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Dive into the dramatic saga of the Iron Division—German volunteers who fought in the Latvian War of Independence! From shifting alliances, bold battles, and wild politics, to the fate of these daring fighters, this story is packed with twists you won't believe. Love history with a punch? Hit subscribe for more epic tales and let us know in the comments what fascinated you most! #history #war #Germany #Latvia #documentary
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@zeitgeschichteinbildundton
0:20 - Introduction and Context
2:09 - Roots of German Volunteer Motivation
4:49 - Prelude to the Iron Division Campaign
10:37 - Early Battles and Volunteer Promises
14:41 - Major Engagements and The Battle for Courland
18:33 - Struggles for Riga and Shifting Alliances
21:38 - Collapse of the Offensive and Treaty Impact
26:38 - Aftermath and Legacy of the Iron Division
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@zeitgeschichteinbildundton
0:20 - Introduction and Context
2:09 - Roots of German Volunteer Motivation
4:49 - Prelude to the Iron Division Campaign
10:37 - Early Battles and Volunteer Promises
14:41 - Major Engagements and The Battle for Courland
18:33 - Struggles for Riga and Shifting Alliances
21:38 - Collapse of the Offensive and Treaty Impact
26:38 - Aftermath and Legacy of the Iron Division
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📚
LearningTranscript
00:20The fate of the Iron Divisions, made up of German volunteers under Major Josef Bischoff,
00:26fighting on the Latvian side in the War of Independence against Russia, unfolded over a period of 12 months from
00:36December 1918 to December 1919.
00:41One can certainly see this conflict as a continuation of the First World War.
00:49The Latvian War of Independence was also a civil war.
00:52In 1919, there were at times three completely different Latvian governments.
01:00From December 17, 1918 to January 13, 1920, the socialist government of the Bolshevik politician Petra Stuka, supported by Moscow,
01:14whose short time in power was marked above all by terror against so-called class enemies.
01:21Next, the government of Prime Minister Carles Ulmanis, from November 19, 1918 to June 18, 1921.
01:32Ulmanis mainly relied on the victorious powers of the First World War,
01:37specifically on the heavy 38-centimeter guns of British battleships lying off the coast of Latvia,
01:44as well as after the coup by the Baltic-German Lieutenant Baron Hans von Manteufel-Schöge against Ulmanis on the
01:5316th,
01:54of April 1919, for a short time, a third government was formed with the Protestant pastor Andreev Snidra as Prime
02:04Minister,
02:04which relied on the German troops in the country.
02:09Before I move on to the Iron Division, I should first answer the question,
02:14why did German volunteers fight for Latvian independence from Russia?
02:20To answer this, let's look back to the year of the founding of the Empire in 1871,
02:25when Otto von Bismarck said the phrase,
02:31With this sentence, the architect of the Second German Empire in 1871 wanted to reassure the neighbors
02:39about the supposed fear of further territorial claims by the young empire.
02:44After all, it was under his leadership that Alsace-Lorraine had been rejoined to the empire,
02:50which led to France pursuing an aggressively vengeful policy for decades.
02:56But as for his statement, we are satisfied.
03:00It has often been misunderstood here.
03:03Because Bismarck's statement merely described the situation
03:07and was intended as a foreign policy reassurance toward Russia.
03:12Because in reality, Bismarck too had realized that the population growth
03:17and the resulting increase in power between the three wars of unification in 1864, 1866 and 1870 to 71.
03:27And the turn of the century had not kept pace with the expansion of what had been achieved.
03:34In plain terms, it was getting more and more crowded in Germany.
03:37The Russian borders had been defined in it.
03:39And due to the very one-sided loyalty to the alliance with Austria-Hungary,
03:44the possible colonization, for example, of Bohemia, had been given up.
03:49The colonization of Slovakia and Transylvania by German farmers and craftsmen was also given up.
03:55In this, the Habsburg monarchy cannot be absolved of guilt.
03:59Because instead of allowing a German bridge between the Sudetes and the Transylvanian Alps,
04:06only German ethnic islands emerged in the boiling cauldron of Hungarian and Czech nationalism.
04:13Which Vienna partially supported?
04:16For the young German Reich, all this meant that the question of territory became a question of export,
04:23in other words, whether Germany was willing to export people or goods.
04:27Germany decided, despite the still high emigration,
04:32of adventurous, daring or disappointed people to America, in favor of exporting its goods.
04:38It didn't take long before the global economy brought large sums of money into the young empire.
04:44By 1900 it was already the strongest economic nation in Europe.
04:48This was due to the entrepreneurial and, of course, profit-oriented spirit of the German business leaders.
04:55Shown in the picture is BASF in Ludwigshafen, 1881.
05:01However, the politics of the Wilhelmine Western State bureaucracy was never able to keep up with this spirit of new
05:07beginnings.
05:08Certainly, it supported the capitalist expansion.
05:11But neither capital nor politics recognized the dangers or the limits
05:17of this so-called emergency industrialization born of spatial scarcity.
