Imperial German Army and Navy Officers Research

Have you ever held a military item, be it a medal, sword or maybe a uniform and
thought, I wonder who this item originally belonged to? Maybe you have an Iron Cross
with a named engraved on the back and want to know more about the person. The
purpose of this guide is to review the original source material that is available for
researching Imperial German army and navy officers. There are many benefits to
researching a Germany officer, i.e. authenticating an item, adding value, personal
satisfaction. Where and how do we start researching a name on an Iron Cross, sword,
uniform, document, or almost any other Imperial German military item? Where do we
start; the Imperial German ranklists.

The German Ranklists
The Imperial German army and navy ranklists were published annually starting before
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The ranklists are in old German type. This is slightly
different than English typeset and a translation sheet is available on the Internet. A
German ranklist is a list of active, reserve and Landwehr (national guard) army or navy
officers, by unit. The ranklist details an individual officer's rank, date of rank, and
decorations, although not all of them. The ranklists also detail the army organization
from army corps down to infantry regiment. Navy ranklists list ships and ships officers
as well as the above officer's details. An officer's information can be looked up by his
unit, if it is know, or by his name through the name index at the back of the ranklist.
Before we explore what information the ranklists contain, we need to discuss how the
German army was organized.

Often the term Prussian army and German army are used interchangeably. This is not
correct. Although the Prussian army was by far the largest component of the German
Army, it was not the only component. The Imperial German Army was comprised of
four individual armies that were administered separately, although in time of war the
Prussians and German Kaiser commanded the German Army. The four individual armies
were from the German kingdoms of Prussia, Wurttemberg, Saxony, and Bavaria. Why is
this important? Since each kingdom had their own army, which was subordinate to the
Prussian Army and Kaiser, and since each kingdom administered their individual army,
then each army published a ranklist for their own officers! For any given year there are
five ranklists; Prussian, Wurttemberg, Saxon, Bavarian, and Navy! Luckily, after 1894,
the Wurttemberg ranklist is published with the Prussian ranklist, although Wurttemberg
did continue to publish their own ranklist. The Bavarian ranklist is titled, not ranklist, but
Bavarian Militar-Handbuch. The formal German title for each ranklist is listed below.
For the sake of brevity I will just refer to each book as ranklist.

Rangliste der Koniglich Prussischen Armee und des XIII. (Koniglich Wurttemberg)
ArmeeKorps
Rangliste der Kaiserlich Deutschen Marine
Militar-Handbuch des Konigreich Bayern
Rangliste der Koniglich Sachsen Armee

There were no wartime army ranklists published. The Navy did publish a ranklist in
1916 and 1918 with wartime awards, more on this later. So how can we get information
about an officer's wartime service? The answer is the Honor Ranklists.

The German Army Officers Association published the Honor Ranklist of the German
Army 1914-1918 (Ehren Rangliste Heeres 1914 -1918) in 1926. It details an officer's
wartime assignment, final rank and death date/location if applicable. It also is inclusive
of all the German Kingdons; Prussia, Wurttemberg, Saxony and Bavaria. The Army
Honor Ranklist lists active officers only, no reserve or landwehr officers. The German
Navy Officers Association also published an Honor Ranklist 1914-1918 (Ehrenrangliste
der Deuschen Marine) in 1930. It details the organization, ships' and personal of the
Germany navy. Although none of the German kingdoms published a wartime ranklist,
Prussia did publish a seniority list (Dienstalters-Liste der Offiziere der Koniglich
Prussichen Armee und des XIII (Koniglich Wurttembergischen) ArmeeKorps) for each
of the years 1917, 1918 and 1919. The seniority list is in rank and branch (i.e. infantry,
artillery) order. It lists an active officers' name, pre-war unit and date of rank, and the
date their commissioning date. Seniority Lists do not list awards. The 1919 list is useful
to determine an officer's final rank before retirement. The German navy did publish a
ranklist in 1916 and 1918 with wartime awards and information.

The Deutscher Ordens-Almanach
While the Deutscher Ordens-Almanach (DOA) or German Orders Almanac is not a
ranklist, it is a very useful source for researching Imperial German army and navy
officers. The DOA was a vanity press publication in that Germans paid to have their
name, awards, and personal information published. The listings are arranged
alphabetically. It was published in 1903 and then again in 1909. The 1909 edition is the
most extensive. The DOA was not limited to military personal. Anyone who wished to
pay could be listed. A person would usually list their title or rank, date, and place of
birth and awards. The amount they would be charged for their listing depended upon the
length of the listing, so some people did not list all of their awards or maybe they did not
list their first name. It was up to the person to determine what they listed

Building a Research Library
If we are to research Imperial German World War I officers we need, at a minimum, the
following ranklists:

Prussian/Wurttemberg 1914 Ranklist - $60.00 to $80.00 (1)
Saxon and Bavarian 1914 Army Ranklists - $100.00 to $150.00 each (3)
Navy 1914 and 1918 Ranklists - $100.00 - $150.00 (2)
Prussian Army 1919 Seniority List - $50.00 to $75.00 (1)
Army Honor Ranklist - $200.00 to $300.00 (3)
Navy Honor Ranklist - $300.00 to $400.00 (4)

Unfortunately these eight books range in price from $60.00 to $400.00. The availability
of the books range from 1 - easy to find to 4 - very hard to find. Using an Internet book
search engine, I am able to determine that not many of these books are available in the
USA. They are mostly available in German and shipping from Germany to the USA is
expensive. If we are to build a research library of ranklists, we could expect to spend
over $1200. The German Orders Almanac 1908/08 (DOA) is extremely difficult to find
and can price upwards of $500.00!

Fortunately, one enterprising individual has seen fit to scan these eight ranklists on to
CD in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. This is the same format that Google is using for their
book-scanning project. PDF format is a worldwide standard and Adobe Acrobat Reader
is a free download from Adobe. Also available on CD are several Prussian, Saxon,
Bavarian Army ranklists and Navy Ranklists from the Boxer Rebellion (1899) period to
research German Army and Navy officers that served in China. For more information
about and pricing of the ranklists on CD, email ranglisteoncd @ optonline . net