Freikorps Military Passes

[Brian L.]

Military Passes with Freikorps service are hard to come by. I've managed to accumulate about 25 or so over the last few years and I'll start posting examples here.

This one is by far one of the rarest I've picked up.

Militärpass to Flieger Nicolaus Eberg who trained at the flying school at Halle beginning in late 1917, but who never actually saw action in WWI.

He was a volunteer pilot in the Freikorps, first stationed at Halle and later in the Baltic in Artillerie-Flieger-Staffel 101 of the famous Eiserne Flieger-Abteilung 427, part of the Iron Division. The pass includes a list of his campaign service in Riga and an ink stamp and notation of Eberg's air unit. The planes of Eis. Fl-Abt 427 flew mostly recon while the ground troops attacked Riga on May 22, 1919. Then later, they flew cover during the German retreat.

He served in the Riga campaign from May to July 1919 including the Battle of Riga, the Defence of the Düna River and the evacuation and retreat from Riga to Mitau after the Iron Division and the Baltische Landeswehr were forced out of Riga by the Estonians and their Latvian allies.

Eberg most certainly would have been eligible for the Iron Division Medal which was established in 1920.

[Don D.]

Very interesting. You don't see these everyday.

[mchap]

Thats a very nice one Brian, thanks for sharing in detail. Reading the handwriting on documentation is pretty difficult... I am slowly deciphering my Braunschweig HR 17 passes, although it doesnt look like they have Freikorps service, just Reichswehr.

[Brian L.]

Thats a very nice one Brian, thanks for sharing in detail. Reading the handwriting on documentation is pretty difficult... I am slowly deciphering my Braunschweig HR 17 passes, although it doesnt look like they have Freikorps service, just Reichswehr.

Reichswehr service especially in 1919 likely also denoted Freikorps service. Many Reichswehr units were involved in Freikorps actions.

The difficulty of deciphering 'Kurrent' script (Kurrentschrift) is probably what keeps the prices comparatively low on what are quite rare documents and at least for the moment an under-priced area of collecting. Freikorps documents and military passes for me are what brings the history of the Freikorps alive and makes it personal. There is a lot more interest in Freikorps military passes now than there was even a couple of years ago. But, it's still possible to find sleepers even on eBay.

Here's one I picked up for only 28 Euros. The seller's photos were horrible and blurry. So, I'm sure most people couldn't even read the writing. But, I spotted the word "Baltenkreuz" and used image-enhancement software to decipher what turned out to be a rare find.

************************************************** ************

Here is the page of Freikorps service of Musketier Ludwig Anlicker.

The other pages in the pass show that Anlicker saw a lot of action on the Western Front while serving in 1. Badische Leib-Grenadier-Regt. 109 in 1917/18 for which he received an EKII on Sept 19, 1918.

He then went on to serve from June 13, 1919 to February 16, 1920 in the machinegun section (M.G. Abtlg.) of Badische Freiwilligen-Abteillung von Medem, which was one of the principle Freikorps units in the Deutsche Legion and afterwards the Russian West-Armee of Bermondt-Avalov. There are two quite nice unit stamps of Freiw.-Abtlg. v. Medem. on the bottom left of the page.

After returning to Germany, he apparently continued to serve in the Freikorps in the renamed Regiment Baden (the re-designation of Freiw.-Abtlg. v. Medem after the debacle in the Baltic) in what appears to be some sort of guard duty (guarding a tunnel) in Heuberg, Chiemgau, Bavaria based on the entry on this page: "Regt. Baden, Abw. Stolle Heuberg which translates as: "Regiment Baden, Defence of the Heuberg Tunnel".

His Baltic service is noted as: "Kämpfe in Baltikum gegen Letten u. Bolschewiken" ( Fight againts the Latvians and Bolsheviks").

He received the Baltic Cross (Baltenkreuz) on Aug 9, 1919 and the Russian West-Armee "Avalov" Cross (Malteserkreuz) on Dec 1, 1919.

[mchap]

It'll be interesting to decipher some of the details in my HR17/Reichswehr IR20 militarpass, I'll post it as soon as I can.

His WW1 service is quite extensive and places him in the east during 1917 (Riga is listed), but he ends up on the Western Front after the Bolshevik Revolution. After the war ends there might be some grey area since the next entry *I think* is from 1920.

This is proving to be a bit helpful in understanding how letters might appear when written:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurrent

[Brian L.]

I just picked up a Freikorps/Reichwehr pass and discovered that the owner had also been in a Freikorps Flieger Abteilung for 5 months in 1919. A pleasant surpise that the eBay seller failed to notice, allowing me to pick this up for almost nothing.

Infantryman August Schmidt entered Bavarian Inf. Regt. 18 on 24.6.18 (just shy of his 18th birthday), but didn't see any front line action during the war.

Interestingly he then served in Freiwilligen Flieger Abteilung Schauer Bamberg from 2.5.1919 to 31.10.1919 which would have placed him in the heart of the action during the Freikorps suppression of the communists in Bavaria. I have never heard of this Flieger Abteilung by name. But, I am aware that Mobile Freikorps Bamberg had a air section attached to it, and therefore I assume that this is the same unit.

As Germany was prohibited from having any air force after October 1919, this short-lived Freikorps air unit would have been forced to disband.

Schmidt continued to serve in the Bamberg Military District Command and then during 1920, as a messenger in Bavarian Reichswehr Inf. Regt. 46 and finally in Reichswehr Inf. Regt. 47.

While he didn't receive any decorations, he was awarded with a "Loyalty Premium" (I'm assuming a financial bonus) for his loyal and excellent service.

Of course, the most interesting and valuable aspect of this Militärpass is the mention of this flying unit, because information about Freikorps flying units is the least comprehensive of all information about the Freikorps period. Therefore, any scrap of new information about air service during the military actions of 1919 is very worthwhile.