05:23If you study the records of the European powers with their various alliances after the turn of the century,
05:30one must conclude that a war of Germany against both the West and the East
05:35had become more and more likely with each passing year.
05:39There was France's never-ending reminder of the defeat of 1870-71 and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine.
05:47There was Great Britain's fear of losing the worldwide dominance of its goods.
05:54This was also evident with the merchandise Marx Act passed on August 23, 1887,
06:01namely the introduction of Made in Germany.
06:05In addition, Germany's naval policy.
06:08Then there was the devastating defeat of the Russian Tsarist Empire in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905,
06:15as a result of which the Tsarist Empire, out of self-preservation,
06:20had to divert all its revolutionary forces against the West.
06:24Around 1905, this idea was circulating in Berlin.
06:28In the picture at the back right, the General Staff Building,
06:31the idea of a war against weakened Russia or against France,
06:35which was not yet so heavily armed militarily.
06:40But the, quote, brutal Caesar-like joy of conquest,
06:44which had made the British Empire great,
06:47did not have majority support in the bourgeois administration of Wilhelm II.
06:52But the focus on the East was never abandoned.
06:55Already at the turn of the century, the youth movement emerged,
07:00here a later group of Berlin-Wandervögel,
07:02with their somewhat unrealistic slogan.
07:05Back to the land had awakened romantic hopes for the East
07:09among Germany's urban proletarian masses.
07:14And when, at the end of 1918,
07:16the first small, still insignificant contingents of Baltic campaign volunteers set out,
07:22that happened as well.
07:24From a spirit that in many ways went directly back to the pre-war youth movement.
07:30As for the origin of the Iron Division,
07:33the key reason was the British hunger blockade directed against the German population
07:39by blocking the North Sea,
07:41which, from 1914 to 1918,
07:43resulted in an additional approximately 700,000 German deaths.
07:48As a result, broad sections of the German public
07:51became aware of the importance of the territorial question,
07:54which had already been simmering in Germany for a long time,
07:58and was, of course, primarily a question of food supply.
08:01It has long been forgotten that even after the acceptance by the German Reichstag on the 19th,
08:07after the so-called peace resolution was introduced by the German Reichstag on July 19, 1917,
08:13the free trade unions under Karl Liggen and the SPD
08:16demanded the Düneburg-Narreu line in a war aims resolution.
08:21Furthermore, Field Marshal von Hindenburg had an ambitious settlement program drawn up here in 1917
08:27with the staff of the 8th Army deployed on the Eastern Front.
08:30Hindenburg had a comprehensive settlement program for the Baltic provinces drawn up.
08:37After the collapse and the revolution,
08:40which enclosed the empire with an almost impenetrable grip,
08:43and severed many intellectual and political ties with the West
08:47almost until the founding of the Federal Republic in 1949,
08:52the advance into the Northeast had become the last option,
08:57because although the forced Treaty of Versailles had put a lid without a vent over Germany,
09:02which was torn apart by internal political struggles,
09:05this pressure cooker had always had a weak spot at the Kurland border.
09:12During the First World War, since 1915,
09:15hundreds of thousands of landless farmers' sons and land-seeking proletarians
09:19had been in the old German cultural land between Mimel, today Kleipeda,
09:24and Lake Paipus, 550 km further east, had been deployed.
09:31And as here in Mimitao had gotten to know this region,
09:36in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Germany and Russia,
09:40on March 3, 1918, Kurland and Lithuania were separated from the Russian state.
09:48Estonia and Livonia were to remain occupied by a German police force
09:52until their own state structures and security forces could be established.
09:58By November 1918, the Eastern Front had dissolved.
10:03The Supreme Army Command then entrusted Major Josef Bischoff,
10:08who had been the commander of Infantry Regiment 461 in the 237th during the war,
10:15Infantry Division, to lead a fry corpse formed from the remnants of the 8th Army,
10:20which had been deployed in the east, and from volunteers.
10:25On November 17, as already mentioned,
10:28the Latvian National Council was formed under Carlys Ulmanis,
10:32declared independence from Russia,
10:34and proclaimed the Republic of Latvia.
10:37Great Britain provisionally recognized this,
10:41and Germany did as well on the 26th.
10:43However, the hope for undisturbed independence from Russia did not last very long,
10:49because as early as December,
10:51the Red Guards of Lev Trotsky attacked the new Republic,
10:55supported by Bolshevik Latvian workers and small farmer battalions.
11:00The direction of the attack was clear.
11:03In the course of the planned spread of the World Revolution,
11:05Latvia was seen by the Bolshevik leadership as a bridge to Western Europe.
11:11Thus, the fight against Bolshevism became the first and decisive battle cry.
11:18After the initial unsuccessful fighting of the Baltic Landeswehr,
11:23formed on November 11 with German approval against superior Bolshevik forces,
11:29almost all of Courland was lost.
11:33At the end of November 1918,
11:36Germany was obligated by Great Britain,
11:38based on Article 12 of the armistice dictated to it by France
11:42in the railway carriage at Compiègne,
11:45to defend Latvian territory against Soviet Russia.
