquish military sovereignty to the Weimar Republic . At any rate,

1027-575: The Palatinate line added eight regiments to the infantry in 1777, and the Palatine troops brought with them a lighter blue tunic colour. The War of the Bavarian Succession is often known as the "Potato War" due to the amount of time and effort the sides expended in securing food supplies and denying them to the enemy, and the war actually passed relatively uneventfully for the Bavarian army. In 1785,

1106-916: The Prince Leopold Barracks ). In 1838, Bavaria maintained seven fortresses, with another under construction: Bavaria also maintained troops in the German Confederation fortresses of Landau and Ulm . The fortress of Germersheim was de-fortified according to the Treaty of Versailles . The museum for the Bavarian Army was moved from the Hofgarten in Munich into the New Castle in Ingolstadt. Friedrich von Hertling Johann Friedrich Maximilian Joseph Freiherr von Hertling (14 October 1781 – 4 August 1850)

1185-552: The Raupenhelm , a helmet with a fore-and-aft horsehair plume, which became characteristic of the Bavarian army. Capable generals, such as Deroy, Wrede and Triva , reformed the army along French lines, and it soon became the most modern in Germany, and the first in Germany to abolish flogging. The field army was based largely on compulsory military service. A national guard with three classes was also developed (1st class: Reserve battalions of

1264-587: The 1868 reforms, the older classes of reserves became known as the Landsturm . The Landwehr also took responsibility for supervising the veterans' associations. The bulk of the Bavarian Army was housed in fortresses, secularised monasteries and former castles. The first co-ordinated programme of barracks-building took place in 1806 (such as the New Isar Barracks), and after a typhoid outbreak in 1881, modern buildings with married quarters were built (such as

1343-403: The 19th century the main occupation of Greek military engineers was building basic infrastructure across the country. Second, no formal requirements were placed for the Bavarian volunteers, and third, no requirements were placed for the Bavarian officers sent to oversee the training and organization of the nascent Hellenic Army . Preparations for Otto's departure were confused, and little headway

1422-522: The 25 Bavarian officers serving in the artillery received a total salary of 5,470 drachmas, whereas their 27 Greek colleagues, most of whom had received better education as graduates of the Hellenic Military Academy , only 3,910 drachmas. One account places the total expenses incurred by the Greek fisc on account of the Auxiliary Corps to the "astronomic sum" (Kastanis) of 66,842,126 drachmas. So great

1501-751: The Artillery; the French Philhellene François Graillard  [ el ] head of the Gendarmerie ; and the British Philhellene Thomas Gordon chief of the General Staff. The Bavarians, moreover, remained subject to their own military regulations, received higher salaries, and swifter promotions, setting themselves further apart from their Greek colleagues. In contrast, similar measures to concentrate command authority in

1580-470: The Auxiliary Corps men numbered 4,570. This was an enormous burden on the weak Greek finances, especially since this army counted no fewer than 731 officers (533 Greeks, 144 Germans, 54 Philhellenes). In the assessment of the Austrian ambassador, Anton von Prokesch-Osten , "the foreign auxiliary troops cost money, without doing much", while the "insistence on European clothing and armament in the army have removed

1659-534: The Bavarian domination of the army by dismissing all foreigners apart from the "old Philhellenes" who had fought in the War of Independence. The Bavarian Auxiliary Corps was contentious during its existence, and caused great resentment among the Greeks. Historians generally agree that its record was poor, particularly in comparison with the French who had preceded them; not only were the latter much better in training and organizing

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1738-476: The Bavarian prince Otto , stipulated that Otto's father, King Ludwig I of Bavaria , would recruit a force of up to 3,500 soldiers, at the expense of the Greek treasury, to replace the allied troops (i.e., the French expeditionary corps ). The latter would remain under the disposition of the King of Greece until the arrival of the Bavarian troops. In Article 15, the King of Bavaria promised to supply Bavarian officers for

1817-473: The Bavarians, who were accustomed to comforts alien to the Greeks and unobtainable in Greece except at great cost. Furthermore, the divides of religion and language also meant that few of them were able to find Greek wives. In the Athenian suburb of Iraklio , founded as a Bavarian military colony, the local Catholic pastor had to function as match-maker, bringing in a boatload of Catholic girls from Syros to secure

