From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Gardes du Corps (Prussia)
Gardes du Corps (Prussia)
commander was Friedrich von Blumenthal, who died un-
expectedly in 1745; his brother Hans von Blumenthal,
who, with the other officers of the regiment had won the
Pour le Mérite in its first action at the battle of Hohenfried-
berg, assumed command in 1747. Hans von Blumenthal
was badly wounded leading the regiment in a successful
cavalry charge in the battle of Lobositz and had to retire
from the military.
Initially, the Regiment was used in part as a training
unit for officers as part of a programme of expansion of
the cavalry. Early officers included the rake and mem-
oirist Friedrich von der Trenck, who described the ardu-
Gardes du Corps from 1740 to 1926 ous life of sleep deprivation and physical stress endured
by officers, as well as the huge cost of belonging to the
unit (the cuirasses, for example, were silverplated at a
time when the precious metal was exceptionally expen-
sive).
Unlike the rest of the Imperial German Army after
German unification in 1871, the Garde du Corps was re-
cruited nationally and was part of the 1st Guards Cavalry
Division. The Regiment wore a white cuirassier uniform
with certain special distinctions in full dress. These in-
cluded a red tunic for officers in court dress and a white
metal eagle poised as if about to rise from the bronze hel-
met on which it sat. Other unique features of the regi-
ment’s full dress worn until 1914 included a red sleeve-
Officers of the Prussian Gardes du Corps, wishing to provoke less supraweste (survest) with the star of the Order of the
war, ostentatiously sharpen their swords on the steps of the Black Eagle on front and back and the retention of black
French embassy in Berlin in the autumn of 1805. iron cuirasses edged with red which had been present-
ed by the Russian Tsar in 1814. These last replaced the
The Gardes du Corps (Regiment der Gardes du Corps) was normal white metal breastplates on certain special occa-
the personal bodyguard of the king of Prussia and, after sions.
1871, of the German emperor (in German, the Kaiser). The
unit was founded in 1740 by Frederick the Great. Its first
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Categories:
• Military units and formations established in 1740
• Units and formations of the Prussian Army
• Royal Guards
• Guards regiments
• Cavalry regiments of Germany
• German military stubs
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