11:51December 1918
11:52On the 17th, the Soviet Latvian Soviet Republic under Pieter Stuka was proclaimed.
12:00Stuka in the front center of the picture with his comrades.
12:05Now, on December 29th,
12:08the bourgeois Latvian government signed an agreement with German volunteer units from Germany
12:13to protect Latvian territory from Bolshevism.
12:18In Germany, people were recruited to join the Baltic Landeswehr.
12:22Although the Berlin people's representatives had urged the military command
12:26to immediately evacuate the still-occupied Russian territory,
12:31General Wilhelm Groner,
12:33the de facto head of the Supreme Army Command,
12:35had however persuaded the chairman of the people's representatives,
12:39Friedrich Ebert of the SPD,
12:40moved
12:41to temporarily come to terms with the
12:45condition of a vacuum on East Prussia's borders.
12:50End of quote.
12:52In the meantime,
12:54German and Bolshevik troops had withdrawn into the miserable villages
12:57along the front Grodno, Kovno, Libau,
13:01Latvian names Grodno, Konas, Klaipeda.
13:06Time and again,
13:07the Bolshevik forces attacked the weak German-Baltic volunteers.
13:11In Versailles, but especially in London,
13:14which also had economic interests in mind,
13:16people began to take notice.
13:19A Russian-Baltic region under Bolshevik control,
13:22perhaps even an attack by the Bolsheviks into Germany,
13:25meant the greatest danger for the West.
13:28Great Britain, with its global reach
13:31and centuries of experience in statecraft,
13:33supported the fight against Bolshevism,
13:37but at the same time ruled out a clear German victory.
13:41Finally, there was also the Latvian intention
13:44to first liberate their country from the Russians with German help,
13:47and then from the Germans with English help.
13:51This sophisticated and also politically ruthless game of international politics
13:57was something the military leadership of the Baltic operation was unable to see through,
14:03nor would they have been up to it.
14:07February 1912, the days were already getting longer,
14:11and combat activity was flaring up.
14:14The first German Freikorps arrived at the still fragile front.
14:19The Latvian government had promised land,
14:21which the Baltic barons had made available to them free of charge for settlement,
14:26altogether a third of their property.
14:28Every volunteer fighting against Bolshevism
14:31was promised 80 to 100 Morgan of land,
14:35a considerable economic fund
14:37and interest-free loans for the transitional period.
14:41March 1919 loosely connected combat groups,
14:45Freikorps units at battalion strength
14:47with their own batteries and their own supply lines,
14:50prepared to strike out into the vast open lands ahead.
14:53Some of their leaders have written books about this,
14:56such as Captain von Merdem,
14:58or his comrade Cord von Brandis,
15:01who along with others had captured Fort Duermont near Verdun,
15:05or Eric Ballot,
15:06who served as a battalion commander in the Iron Division.
15:10And finally, the one by Major Bischoff.
15:14A film about the Baltic fighters
15:16was even produced by U.F.A. in 1937.
15:20All of them,
15:21at least up until the time of receiving the draft
15:24of the Treaty of Versailles on the 7th,
15:26May 1919 had acted on behalf of the Weimar government,
15:31on behalf of their homeland.
15:33If you now look at the names,
15:36origins, and attitudes
15:37of the German volunteers
15:39who played a decisive role
15:41in the liberation of Latvia,
15:43among them were young patriotic officers
15:45who wanted to conquer a new province for the Reich.
15:49Some poor rural settlers
15:50from the now-too-crowded Black Forest
15:52or the Spassart
15:53expelled German bohemians.
15:56Rhinelanders,
15:57professional soldiers
15:58who were attracted by the fight
15:59for the sake of fighting,
16:01desperate red-workers,
16:02worker-soldiers,
16:03who no longer wanted to shoot
16:05at their comrades from the front.
16:06The desperate,
16:07whose spirits had been crushed
16:09by the defeat of 1918,
16:11the indifferent,
16:13to whom high wages
16:14promised a free life without work.
16:17Idealistic members
16:18of the Wandervogel youth movement,
16:20sons of ancient families,
16:22full of knightly pride
16:24and Baltic traditions,
16:26in between,
16:27profiteers and adventurers,
16:29escaped criminals
16:30and depraved followers.
16:32That was the composition
16:34of the Freikorps,
16:35who shattered the Bolshevik front
16:37on March 3, 1919.
16:40Their commander-in-chief,
16:42Major-General Rüdiger Graf
16:43von der Gaulle,
16:44had obtained the permission
16:46to attack from the German
16:47Sixth Reserve Corps,
16:48which was responsible in Courland.
16:50Here is the order of battle.
16:53On the right flank,
16:55the unit formed from volunteers
16:56at the end of January,
16:58nineteen,
16:59nineteen,
17:01under Major-General Paul Fijade,
17:03in the center,
17:04the Iron Division,
17:05led by Major Bischoff,
17:06and in the north,
17:07the Baltic Landisvere,
17:09under the command
17:10of Captain Alfred Fletcher.