1896-472: The Corps' tenure ended in 1837, the bulk of its members left, but the Greek government offered inducements for many to stay on. In 1841, when Otto was finally forced to call upon a Greek politician, Alexandros Mavrokordatos , to become Prime Minister , the latter demanded that the Bavarians be removed from their commanding positions, and that a process of replacement of the remaining volunteers be begun. Although Otto

1975-739: The Franco-Prussian War. In the Constitution of the German Empire , Bavaria was able to secure for itself extensive rights, in particular regarding military sovereignty. Not only did the army retain, like the kingdoms of Saxony and Württemberg , its own troops, War Ministry and military justice system, but it was also excluded from the Empire-wide regimental re-numbering of the army regiments and would only come under Imperial control in times of war. Bavaria also kept its light-blue infantry uniforms,

2054-402: The French regulations followed in Greece. However, in its efforts to reduce the country to obedience and establish order, as well as to minimize the influence of the Greek factions and Westernize the country as fast as possible, the regency could only rely on foreign, chiefly Bavarian officials, and on the bayonets of the Bavarian troops. As a result, the separation of the Bavarian and Greek troops

2133-448: The Greek army and the administration. This "Bavarocracy" (Βαυαροκρατία), coupled with the huge expenses involved in maintaining the Bavarians, provoked great resentment among the Greeks, and was one of the chief causes of the 3 September 1843 Revolution . Article 14 of the 1832 Treaty of London , where Britain, France, and Russia, agreed on the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece , under

2212-498: The Greek army, they also proved more capable and willing to assist the Greeks by building fortifications, bridges, and other infrastructure, without recompense. The Bavarians, on the other hand, despite their high salaries and longer stay in the country, left almost no buildings of note. A large part of the problem originated with the recruitment of the Corps. Most of the volunteers were low-ranking soldiers or even simple artisans, who in Greece found themselves promoted to officers; many of

2291-401: The Greek government. Officers and adjutants were to receive pay equivalent to one rank above their own. According to the Greek military historian Andreas Kastanis, the treaty contained "basic omissions" in terms of the corps' recruitment: First, the complete lack of a provision for engineering troops, which were an absolute necessity in war-ravaged and under-developed Greece. Indeed, for most of

2370-506: The Greek military budget, for little in return. Of the 7,028,207 drachmas in the 1833 budget of the Ministry for Military Affairs, 1,220,582 (17.4%) were spent on recruitment in Bavaria, and 2,786,067 (39.6%) on maintenance of the Corps. In the next year, out of a budget of 8,505,208 drachmas, the respective figures were 1,371,431 (16.1%) and 1,740,282 (20.5%). It is indicative that as late as 1842,

2449-499: The Greek units, in reality this was a measure designed to ensure absolute control of the army by the Bavarians. Likewise, all senior military positions were given to Bavarians or other foreigners: Wilhelm von Le Suire became Minister for Military Affairs ; Christian Schmaltz  [ de ] Inspector-General of the Army; Anton Zäch head of the Engineers; Ludwig von Lüder head of

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2528-598: The Line regiments; 2nd class: Territorial army; 3rd class: Citizen levy). In 1800, Bavaria reluctantly fought on Austria's side against France in the War of the Second Coalition , but in 1805 when Austria attacked Bavaria for the third time in 100 years in the War of the Third Coalition , they found a powerful army. The Bavarians initially retreated, but only in order to link up with Napoleon 's advancing army and to prepare

2607-463: The Maniots agreed to ransom their prisoners to the government, they demanded six phoenixes for each soldier, but only one phoenix for the officers. Unable to make headway, the regency was forced to issue a general amnesty to calm the situation, and negotiate terms: the Maniots were promised subsidies, respect for the privileges of Orthodox monasteries, and non-interference in their affairs. The upshot of

2686-624: The Prussian Army was almost in Bohemia . The war went very badly for the Bavarians. The Bavarian Commander-in-Chief Prince Karl , who also commanded the southern forces of the German Confederation , was hurrying to the aid of the Kingdom of Hanover when he heard of the Hanoverians' surrender after the Battle of Langensalza . The rapid Prussian advance meant that Karl was unable to link up with

2765-493: The administration and the military. The expeditionary corps was formed following a convention concluded on 1 November 1832 between Karl von Abel , one of the three members of the projected regency for the underage Otto, on behalf of Greece and Philippe de Flad on behalf of the Kingdom of Bavaria. The convention's 27 articles stipulated that the expeditionary corps of 3,500 men would be composed of staff, four infantry battalions, six cavalry companies, four artillery companies, and

