Anti-communist paramilitary organizations of Germany in Baltic states
Flag of the Iron Division. The words mean roughly "and yet".
The Freikorps in the Baltic were German paramilitary units that formed after the German Empire's defeat in World War I. Their aim was to prevent the advance of the Soviet Red Army into the Baltic states and preserve a German presence there. The two primary units were the Eiserne Division ("Iron Division") and the Baltische Landeswehr ("Baltic Defence Force"). After initially defeating the Red Army with the help of Latvian and Estonian forces, the Allied Powers ordered the withdrawal of German soldiers from the Baltics. The German Freikorps forces then attempted to seize control of Latvia with the assistance of the local ethnic German population. They captured Riga but were driven back. Following intervention by the Allies on 3 July 1919, the Freikorps in the Baltic retreated to Germany.
The Russian Bolsheviks ceded the Baltic areas to Germany under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 3 March 1918. The Imperial German government established occupation governments in Estonia and Latvia[1] and formally recognised the independence of a puppet government in Lithuania on March 24, 1918.[2] The German Ober Ost occupation-authorities under the command of Prince Leopold of Bavaria favored the Baltic Germans, who had been the most dominant local ethnic group socially, economically, and politically in Courland, Livonia, and Estonia.[citation needed] On March 8 1918 the local Baltic German-dominated Land Council of Courland proclaimed the Duchy of Courland an independent state; on April 12, 1918, the United Land Council of Livonia, Estonia, Riga and Ösel followed suit, establishing the Baltic State (German: Baltischer Staat). Each of these new states proclaimed themselves to be in personal union with Prussia, although the German government never responded and acknowledged that claim.
KaiserWilhelm II of Germany nominally recognized the Baltic lands as a sovereign state on September 22, 1918, half a year after Soviet Russia had formally relinquished all authority over its former Imperial Baltic provinces in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. On November 5, 1918, a temporary Regency Council (Regentschaftsrat) for the United Baltic Duchy, led by BaronAdolf Pilar von Pilchau, was formed on a joint basis from the two local Land Councils.
1918: Germany loses World War I, Red Army threatens
Under the terms of the November 11, 1918 Armistice the German Army was required to withdraw its troops from all other countries on a timetable established by the Allied Control Commission. As elsewhere, pro-socialist Soldiers' Councils controlled many German troop units in the Baltic area, but the Allied Control Commission insisted that the German troops remain to prevent the region from occupation by the Russian Red Army. The Red Army, led by the Latvian Riflemen, was making serious inroads into Estonia and Latvia. The Estonians offered tough resistance to the Red Army and refused to ask for, or accept, German Army support. Instead, Scandinavian soldiers from Finland, Sweden and Denmark came to their support. The Estonians, with this help and naval support from the British, were able to prevail over the Red Army after a year-long fight.[3]
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 puppet government headed by Pastor Andrievs Niedra was proclaimed. Pastor Niedra was a Latvian Lutheran minister with pro-German sympathies. The Germans convinced the British to postpone the withdrawal of the German Freikorps units because this would give the Bolsheviks a free hand. Britain backed down after recognizing the gravity of the military situation, and the Freikorps moved on and captured Riga on May 23, 1919.[3]
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 Jelgava, 200 in Tukums, 125 in Daugavgrīva, and over 3,000 in Riga. The Latvian nationalists had turned against the German Freikorps and sought assistance from the Estonian troops who had occupied Latvian territory north of the Daugava River. The German forces advanced north towards the Latvian city of Cēsis. The objective of the German forces had now clearly become the establishment of German supremacy in the Baltic by eliminating the Estonian military and Latvian national units, not the defeat of the Bolsheviks. The Estonian commander General Johan Laidoner insisted the Germans withdraw to a line south of the Gauja river. He also ordered the Estonian 3rd division to seize the Gulbene railroad station.[3]
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.
Freikorps were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought 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.
The history of Latvia began around 9000 BC with the end of the last glacial period in northern Europe. Ancient Baltic peoples arrived in the area during the second millennium BC, and four distinct tribal realms in Latvia's territory were identifiable towards the end of the first millennium AD. Latvia's principal river Daugava, was at the head of an important trade route from the Baltic region through Russia into southern Europe and the Middle East that was used by the Vikings and later Nordic and German traders.
Baltic Germans are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettlement in 1945 after the end of World War II, Baltic Germans have markedly declined as a geographically determined ethnic group in the region.
The United Baltic Duchy, or alternatively the Grand Duchy of Livonia, was the name of a short-lived state during World War I that was proclaimed by leaders of the local Baltic German nobility.