17:13They drove the Russians
17:14before them,
17:15until a counterattack
17:16by Latvian Bolshevik regiments
17:18forced the Iron Division
17:19to halt.
17:22The rage over their previous defeat
17:24had led the Bolshevik regiments
17:27to a senseless massacre
17:28of the hostages
17:29from Mittau,
17:31today Jelgava,
17:32and Riga.
17:34The death toll
17:35from the terror measures
17:36of the Red Army in Latvia
17:37is estimated
17:38at five thousand
17:39to seven thousand people.
17:42On the night
17:43of March 17th to 18th,
17:45the Baltic Landisvere
17:46received the first report
17:48about the events
17:49in Mittau.
17:50At dawn,
17:51the company set out.
17:53The sixty kilometers
17:54were covered
17:55without a break.
17:56Then Mittau
17:58was stormed,
17:59without the German
17:59reinforcement troops
18:01knowing anything about it.
18:02On their retreat,
18:04the Bolshevik troops
18:05once again
18:05took out their anger
18:06on the population.
18:08Family graves
18:09were looted
18:09or used as toilets.
18:11With this,
18:13the Red troops
18:13deployed against
18:14the German Baltic units
18:16had ensured
18:16that from now on
18:18a battle would rage
18:19until the complete
18:20destruction of both sides.
18:22When the success
18:23at Mittau
18:24was reported
18:24by a radio message
18:25from the Baltic Landeswehr,
18:27the remaining German units
18:29also attacked.
18:30By the end of March,
18:32Kowland was free.
18:33From Bauske,
18:34from today's Bauske,
18:36which Captain
18:37Kot von Brandis
18:38on the right
18:38in the picture
18:39had taken,
18:40all the way to Tukum,
18:41on the Baltic sea coast,
18:43today called Tukum's,
18:45there was now
18:45a border guard.
18:46But Riga
18:47was still
18:48in the hands
18:49of the Trotskyist
18:49Latvians.
18:51April,
18:521919.
18:54England realized
18:55that the striking power
18:56of the German army
18:57was still unbroken
18:58and took precautions
19:00on English advice.
19:02And trusting
19:02in the battleships
19:03lying off the coast,
19:04the government
19:05of Omanis,
19:06based in Libau,
19:08solemnly withdrew
19:09the land promises
19:10that had been given
19:11to the striking force.
19:12On April 15th,
19:13they had a German
19:14officer arrested
19:15for, quote,
19:16high treason.
19:17The next day,
19:19the Free Corps'
19:20leader,
19:20Pfeffer von Salomon,
19:21arrested the entire
19:22Baltic army
19:23and disarmed them.
19:25At the same time,
19:26an assault unit
19:27of the Baltic Landwehr,
19:29under the command
19:30of the 25-year-old
19:31Baltic German
19:32lieutenant,
19:33Baron Hans von
19:34Manteufel,
19:35intervened and
19:36overthrew the
19:36Omanis' government.
19:38From his refuge
19:39under the protection
19:40of the ship's guns
19:42in the British embassy,
19:43Omanis observed,
19:45the formation
19:46of the new government
19:47headed by the
19:48pro-German pastor
19:49Andres de Antrievstenetra,
19:51in which Baltic German
19:53influence predominated.
19:56May 19, 19.
20:00On May 8,
20:01Germany had received
20:02the draft
20:02of the Treaty of Versailles
20:04prepared by the
20:04victorious powers
20:06a day earlier.
20:08The Weimar government
20:09ordered the evacuation
20:10of Courland.
20:12However,
20:13the German Baltic front
20:14refused to obey
20:16this order.
20:16Their 40,000 men
20:18were ready for battle.
20:19Here is the military
20:20organization
20:21of the Baltic Landeswehr.
20:23The combat squadron
20:24of the Polimerit
20:25recipient
20:25Gotthard-Sachsenberg
20:27was ready for takeoff
20:28with 30 Junkers
20:29aircraft of various models.
20:31There was sufficient
20:32ammunition available
20:33for the cannons
20:34and machine guns.
20:36They also knew
20:37that the Entente
20:37was a thousand kilometers
20:39further west of the Rhine.
20:41And according to reports
20:42from Germany,
20:43the military-initiated
20:44uprising against
20:45Weimar and Versailles
20:47had to break out
20:48by June at the latest.
20:50However,
20:50this only happened
20:52with the Kaputsch
20:53in March of 1920.
20:54For the German volunteers
20:57in the Baltics,
20:58at least that's how
20:59they saw it.
21:00Evacuating the Baltics
21:01at that time
21:02would have been
21:02a political mistake.
21:05The German government
21:06was foolish,
21:07still weakened
21:08by different factions
21:09and under the pressure
21:10of Freikorps
21:11General Georg Merker,
21:12who did not think
21:13beyond Germany's borders.
