![]() The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used mainly as sentries and for minor duties. They initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig, but later recruited deserters. At the end of 1759, the first four squadrons of dragoons (also called horse grenadiers) of the Freikorps were organised. This squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. This first squadron (80 men) was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters. He entrusted the creation and command of this new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. On 15 July 1759, Frederick ordered the creation of a squadron of volunteer hussars to be attached to the 1st Hussar Regiment (von Kleist's Own). The first Freikorps were recruited by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War. Serbian, Wurmser, Odonel and Mahony Free Corps in 1798 However, many Freikorps also largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters. They were ostensibly mustered to fight on behalf of the government against the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic backed German communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar Republic. In the aftermath of World War I and during the German Revolution of 1918–19, Freikorps consisting largely of World War I veterans were raised as paramilitary militias. The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons. The Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger, dragoons and hussars. There were also various mixed formations or legions. These, sometimes exotically equipped, units served as infantry and cavalry (or, more rarely, as artillery) sometimes in just company strength and sometimes in formations of up to several thousand strong. In German-speaking countries, the first so-called Freikorps ("free regiments", Freie Regimenter) were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades, and deserters. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regardless of their own nationality. ![]() Armed Freikorps paramilitaries in Berlin in 1919.įreikorps ( German:, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps" ) were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.
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