The Estonian War of Independence, also known as the Estonian Liberation War, was a defensive campaign of the Estonian Army and its allies, most notably the United Kingdom, against the Soviet Russian westward offensive of 1918–1919 and the 1919 aggression of the pro–German Baltische Landeswehr. The campaign was the struggle of the newly established democratic state of Estonia for independence in the aftermath of World War I. It resulted in a victory for Estonia and was concluded in the 1920 Treaty of Tartu.
The Latvian Riflemen were originally a military formation of the Imperial Russian Army assembled starting 1915 in Latvia in order to defend Baltic governorates against the German Empire in World War I. Initially, the battalions were formed by volunteers, and from 1916 by conscription among the Latvian population. A total of about 40,000 troops were drafted into the Latvian Riflemen Division. They were used as an elite force in the Imperial and Red armies.
The West Russian Volunteer Army or Bermontians was a pro-German military formation in Latvia and Lithuania during the Russian Civil War from November 1918 to December 1919.
Gustav Adolf Joachim Rüdiger Graf von der Goltz was a German army general during the First World War. He commanded the Baltic Sea Division, which successfully intervened in the Finnish Civil War in the spring of 1918. Goltz stayed with his troops in Finland until December 1918 representing German interests, and in practice ruled the country as a military dictator during this period. After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Goltz commanded the army of the local German-established government of Latvia, which in 1919 was instrumental in the defeat of the Russian Bolsheviks and their local allies in Latvia. The troops commanded by Goltz suffered a defeat against Estonia in 1919 and were eventually unsuccessful in retaining German control over Latvia and Estonia after World War I.
Krišjānis Berķis was a Latvian general. Rising to prominence as an officer of the Latvian Riflemen in World War I, he was promoted to the rank of general during the Latvian War of Independence, and served on the Army General Staff after the war. After the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States, he was deported to Siberia and died in a Gulag labor camp.
The Latvian War of Independence, sometimes called Latvia's freedom battles or the Latvian War of Liberation, was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaimed Republic of Latvia was invaded by Soviet Russia, and the signing of the Latvian-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty on 11 August 1920.
The Baltic German nobility was a privileged social class in the territories of modern-day Estonia and Latvia. It existed continuously from the Northern Crusades and the medieval foundation of Terra Mariana.
The Baltic Landwehr or Baltische Landeswehr was the name of the unified armed forces of Couronian and Livonian nobility from 7 December 1918 to 3 July 1919.
Ernst-Johannes Põdder VR I/1 was an Estonian military commander in the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence.
Jānis Balodis was an army general, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Latvia (1919–1921), Minister of War (1931–1940), and a politician who was one of the principal figures during the Latvian War of Independence and the dictatorship of Kārlis Ulmanis, when he was officially the number two of the regime as the Minister of War, Deputy Prime Minister and Vice President.
The British campaign in the Baltic 1918–1919 was a part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The codename of the Royal Navy campaign was Operation Red Trek. The intervention played a key role in enabling the establishment of the independent states of Estonia and Latvia. It failed to secure the control of Petrograd by White Russian forces, which was one of the main goals of the campaign.
The Battle of Cēsis, fought near Cēsis (Wenden) in June 1919, was a decisive battle in the Estonian War of Independence and the Latvian War of Independence. After heavy fighting an Estonian force moving from the north, supplemented by Latvian units, repelled Baltic German attacks and went on full counter-attack.
Anatol Leonid Fürst von Lieven was a Russian military commander from the Baltic German princely house of Lieven. During the Russian Civil War he commanded a White force in Latvia known after him as the Liventsy.
Võidupüha is a public holiday in Estonia which occurs on June 23. The holiday has been celebrated since 1934 and marks the victory of Estonia and neighboring Latvia in the Battle of Cēsis against the Baltische Landeswehr on June 23, 1919.
The Latvian Provisional Government was formed on November 18, 1918 by the People's Council of Latvia as the interim government of the newly-proclaimed Republic of Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence. The term encompasses three cabinets led by Kārlis Ulmanis, the leader of the Agrarian Union, who was chosen to be Prime Minister. The Ulmanis' government led the country until the formation of an elected cabinet after the elections to the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia in June 1920.
The Eiserne Division was the name of an anti-communist military formation made up of German volunteers that took part in the Latvian War of Independence in the Baltic States in 1919. It was the best-known Freikorps formation in the Baltic States. The unit was deployed against Soviet Russia-backed Soviet Latvia, and later fought against the army of the Republic of Latvia after a defection to Russian monarchist command. The division, which at times numbered up to 16,000 men, was disbanded at the beginning of 1920 due to mutiny.
References
↑ Pabriks, Artis; Purs, Aldis (7 March 2013) [2001]. "A Historical Introduction to Modern Latvia". Latvia: The Challenges of Change. Postcommunist States and Nations. London: Routledge. pp.13, 14. ISBN9781135137052. 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.
↑ 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)
Robert G L Waite, Vanguard of Nazism, 1969, W W Norton and Company
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