21:15And as an opponent
21:17of General Walter Reinhardt,
21:19the advocate
21:20of the fight
21:20against Versailles,
21:21if necessary,
21:23even in cooperation
21:24with Russia,
21:25in a kind of
21:26Delphic pronouncement,
21:28let General
21:29Freiherr
21:29von der Goltz
21:30know
21:30that an attack
21:31on Riga
21:32should be considered
21:33a domestic matter,
21:35if Nedra
21:36were to order it.
21:39While in Weimar,
21:40in the former
21:41court theater,
21:42which had been renamed
21:43the German National Theater,
21:45the parties were discussing
21:46the domestic political prize
21:48of a possible signing
21:50of the Treaty of Versailles.
21:51And after that,
21:53people would meet
21:54for a beer
21:54in one of the pubs
21:55of the tranquil little town
21:56while out on the battlefield
21:58something was beginning
21:59to take shape.
22:00Riga
22:01on May 22, 1919,
22:04marked the last major victory
22:05of German troops.
22:07The evening before,
22:09the Baltic Londoswehr
22:10and the German units
22:11from Germany proper
22:12had been brought in
22:13through the Tyrol marshes.
22:15After the final orders
22:17were given
22:17to the German units
22:18from Germany proper,
22:20the Iron Division
22:21launched an attack
22:22on the Red Positions.
22:24Then at dawn,
22:25the tower of St. Peter's
22:27in Riga.
22:27When the tower of St. Peter's
22:29in Riga became visible,
22:31the Iron Division,
22:32together with the first company
22:33of the 1st German-Baltic
22:35Battle Battalion,
22:35attacked across the Lübeck Bridge
22:37over the Daugava.
22:39Then Lieutenant Albert Leo
22:41Schlageter's battery
22:42cleared the bridge
22:43over the Daugava.
22:44They were supported
22:45by Captain Freiherr Walter Ebert
22:48von Medem's
22:49Freikorps.
22:50Four years later,
22:52during the Ruhr struggle
22:53against the French
22:54and Belgians,
22:55Schlageter was sentenced
22:57to death
22:57by a French court
22:58and on the 26th,
23:01May 1923,
23:03he was shot
23:03on the Goldsami Heath
23:04near Düsseldorf.
23:07Lieutenant Hans von Manteufel
23:09and his 1st German-Baltic
23:10combat battalion
23:11were the first
23:12to cross over
23:13and advance
23:14into the old
23:15Hanseatic city.
23:16At first,
23:18they tried to reach
23:18the cellars
23:19where the Cheka,
23:20the Soviet-Russian
23:21state security
23:22founded on December
23:2320, 1917,
23:25was holding
23:25numerous hostages.
23:28But before he could
23:29reach his goal,
23:31a deadly bullet
23:32struck him.
23:33Then the Baltic Landeswehr
23:35and the Iron Division
23:36crushed the last
23:37Red Reserves,
23:39which had been
23:40positioned for the
23:41decisive breakthrough
23:42attack into the rear
23:43of the German units,
23:45and pursued them
23:46beyond Friedrichstadt
23:48in Latvian,
23:50Schongelgava,
23:51on the Daugava River.
23:52By around 4 p.m.,
23:54Riga was liberated,
23:56but the victory
23:57had its downside
23:58because it blinded
24:00the Baltic Germans.
24:01Starting with
24:02the operations
24:03in April
24:04and the success
24:05on May 22 and 19,
24:06they had defeated
24:07the Red Divisions
24:08and pushed them
24:09back to the east.
24:11Now Livonia beckoned
24:13as the next target,
24:15the lands of
24:15what is now Livonia,
24:17once part of
24:18the Livonian
24:19Confederation
24:19and the Livonian
24:21territory of
24:22the Teutonic Order.
24:23Behind it
24:24stretched the fertile
24:25and uninhabited
24:27Estonia.
24:28They in turn
24:29saw that
24:29as the bridge
24:30for a leap
24:31to St. Petersburg.
24:32They already knew
24:33that the White Guard
24:34Russian general,
24:36Nikolai Nikolaevich
24:37Yudinich,
24:37was stationed
24:38with his troops
24:39in front of
24:39Kronstadt,
24:40the fortress
24:41on the Baltic Sea
24:42island of Kotlin
24:42near St. Petersburg
24:43in Russia.
24:44The Baltic Germans
24:46began to dream.
24:47They saw the new
24:49Russia,
24:49for them Germany's
24:50most important ally
24:51in the fight
24:52against the West
24:53in the making.
24:55But instead of
24:56securing what had
24:57been achieved,
24:58the Baltic
24:59Landeswehr
24:59continued its advance.
25:01That, in turn,
25:03prompted the Estonians
25:04and Latvians
25:05to take action
25:06quote,
25:07to break the looming
25:08rule of the Baltic
25:09Barons.
25:10British officers
25:11took command
25:12of the Estonian
25:12and Latvian troops.
25:15Their equipment
25:15gave them
25:16a material advantage.
25:18In addition,
25:19English battleships
25:20secured the coast.
25:21When General
25:22Count von der Gaulle
25:23sent the question
25:24to Weimar,
25:25asking what should be done,
25:27he received
25:28the next oracular answer.