2844-539: The affair was that the government ended up pouring into Mani twice the sums that it received from it in taxes, and that the myth of the Bavarians' invincibility was broken, severely tarnishing the regency's prestige and authority and encouraging future revolts. By December 1834, of the 5,678 men in the Hellenic Army, 3,278 were members of the Bavarian Auxiliary Corps; a year later, with army strength at 9,613,

2923-775: The area and took measures to ensure their comfort amidst the Great Famine . About a hundred Irakliotes were even persuaded to move to Germany as Volksdeutsche and join the German war effort, but once in Bavaria they found a hostile welcome; and when they returned home in 1945, they found their properties confiscated by the Greek government. The Greek beer brand Fix is owed to one of these Bavarian colonists, Johann Adam Fuchs, an engineer who settled in Iraklion. His son Johann Georg came to visit him from Bavaria but found that he had died just before his arrival. He then settled in Greece and opened up

3002-578: The armies of the Great Powers of the 19th century, but it did provide the Wittelsbach dynasty with sufficient scope of action, in the context of effective alliance politics, to transform Bavaria from a territorially-disjointed small state to the second-largest state of the German Empire after Prussia . The Reichskriegsverfassung of 1681 obliged Bavaria to provide troops for the Imperial army . Moreover,

3081-520: The army consisted of eight infantry, two dragoon and three cuirassier regiments, and a brigade of artillery. In 1757, one of the cuirassier regiments was disbanded and its men distributed among the other regiments, while only one company of dragoons in each regiment was mounted. Infantry regiments consisted of two battalions with four Füsilierkompanien (each of 130 men) and one infantry company (100 men) as well as two four-Pounder battalion guns . The nominal strength of approximately 1,800 men for each regiment

3160-487: The battle-hardened veteran General Siegmund von Pranckh as the new War Minister on 1 August. Von Prankh already had political experience as adjutant to War Minister von Lüder, and contributed crucially to the modernisation of the Bavarian Army with his reforms . When the candidacy to the Spanish throne of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern led to a worsening in relations between Prussia and France in 1870, von Prankh mobilised

3239-505: The collar distinguished Bavarian units. At the beginning of World War I , the Bavarian Army had an effective strength of 87,214 men including 4,089 officers, physicians, veterinarians and officials; and 83,125 NCOs and other ranks, plus 16,918 horses. With the beginning of mobilisation on 1 August 1914, the supreme command of the Bavarian field army passed from the 4th Army Inspectorate to the German Emperor. Units in Bavaria remained under

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3318-518: The colony's continued existence. The Corps fought its main test of arms in 1834, being sent to confront an uprising of the Mani Peninsula . The Maniots, a warlike people who had withstood the Ottomans and Egyptians, were incensed when the regency ordered the destruction of the fortified tower houses typical of the area. This was a typical example of Bavarian insensitivity to local peculiarities: where

3397-754: The command of the Bavarian War Ministry. The Bavarian Army — consisting of the three Bavarian Army Corps, the Bavarian Cavalry Division ; — was bolstered by the addition of the XXI Corps (of two divisions, recruited largely in the Rhineland and Westphalia ), and transported to the Western Front as the German 6th Army under the command of Crown Prince Rupprecht . The Bavarian Army fought at

3476-400: The composition of the army was the same as that during the Turkish wars, only now with three regiments each of cuirassiers and dragoons. The attempt by the Elector Charles Albert to gain the Imperial crown during the War of the Austrian Succession was initially successful, but the campaign ended once again with an Austrian occupation of Bavaria. At the beginning of the Seven Years' War ,

3555-404: The counter-attack, which took place quickly, methodically and thoroughly. 30,000 Bavarian troops took part in the successful Siege of Ulm and the consequent liberation of Bavaria. At the Battle of Austerlitz , the Bavarians secured the flanks and supply lines of Napoleon's army and in 1806-7 they forced several Prussian forts to surrender. Bavaria was awarded the Austrian province of Tyrol as

3634-406: The country's peculiar circumstances, climate, or the character of its people. It is telling that almost the only drill and exercises carried out during this period were at the company level, which was what the Bavarian officers were familiar with. This lack of skills made the retention of so many Bavarian officers after 1837 even more galling to the Greeks. According to newspaper accounts from 1842, of

