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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Foreign volunteers in the German army?


Sawpatin

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Hope this is the right forum section to ask...

 

Did the German Army during WW1 take in any foreign volunteers? By "foreign" in this case I'm referring to people from outside Germany, it's colonies, and occupied territories (so not guys like the Polish Legions or Askari). For example I've heard stories of Americans volunteering before 1917 to serve in French or British Commonwealth forces, but nothing about volunteers for Germany (which surprised me a bit, given the large German-American population that already existed by that point).

 

I'd be curious to hear any examples of foreigners, for whatever reason, volunteering for service with the German army between 1914-18.

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I had this conversation recently with a German friend who had recently retired from the army and is one of the greatest experts on the Western Front that I know.

 

He was unaware of foreign volunteers or ambulance drivers and suggested that the reason would be the difficulty they would have in getting there once war broke out. I thought there might have been e.g. young Americans of German family spending the summer in Germany and deciding to join up - as happened in France. He said he had never come across such a thing.

It seems a bit surprising.

 

Christina

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There was an Austrian who joined a Bavarian infantry regiment.

 

Ron

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There were Swedish volunteers, mainly officers who received leave for this (to gain experience). There were others as well: Norwegians, Swiss, etc.

 

And the most important: there was a Finnish Jäger Bataillon, that would become the core of the Finnish officer corps of WW2: Jäger Bataillon 27.

 

Americans serving in the German Army? Well, there were plenty of Germans who were born in the USA and were serving, but they were still German nationals.

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28 minutes ago, AOK4 said:

There were Swedish volunteers, mainly officers who received leave for this (to gain experience). There were others as well: Norwegians, Swiss, etc.

 

And the most important: there was a Finnish Jäger Bataillon, that would become the core of the Finnish officer corps of WW2: Jäger Bataillon 27.

 

Americans serving in the German Army? Well, there were plenty of Germans who were born in the USA and were serving, but they were still German nationals.

 

Interesting, I'll have to look in to those. Thanks for posting. Did those Norwegians, Swiss, etc. (who were the etc.?) serve in integrated units with German soldiers? Or were there enough to have their own units?

 

Regarding American-born Germans, I wasn't aware that Germany at that time allowed foreign-born people to be its citizens. That's interesting. When you say "plenty", what sort of numbers are we talking about?

 

20 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

 

That seems to be about a German immigrant though, so not exactly a foreigner to Germany...

Edited by Sawpatin
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30 minutes ago, Sawpatin said:

 

Interesting, I'll have to look in to those. Thanks for posting. Did those Norwegians, Swiss, etc. (who were the etc.?) serve in integrated units with German soldiers? Or were there enough to have their own units?

 

Regarding American-born Germans, I wasn't aware that Germany at that time allowed foreign-born people to be its citizens. That's interesting. When you say "plenty", what sort of numbers are we talking about?

 

 

1. They served in normal German units, only the Finns were allowed their own unit, but for special reasons (to fight for their independence).

 

2. It is not because you were born in the US at that point, that you were born an American citizen... Nationality was defined differently in those times! (even nowadays: look at Turkish, Moroccan etc. abroad, their children automatically have the nationality of the parents) I think you should read a bit into nationality legislation and how it was at that point. There's thousands of entries in the Verlustlisten for people born in the US (f.i. 595 born in New York + 8 in Neu York, 249 in Chicago etc). I've encountered quite a few during my research for German cemeteries in Flanders.

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There are over 3500 entries for soldiers born or at least living in Switzerland and over 200 from the UK  in the Verlustlisten.

Charlie

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46 minutes ago, AOK4 said:

 

1. They served in normal German units, only the Finns were allowed their own unit, but for special reasons (to fight for their independence).

 

2. It is not because you were born in the US at that point, that you were born an American citizen... Nationality was defined differently in those times! (even nowadays: look at Turkish, Moroccan etc. abroad, their children automatically have the nationality of the parents) I think you should read a bit into nationality legislation and how it was at that point. There's thousands of entries in the Verlustlisten for people born in the US (f.i. 595 born in New York + 8 in Neu York, 249 in Chicago etc). I've encountered quite a few during my research for German cemeteries in Flanders.

 

Thanks, I am familiar with American nationality law actually. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 stated that "all persons" regardless of "race and color" are citizens of the US when born on US soil and not subject to a foreign power. Also, United States vs. Wong Kim Ark (1898) backed up this point by stating that the children of immigrants (in this case Chinese) who were born on US soil to American domiciled parents were automatically eligible to be US citizens.

 

Maybe the laws were different back then where you come from, but the USA has had a 'jus soli' approach to nationality for quite some time. A major exception to this was "Indians not taxed", who were considered citizens of their tribe, rather than the USA, until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

 

Under US law during the period when fighting men of WW1 would have been born (i.e. late 19th century), children of German immigrants born in the USA would have been eligible for US citizenship. That's why I was surprised when you said that Germany classified them as German nationals too. Unless Germany considered them subjects even if born abroad?

Edited by Sawpatin
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1 hour ago, sadbrewer said:

Not volunteers with the sound of it, but Danes in mid 1916 from the British Newspaper Archive. 

Screenshot_20190905-130147.jpg

 

Well, they lived in what was since 1867 part of the German Empire, the same can be said about the people in Alsace Lorraine or the Polish population in East Germany (Silesia, Posen etc). I think neither can be considered as foreign as they lived within the worldwide accepted borders of Germany at that point.

 

Jan

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22 hours ago, AOK4 said:

There's thousands of entries in the Verlustlisten for people born in the US (f.i. 595 born in New York + 8 in Neu York, 249 in Chicago etc). I've encountered quite a few during my research for German cemeteries in Flanders.

 

That's very interesting. I wonder why my German army friend didn't know about it.

 

Christina

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Hundreds of Dutch (the Netherlands was a neutral country) volunteered for the German, English, American, French, Austrian, and probably many more, armies.

Because they lived there, worked there, had familyties to those countries, because it was easier to get into the German Army, because they could get French nationality etc etc etc etc

https://www.kb.nl/themas/geschiedenis-en-cultuur/nederland-tijdens-de-eerste-wereldoorlog/wo-i-nederlandse-vrijwilligers-aan-het-front

 

 

Edited by JWK
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On 05/09/2019 at 22:06, JWK said:

Hundreds of Dutch (the Netherlands was a neutral country) volunteered for the German, English, American, French, Austrian, and probably many more, armies.

Because they lived there, worked there, had familyties to those countries, because it was easier to get into the German Army, because they could get French nationality etc etc etc etc

https://www.kb.nl/themas/geschiedenis-en-cultuur/nederland-tijdens-de-eerste-wereldoorlog/wo-i-nederlandse-vrijwilligers-aan-het-front

 

 

 

Interesting, thanks for posting. I can't read that article in Dutch but maybe I can find something in English on those guys...

 

On 04/09/2019 at 20:38, charlie2 said:

There are over 3500 entries for soldiers born or at least living in Switzerland and over 200 from the UK  in the Verlustlisten.

Charlie

 

Interesting, I wonder if the ones from the UK were actually British-born, or just returning German emigrants...

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23 hours ago, Sawpatin said:

Interesting, thanks for posting. I can't read that article in Dutch but maybe I can find something in English on those guys...

 

If you run the article through Google Translate you'll get a perfectly readable English version of it!

 

 

 

Edited by JWK
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