25:29If German troops
25:31want to enter
25:32the service
25:33of the Latvian government
25:34under Nidra,
25:35they are not
25:37to be prevented
25:37from doing so.
25:39June 19, 19
25:43At the place
25:44with the symbolic name
25:45Wendon,
25:46present-day Cesis,
25:47the fate
25:48of the Baltic campaign
25:49was decided.
25:52Here is the front line
25:53at the beginning
25:54of the month.
25:56Now the excessive
25:57independence
25:58of the German units
25:59took its toll.
26:01Their premature confidence
26:02in the attack's
26:03irresistibility,
26:04the rear area
26:07filling up
26:07with marauding rabble,
26:09the failure
26:10of the ammunition supply,
26:12also a previous act
26:13of treason
26:14by a reserve
26:15cavalry captain
26:16who had defected
26:17to the Latvians
26:18and Ulmanis.
26:19Many other reasons
26:21contributed to this.
26:22that at the end
26:23of June,
26:24the Baltic landis
26:25fair and the iron
26:26division between
26:27Wendon and
26:28Hinzenberg fell
26:29into the English
26:30defensive trap
26:31and,
26:32suffering heavy losses,
26:33were pushed back
26:34and partially scattered.
26:37Two weeks earlier,
26:39the front had suffered
26:40decisive setbacks.
26:42After the 1st Guard
26:43Reserve Division
26:44was withdrawn
26:45at the request
26:46of the German government,
26:47here is their
26:48sleeve insignia
26:49and the Westphalian
26:51Freikorps Pfeffer
26:52had been ordered
26:53back to Germany
26:55to be demobilized
26:57there due to
26:58the Treaty of Versailles.
27:00Riga had been
27:02lost again.
27:02In the Olay position,
27:05named after the city
27:06of Olay,
27:06today Olene,
27:08between Riga
27:08and Mittau,
27:09the German units
27:10regrouped.
27:11But all further
27:13support failed
27:14to materialize.
27:15In Weimar,
27:17on June 22,
27:181919,
27:19the Treaty of Versailles
27:20was accepted.
27:24July 1919,
27:26the exhausted
27:27German units
27:28never recovered
27:29from the heavy losses
27:30at Riga and Bauske,
27:32at Wendon and
27:33Hinzenberg.
27:36Instead,
27:37dubious characters
27:38filled their ranks,
27:39for whom making money
27:41was more important
27:42than fighting.
27:44On the third,
27:45the armistice agreement
27:47was signed at the school
27:48in Riga-Straszendorf,
27:50mediated by the English
27:51lieutenant,
27:52Harold Alexander,
27:54which ended
27:55the fighting
27:56between Germany
27:57and Estonian-Latvian troops
27:59during the Latvian War
28:01of Independence.
28:03Alexander then became
28:05the commander
28:05of the Baltic-German
28:07Landeswehr.
28:09On the third,
28:10Prime Minister
28:11Andreas Jeter,
28:12who had been
28:12appointed in April,
28:14resigned,
28:14and England
28:15reinstated
28:16the Ulmanis government.
28:18On July 19,
28:20the German government
28:21informed the troops
28:22that it would only
28:23be able to pay
28:24their salaries
28:25until September.
28:26A Russian adventurer
28:28of unknown origin,
28:30sometimes a colonel,
28:31sometimes a prince,
28:33sometimes a nobleman,
28:34Pavel Mikhailovich.
28:36Vermont.
28:37Our law was not
28:38deterred by the fate
28:40of the recently defeated
28:41White Guard General
28:42Yudinik,
28:43who was mentioned earlier,
28:45near Petersburg,
28:46and proclaimed himself
28:48the head of the
28:49imperial Russian
28:50Western government.
28:52With his own money
28:53and his own army,
28:55the West Russian Army.
28:57Out of homesick
28:58Russian prisoners
28:59of war longing
29:00for home,
29:01he assembled
29:01two Russian divisions.
29:05Tsarist orders
29:06were showered
29:06upon the German
29:07officers and soldiers,
29:09who clung to a last
29:10desperate hope
29:11for a miracle.
29:12Here is the
29:13Avalov Cross
29:13with Swords.
29:16August 1919
29:18The month
29:19had not yet ended
29:20when Major Bischoff,
29:22in a hopeless position,
29:23ordered an independent
29:25action.
29:26On August 24th,
29:28just as the
29:291st Battalion
29:30of his Iron Division
29:31was about to be
29:32shipped home,
29:34Bischoff appeared
29:35at Mitterauer Station
29:36after fruitless negotiations
29:38with Berlin
29:39and announced,
29:40We are staying.
29:42After that,
29:43about.
29:45The Western Russian
29:46Liberation Army
29:47of Prince Bedman
29:48of Avalov,
29:49which then numbered
29:50about 50,000 men,
29:51the Iron Division
29:52with about
29:5318,000 men,
29:56the German Legion,
29:57under Naval Captain
29:58Paul Sievert,
29:59about 12,000 men,
30:01consisting of the
30:02Bolton Land Regiment,
30:04the Freikorps Brandes,
30:06Stever,
30:06Ruseberg,
30:07Diebisch,
30:08and Plerf,
30:09the Madam Detachment,
30:11the Genne Group,
30:12and the Baden Storm Battalion.