3713-467: The countryside. The Bavarians distrusted the irregular fighters who had fought the civil war, and wanted to avoid being drawn into the local factional struggles. Therefore, it was decided early on that Otto's new regime could rely solely on the Bavarian troops, who would enforce the new government's policies. To that end, all Greek military formations, chiefly composed of irregulars, would be disbanded, and Greeks were to be excluded from all senior positions in

3792-565: The establishment of a national army in Greece. The Philhellene professor Friedrich Thiersch and Colonel Carl Wilhelm von Heideck , who had served in Greece under Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias and was now a member of Otto's regency council , reported on the situation in Greece to King Ludwig. Following the assassination of Kapodistrias in 1831, Greece was in near-constant civil war. The regular and irregular military forces organized by Kapodistrias were practically dissolved, but many thousands of their members retained their weapons and lived off

3871-479: The establishment of a standing army was increasingly seen as a sign of nation-statehood and an important tool of absolutist power-politics. At a field camp in Schwabing on 12 October 1682, the newly recruited troops, under the command of Hannibal von Degenfeld , were officially taken into Bavarian service. Seven regiments of infantry , two regiments of dragoons and two of cuirassiers were set up, along with an artillery corps . The traditional mid-blue colour

3950-402: The fleet of 43 ships arrived at the Greek capital of Nafplion on 30 January 1833. The regency council that led the government during Otto's minority quickly became extremely unpopular. Following King Ludwig's instructions, they disregarded Greek demands for a constitution and ruled the country autocratically. Furthermore, in their efforts to quickly transform Greece into a European-style state,

4029-501: The hands of foreigners were not undertaken in the navy, which on its own could not challenge the regime. This "Bavarocracy" ( Βαυαροκρατία ), both in the army and the civil administration, quickly became a source of resentment among the Greeks, and was a major rallying cry of political opposition to the regency, and later to Otto himself. The exorbitant costs of the Auxiliary Corps became a particular point of contention, particularly since, by 1834, its strength reached 5,000 men, well above

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4108-518: The harsh mountains, the Bavarians were unable to deploy larger formations or even provide effective artillery support, while the Maniots resorted to their time-honoured guerrilla tactics against their lumbering, heat-exhausted opponents. The Bavarians were also completely unprepared for the cruelty of the Maniots: captured soldiers were sometimes put in bags with wild cats, or gradually mutilated. At best, they were stripped of weapons and clothes and sent back naked to their lines. To denote their disdain, when

4187-418: The infantry's uniform changed to white, and the cuirassiers abandoned their traditional armour. 1790 brought a fundamental reform of the Bavarian Army. All field troops received an identically-cut uniform, including a leather helmet with a horsehair plume, known as the "Rumford Casket" after the then Minister for War Count Rumford . However, Maximilian IV found the army in abject condition on his accession to

4266-409: The military leadership. Thanks to constant cuts in the military budget, the Bavarian war ministry did not see itself in a position to accomplish manoeuvres above the brigade level. Apart from Prince Karl, and General von Thurn und Taxis , no Bavarian general had ever commanded a division before. The newspapers also criticised the role of von der Tann . Due to this criticism, King Ludwig II appointed

4345-583: The most usable people from military service and made them into disgruntled men". In January 1836, the army was reorganized, as the decision was taken to gradually form units only from Greeks. Two of the four infantry battalions were now composed of Greeks, and the other two of men of the Auxiliary Corps, with the intention to replace them with Greeks as the Germans' terms of service ended. Furthermore, two Labourer Companies (Λόχοι Εργατών) were formed from supernumerary German personnel, and employed in road construction in Continental Greece and as border guards . When

4424-492: The other from 1st Battalion/ 10th Regiment  [ de ] and 2nd Battalion/ 11th Regiment  [ de ] ), two light cavalry squadrons and eight field guns, under Brigade General Friedrich von Hertling . The Auxiliary Corps set out for embarkation at Trieste , while Otto left Munich on 6 December 1832 for Brindisi . On board the British frigate Madagascar , Otto joined the troop convoy at Corfu , but it took further two weeks of sailing through heavy weather before

4503-464: The provisions of the treaty. Most of the Bavarian Army regulars left Greece after a year, and were replaced by volunteers. Between 1832 and 1835, 5,410 volunteers were recruited for the Corps. 3,345 were Bavarians, 1,440 from minor German states, 235 Swiss, 186 Prussians, 135 Austrians, 23 French, 19 Danes, 10 Russians, 6 Italians, 3 Swedes, 2 British, 1 each from Holland, Spain, and Belgium, and even 3 Turks. Many of these volunteers were disappointed by

