Guards Cavalry Rifle Division

The Guards Cavalry Rifle Division (German; Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division) was a large unit of the Prussian Army formed in the spring of 1918. During the German revolution of 1918–1919, one of the largest volunteer units of the period of upheaval emerged from it, with a strength of up to 40,000 men.[1]

From December 1918 onwards, the Division took a large part in suppressing revolutionary uprisings, and members of it murdered Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

History

The Guards Cavalry Rifle Division was formed in March 1918 at the Zossen Military Training Area in Brandenburg,[2] from the Guards Cavalry Division, which had come home from the Eastern Front, and from elements of other divisions. The Division's commander was Lieutenant General Heinrich von Hofmann, and its first general staff officer was Captain Waldemar Pabst. Major Willy Rohr and his 5th Assault Battalion were ordered to Maubeuge from the German spring offensive to train the division for the Western Front. As part of this training, a large-scale exercise was planned for the whole division. Among those observing this exercise were Emperor Charles I of Austria, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, Paul von Hindenburg, and Erich Ludendorff of the Supreme Army Command; Generals Friedrich Sixt von Armin, Fritz von Loßberg, and Oskar von Hutier. To conclude the exercise, Hindenburg inspected the division on 23 May. [3]

The division was posted to the Western Front in Champagne region at the end of May 1918. From 15 July, it fought in the Second Battle of the Marne, and between 17 August and 4 September it took part in the defensive battle between the River Oise and the River Aisne. In October 1918, the division covered the retreat of the 1st Army.[4]

American Expeditionary Forces intelligence officers rated the division as second-class (of four classes) and reported that it was one of the General Headquarters attack divisions, held under the direct control of the Supreme Army Command. After the failure of the July 1918 offensive east of Rheims, the division was always on the defensive.[4]

The regiments returned to Berlin soon after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, and the division's first major engagement on German soil came during the 1918 Christmas crisis.[5] The Volksmarinedivision (People's Navy Division), which was occupying the Berlin Palace and the Neuer Marstall (New Stables), had mutinied, demanding its overdue wages and seeking to stop a plan to downsize it. Under the command of General Arnold Lequis, the Guards Cavalry Rifle Division and other regular troops were ordered to drive the Volksmarinedivision out of its positions, but failed. Soon after this, the Division became well-known and indeed infamous for its part in suppressing the Spartacist uprising and for the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in January 1919. In April 1919, the Guards Cavalry Rifle Division, together with the Marine Division under Major General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, formed the Guards Cavalry Rifle Corps, also commanded by Hofmann. In May 1919, it was part of the force led by Major General Heinrich Deetjen which crushed the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Formally, the unit remained a regular unit of the German Army until it was incorporated into the Provisional Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic in July 1919,[6] but due to the heavy recruitment of volunteers and the incorporation of numerous volunteer units from demobilized troops, it quickly took on the character of a Freikorps (Volunteer Corps).[1][7]

Units

At the time of the Armistice of November 1918, the British War Office reported the structure of the Guards Cavalry Rifle Division to be as follows:[8]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Arnulf Scriba, "Freikorps", Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 1 September 2014, accessed 15 February 2026 (in German)
  2. ^ "Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division 1918", militaerpass.net, accessed 16 February 2026
  3. ^ Michael Epkenhans, Gerhard P. Groß, Markus Pöhlmann, Christian Stachelbeck, eds., Geheimdienst und Propaganda im Ersten Weltkrieg. Die Aufzeichnungen von Oberst Walter Nicolai 1914 bis 1918 (Vol. 18 of Zeitalter der Weltkriege (Berlin: Oldenbourg, 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-060501-3 p. 509
  4. ^ a b Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-One Divisions of the German Army Which Participated in the War (1914–1918), War Department Document No. 905, (United States War Office: Office of the Adjutant, 1920), p. 29
  5. ^ Pierre Broué, The German Revolution 1917–1923 (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2006), pp. 233–240
  6. ^ "Deutsche Streitkräfte 1918 bis 1933", German Federal Archives (in German), accessed 15 February 2026
  7. ^ Ingo Müller, "Militärgerichtsbarkeit und Strafjustiz in der frühen Weimarer Republik: Der Fall Jorns", in Michael Dreyer, Sebastian Elsbach, Andreas Braune, eds, Vom drohenden Bürgerkrieg zum demokratischen Gewaltmonopol (1918–1924), Vol. 16 of Weimarer Schriften zur Republik (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, ISBN 978-3-515-13152-0), pp. 83–90 (in German)
  8. ^ General Staff, War Office, The German Forces in the Field; 7th Revision, 11th November 1918 (London: Imperial War Museum, and Battery Press, Inc., 1995, ISBN 1-870423-95-X), p. 225
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