30:14September 1919.
30:18The German government
30:19withheld the pay
30:20and had East Prussia's borders
30:22sealed off by
30:23Reichswehr troops.
30:25Ammunition and
30:26provisions deliveries
30:27were also stopped.
30:29October 1919.
30:32On the 3rd,
30:34under English pressure
30:35and recalled by
30:36the Berlin government,
30:37General Count Golls
30:38left the troops.
30:40Golls,
30:41here on the left,
30:42talking with
30:43Captain Von Brandes.
30:45On the 6th,
30:47Avalok moved
30:48to place Latvia,
30:49then under
30:50British protectorate
30:51under the future
30:52Tsar's supreme command
30:54as a Russian province.
30:56When he left,
30:58he gave his four units,
31:00which were called
31:01the Hochtraben Division,
31:03the order to attack.
31:04On the 6th,
31:05man against man,
31:07in bloody stealth
31:08and nightly massacres,
31:09his four units,
31:10the German formations
31:11called Hochtraben Division,
31:13were given the order
31:14to attack.
31:15On the 10th,
31:16on October 10th,
31:17the Dorgava
31:18was reached again.
31:20Thorensberg,
31:20the suburb of Riga,
31:22surrendered to the Iron Division.
31:23It was their last victory.
31:25Now,
31:26Avalov commanded
31:27a fragile front.
31:29From Friedrichstadt
31:30on the Dorgava,
31:31Latvian John Gelgava
31:33to the coast.
31:35The 38-centimeter shells
31:36from the English battleships
31:38and those flying
31:39the Latvian flag
31:40regularly struck there.
31:41Avalov's battalions
31:43had dramatically
31:43overstretched
31:44combat sectors,
31:4512 kilometers wide.
31:47The southern flank
31:48was even completely exposed
31:50due to a lack of troops.
31:51November 1919,
31:54meanwhile snow had fallen
31:55and the thermometer
31:56dropped to minus 30 degrees.
31:58Everything was in short supply.
32:00There was a shortage
32:01of food and ammunition,
32:03medical supplies and money,
32:05but above all,
32:06strong leadership.
32:07When the Dorgava River
32:09was solidly frozen,
32:10the Latvians attacked
32:11from the 15th
32:13to the 21st
32:14with the best
32:16English winter equipment,
32:17the Western Russian
32:18Liberation Army,
32:19which included
32:20the remnants
32:21of the once-invincible
32:23Baltic Army.
32:26Surrounded by an enemy
32:27five times their strength,
32:28they faced their fate.
32:30A year earlier,
32:31in ice and snow,
32:32the campaign had begun.
32:35It ended in ice and snow.
32:37They wanted to ride
32:38to Ostland.
32:40That dream was over.
32:42On November 11,
32:44the Volunteer Regiment
32:45Silesia,
32:46led by 1st Lieutenant
32:47Gerhard Rosbach,
32:49succeeded
32:49from Mittau
32:50to save the remnants
32:52of the Iron Division
32:53and other Baltic units
32:55from total destruction.
32:57Without orders from above,
32:59from the end of October,
33:01he drove his winter
33:02battle-hardened
33:03Freikorps
33:04550 kilometers
33:05through ice and snow
33:07for 14 days.
33:09From the Vistula
33:10to the Dorgava,
33:11from Grodens
33:12to the encircled
33:13Germans near Riga.
33:16The Reichswehr
33:17at the border
33:17had been deceived,
33:18or they had looked
33:19the other way.
33:20Here,
33:21Rosbach crosses
33:22the border
33:22on October 31,
33:24at around 8 o'clock.
33:26At Torensberg,
33:27a breach was made
33:29in the Latvian front
33:30through which
33:30the liberated remnants
33:32of the Baltic troops
33:33flooded back
33:34into the Olai position
33:35and to Mittau.
33:38With that,
33:39Rosbach and his troops
33:40here lived up
33:41to their motto.
33:42Around 10,000
33:43German soldiers
33:44were saved
33:45from slaughter.
33:46The German state
33:47did not thank him
33:48for it.
33:49The judiciary
33:50accused him
33:51of mutiny
33:52for his unauthorized
33:53march into the Baltics
33:55and removed
33:55his unit
33:56from the
33:56provisional
33:57Reichswehr.
33:59On October 13,
34:01General Walter
34:02von Eberhard,
34:03commanding general
34:04of the 6th Reserve Corps,
34:06replaced the relieved
34:07General von der Gaulle
34:09and began preparations
34:11to evacuate
34:12the troops
34:12in the Baltics
34:13to East Prussia.
34:15But now
34:16the fury
34:17of the Iron Division
34:18and the German Legion,
34:20who felt cheated
34:21out of their success,
34:22erupted.