4582-429: The public lands captured from the Turks, as promised, nor to provide them with employ by taking them into the army. This led to them turning to brigandage, both in Greece and across the border into the Ottoman territories. Per the terms of the Greco-Bavarian treaty, the Auxiliary Corps was to be an independent formation, not to be mixed or combined with native Greek units, and subject to Bavarian military law, rather than

4661-462: The realities they found in Greece, which matched neither the romantic expectations current in Europe nor the often excessive promises made by recruiting agents. Service in Greece was unpopular, and considered almost a death sentence: half of the volunteers died in Greece from disease. Bavarian Army personnel, especially officers, sometimes had to be effectively cajoled by their superiors into signing up. Life in Greece also proved to be too expensive for

4740-438: The recommendations of the Military Savings Commission in 1826, one infantry regiment was converted into two Jäger battalions, and the Grenadier Guard regiment into an Infantry lifeguard regiment. The Garde du Corps became the 1st Cuirassier Regiment, and the former 1st Cuirassier Regiment was merged into the 2nd Regiment. The mobilisation of the army for the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 was only concluded on 22 June, by which time

4819-445: The recruits were adventurers, while others were the dregs of society in their home countries. In the words of the official Hellenic Army history, "the Hellenic Army benefited in no way from the Bavarians who took service as trainers and organizers", as the Bavarian officers, rapidly promoted from junior positions to higher ranks, lacked the experience necessary to properly organize the new army, and were unable to take into consideration

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4898-424: The regency did not examine the conditions objectively, but tried to directly import European norms and regulations, which were often inappropriate for the war-ravaged and destitute country, and completely failed to take into account the sensibilities of the local population. The regency was particularly suspicious of the irregular soldiers who had fought the War of Independence, and failed to either recompense them with

4977-404: The regency saw in these buildings only a dangerous military asset that might be used to challenge its authority, to the Maniots these were their homes, whose destruction without recompense would leave them destitute. The regency's local agent, the Bavarian officer Maximilian Feder, had managed to maintain order until then through a judicious mixture of bribery and force, but he lost control following

5056-494: The regency's arrest and trial of Theodoros Kolokotronis , one of the principal military leaders of the War of Independence. Kolokotronis' supporters in the region and the regency's political rivals combined in exhorting the Maniots to rise up. 2,500 men of the Corps, under Christian Schmaltz, were sent to suppress the revolt. The Bavarians' unfamiliarity with the climate and terrain, to which the Maniots and their tactics were perfectly adjusted, meant that they could achieve little: in

5135-556: The regular Bavarian troops had been demobilised after the war to the extent that most of the fighting against the Red Army was done by Freikorps units and other German troops from outside Bavaria. During World War I, around 200,000 soldiers of the Royal Bavarian Army were killed. Bavaria placed at first two and later three army corps in the army of the German Empire: Corps Divisions Bavarian cavalry: Bavarian infantry: Bavarian reserve: Bavarian Landwehr: Bavarian Ersatz: Mountain Troops: The Bavarian Army had

5214-403: The remaining Bavarian officers at the time, only the four technicians in the Nafplion arsenal, and a single captain of the Engineers were absolutely necessary due to their technical skills. The costs of recruitment and maintenance of the Corps were exorbitant for the means available to Greece, especially so soon after the end of the destructive War of Independence; the Corps took a lion's share of

5293-438: The remaining foreign volunteers. The Bavarian commander of the artillery imposed a 20-day prison sentence on them, which caused an uproar in the press. The government quickly quashed the sentence, but reassigned the protesting officers to other garrisons, while the commander remained in place. 181 Bavarian officers remained in the army lists until the 3 September 1843 Revolution that introduced constitutional government and ended

5372-406: The side of France . Following defeat at the Battle of Blenheim , the Bavarian Army ceased to exist as a coherent fighting force, though small remainders continued to fight until the end of the war. Bavaria was occupied by Austrian forces during the war, which led to a rising of the people, bloodily put down at the so-called "Murderous Christmas of Sendling" ( Sendlinger Mordweihnacht ). By 1701,

5451-704: The throne in 1799: hardly any of the units were at full strength, the Rumford uniforms were unpopular and impractical, and the troops were badly-trained. The young Prince-Elector, who had served under the Ancien Régime in France as a colonel in the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment, made the reconstruction of the army a priority. The line infantry was reduced to ten regiments, which were made up to their full strength. The two Jäger regiments were divided into four light infantry battalions. The cavalry consisted of three regiments of light cavalry and two each of dragoons and cuirassiers. The infantry returned to their traditional light blue and, in 1801, all branches of service introduced

5530-453: The two Bavarian army corps on 14 July. The Bavarian Army Corps fought in the Franco-Prussian War as part of the III Army under Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (the I Army Corps under von der Tann, and the II Army Corps under Jakob Freiherr von Hartmann ). The Bavarians under Jakob von Hartmann stormed Wissembourg and took part in the Battles of Wörth , Beaumont , Sedan and the Siege of Paris . Over 5,000 Bavarian soldiers died during

5609-442: The western forces of the Confederation under Prince Alexander of Hesse , so the Bavarian troops withdrew to Bad Kissingen . After fierce fighting, the Bavarians withdrew to Schweinfurt and Würzburg (of which only the fortress and part of the city could be held). On 1 August, a Prussian reserve corps occupied Nuremberg . The difficulties of the Bavarian Army were attributed mainly to the Bavarian Landtag (parliament), and to

5688-619: Was a Bavarian Lieutenant General that acted as the War Minister for Bavaria from 28 January until 9 June 1839. He was the brother of Franz Xaver von Hertling . Hertling was born in Ladenburg , the son of Jakob Anton von Hertling and Maria Anna Antonia Juliana, née von Weiler. Like his brother, Franz Xaver , he joined the Bavarian army in the last decade of the 18th century and took part in all of its campaigns between 1800 and 1815 . In 1817 he

5767-566: Was a strict career separation between officers and NCOs. This led to substantial social problems during World War I, because qualified NCOs were blocked from promotion to officer ranks. According to the Constitution of 1808, recruitment was according to a system of conscription . The system offered the possibility for men to buy exemption from conscription by means of paying a substitute, called an Einsteher ("Proxy") or Einstandsmann ("Stand-In"), to serve in their place (which had to be for

5846-577: Was already in wide use among the Bavarian infantry and would be used throughout from 1684. The cuirassiers and artillery wore light grey tunics, while the dragoons wore red or blue tunics. The army distinguished itself under Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria during the Great Turkish War , particularly during the Siege of Belgrade . During the War of the Spanish Succession , Bavaria fought on

5925-411: Was disregarded, and on 6 February 1834, by Royal Decree, the relevant article in the treaty was modified unilaterally, with the Auxiliary Corps becoming a part of the Hellenic Army. Two companies in each infantry battalion, as well as in the single cavalry regiment and artillery battalion, were to be manned exclusively by Bavarians. While the stated purpose of this arrangement was to promote the training of

6004-532: Was made in the recruitment of the Auxiliary Corps before Otto was due to set out for Greece. As a result, King Ludwig was obliged to initially fill its ranks with troops seconded from the Bavarian Army: of the 3,582 men sent to Greece, about half were Bavarian Army regulars and the rest volunteers. The Bavarian Army units formed two combined regiments (one from 1st Battalion/ 6th Regiment  [ de ] and 2nd Battalion/ 12th Regiment  [ de ] , and

6083-511: Was never reached in the field. While the Lifeguard regiment had three battalions, only two stood in the field. Ten battalions of infantry were made available to the Habsburgs according to Bavaria's Imperial military obligations. They fought unsuccessfully at Schweidnitz, Breslau and Leuthen in 1757, as well as at Troppau, Olmütz and Neiße in 1758. The unification between the Wittelsbachs and

6162-497: Was the financial burden, that France refused to provide guarantees for the third installment of the 60,000,000- franc loan stipulated in the Treaty of London, unless the Bavarian army left the country. The military colony at Iraklion quickly assimilated into Greek society, and their descendants virtually forgot their German roots. During World War II, Heinrich Himmler , who learned of the German origin of many Irakliotes, came in person to

6241-457: Was willing to replace Schmaltz as Minister for Military Affairs with a Greek, Andreas Metaxas , he rejected the second demand. Tensions between the Greek and Bavarian officers increased during the period, and reached a boiling point in 1842: during the annual celebration for the start of the War of Independence on 25 March, the Greek artillery officers in Nafplion publicly demanded the removal of

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