34:23In a wild
34:24outburst of violence,
34:26they attacked
34:26the Latvian units
34:27at Mittau.
34:28Villagers
34:29were looted
34:30and set on fire.
34:31Prisoners
34:32were slaughtered.
34:33The former pride
34:34of the troops
34:34gave way
34:35to chaotic vengeance
34:36and a joy
34:37in destruction.
34:38It is estimated
34:39that up to
34:40two million people
34:41fell victim
34:41to these violent
34:42excesses.
34:43The leadership
34:44was powerless,
34:45or watched
34:46with grim satisfaction.
34:47Then,
34:48with the burning
34:49villages behind them,
34:51the troops
34:51in the Baltics
34:52retreated.
34:53December 1919
34:55The evacuation
34:57of the remaining
34:58troops to East Prussia
34:59was completed
35:00by the middle
35:01of the month.
35:02When the last
35:03German field army
35:05crossed the
35:06German border,
35:07the lyrics
35:08of their song
35:08did not bode well.
35:10We have left
35:11behind what
35:12others consider
35:13dear and
35:14valuable.
35:16Nothing should
35:17be glossed over
35:18in the telling
35:19of the story
35:19of the Iron Division,
35:21because the men
35:22known as the
35:23Balticumar
35:24set out in 1919
35:26under the slogan
35:27Fight Bolshevism.
35:30They returned
35:31with a burning
35:32hatred for
35:32everything bourgeois.
35:34They had set
35:35out to the East
35:36to save a province
35:38for the Reich
35:39and to secure
35:40European civilization
35:42from Bolshevism,
35:43but when the
35:44full support
35:45of the Reich
35:45failed to
35:46materialize,
35:48they had felt
35:48betrayed
35:49and had adopted
35:50an attitude
35:51about which
35:52the German
35:53historian
35:53Sauer wrote
35:54it reminded him
35:56of the mercenary
35:57bands of the
35:58Thirty Years'
35:59War.
36:01Also,
36:02their leaders
36:02were no match
36:03for either
36:04British or
36:04Latvian-Estonian
36:05double-dealing.
36:09So the Balticumars
36:11were here
36:11at their last
36:12parade before
36:12Major Bischoff
36:13returned to
36:14the apparent
36:15order of the
36:15Democratic Republic.
36:18There they were
36:19pursued by the
36:20working class
36:21with irreconcilable
36:22hostility,
36:23and the bourgeoisie
36:24contemptuously
36:25called them
36:25uprooted.
36:28Danger had
36:29become an
36:29intoxicating
36:30drug for
36:30them.
36:31Many of
36:32them had
36:32dedicated
36:33themselves to
36:34violence,
36:34and where,
36:35in the next
36:36decade,
36:37German politics
36:37would be carried
36:38out by force
36:39of arms.
36:401919 to
36:411921,
36:42in the fight
36:43against Polish
36:44insurgents,
36:45in the upper
36:46Silesian
36:47self-defense,
36:48in March 1920
36:49during the
36:50cap-putch,
36:51or in the fight
36:52against the
36:52Red Ruhr Army,
36:54in 1923 in the
36:56Siebengebirge
36:57against Rhineland
36:58separatists,
36:59or at the
37:00Feldherrnhalle,
37:01in the street
37:02fights,
37:03in the ranks
37:04of the SA
37:04or the Red
37:05Front Fighters
37:06League,
37:07Baltic campaign
37:08veterans were
37:09always at the
37:10front line.
37:11And wherever
37:12in the next
37:13decade people
37:14died for some
37:15foreign idea,
37:16in the Foreign
37:17Legion in
37:18Morocco,
37:19with the
37:20battalion of
37:20German volunteers,
37:22long forgotten
37:22in Germany,
37:24shot to pieces.
37:25During the
37:26Polestar
37:26uprising in
37:28July 1924,
37:30in Sao
37:30Paulo,
37:31Brazil,
37:32in Mexico
37:33and China,
37:34but also on
37:36the local
37:37smuggling
37:37roads at
37:38Germany's
37:39borders or
37:40in the
37:41cellars of
37:42big city
37:42criminal gangs.
37:44They always
37:45found,
37:46on one or
37:47another,
37:48under the
37:48blood-crusted
37:49jacket,
37:50the Baltic
37:51cross awarded
37:51during the
37:52Latvian battles.
37:54If you look
37:55at this
37:56campaign to
37:56Russia with
37:57the necessary
37:58distance,
37:59it was
38:00hopeless as
38:01an isolated
38:02operation at
38:03every stage.
38:05As a part
38:06of a
38:07revolutionary
38:07struggle against
38:08the West,
38:09as suggested
38:10by Prussian
38:10Minister of
38:11War,
38:11General
38:12Reinhard,
38:13it could
38:13have gained
38:14decisive
38:14significance.
38:16For this,
38:17I refer to
38:18my video
38:191919
38:20with Soviet
38:21Russia against
38:22Versailles.
38:29peace and收入
38:29and peace
38:38and
38:38peace and
38:38peace and
38:38peace and
38:39peace and
38:39peace.
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