Tschapka ready for parade - 2nd Guard Ulan Regiment

[Flyingdutchman]

The 2nd Guards Ulan Regiment (German: Königlich Preußisches 2. Garde-Ulanen Regiment) was a cavalry regiment of the Prussian Army formed in 1819 in Potsdam, Prussia, and served as a Guards regiment garrisoned in Berlin.

By the order of the King Frederick William III of Prussia, the regiment was first formed in 1817.

Prior to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the regiment was garrisoned in Berlin and Charlottenburg, when a new barrack was built in the borough of Berlin-Moabit. Although mostly a reserve guard regiment, the unit was first deployed to break up barricades erected in Berlin during the March Revolution of 1848.

The regiment was first fully deployed for the Austro-Prussian war in 1866, being deployed in Silesia and Bohemia and the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. In France the regiment was initially deployed in Lorraine before moving to assist in the Siege of Paris.

 

Great War

In World War I the regiment was part of the Guards Cavalry Division fighting on the Western Front. After the mobilization the regiment moved through Belgium and was involved in the First Battle of the Marne before the general retreat to Reims where it was under sad feelings of the soldiers dismounted and got involved in trench warfare as well as signalling operations.

By September 1914, the regiment was divided, with 3rd and 4th Squadrons (2nd half-regiment) sent to the 2nd Cavalry Division and the 1st and 2nd Squadrons (1st half-regiment) remaining in the 2nd Guards Infantry Division.

1st half-regiment: On 20 November 1914, it moved into Russian Poland and by August 1915 moved into Vilna, as a part of the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive. By the end of October 1915, the half-regiment was involved in operations in Courland and was involved in the capture of Riga in September 1917. In November 1917, the unit moved back to the Western Front where they remained till the end of the war.

2nd half-regiment remained first on the Western Front and in April 1915 was transferred to Galicia, but soon returned to the Western Front. In 1917 it again returned to the Eastern Front in action around Vilna before returning to the West, where it remained until the end of the war.

After the end of the war, in December 1918 the squadrons reunified and returned to Berlin, where the regiment was demobilized and then dissolved in 1919. The traditions of the regiment were continued by the Reichswehr, within the 4th Squadron of the 4th (Prussian) Reiter-Regiment in Perleberg.

 

The Barracks

The barracks of the 2nd Guards Ulan Regiment were located in the Tiergarten (Berlin-Moabit), Invaliden-street no. 56.  

On the terrain of the former Royal Gunpowder Factory, developed in the 19th century, a military complex consisting a Oberfeuerwerkerschule on the Lehrter Street, an artillery depot with barracks of the 1st Guards Field Artillery Regiment on the Krupp-street, barracks of the 4th Guards Foot Guard Regiment at Rathenower Street and 2nd Guards Ulan at the Invalidenstrasse 56 was built. All these barracks were created between 1846 and 1848 according to a drawing by Friedrich August Stüler in the English style of a castle.

They were designed for four squadrons and had a riding lane and stables for 676 horses, open courts for riding and parade exercises, a blacksmith shop and storage rooms. Between 1879 and 1880, Oskar Appelius (1837-1904) and Gottlieb Henri Richard La Pierre built a red-brick building with a riding lane at Seydlitzstrasse for the addition of a fifth squadron. Further extensions followed in 1890/91, between 1901 and 1910 and 1913/14.

Even after 1918, the barracks were used for military purposes.

1944 units were stationed of the Wachbatallion under their commander Major Ernst Remer (1912-1997), which on 20 July 1944 surrounded the Bendlerblock and contributed to the failure of the conspiracy of the men around Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg.

After 1945 the barracks, badly damaged during the war because of Allied bombardements and the heavy street-fighting in entire Berlin, were used by the Berlin police administration.

In 1955, down-laying of the ruins began, which were not completed until the 1970s. In the late 1970’s the Heinrich Zille settlement was built on the site.

The in 1923 erected monument for the fallen Ulans of the Great War was resettled during the course of demolition work in the newly created Claire-Waldoff-Promenade.

 

The Tschapka

The Tschapka, which originates from the polish word Czapka, featured here, belonged to a One-Year-Volunteer. The Tschapka is ready for parade with the white horse hair plume and the red Rabatte for parade, a colored cloth item in Regimental colours, worn over the neck of Ulan Tschapka and on the breast of Ulan Ulanka (Tunics) for parades.

There is also a reversible camouflage cover with a huge red stripe on one side and the original box for the Tschapka and plume. The photo of the former wearer is also there.

A a scarce set surviving from the times bevor lights went out in Europe, when German cavalry men paraded in full colours, proudly mounted on their horses, through the streets of Berlin.

...

Edited January 21, 2018 by Flyingdutchman

[Trajan]

That is some piece! Can we see the photograph of the former owner?

[Flyingdutchman]

... my pleasure. 

 

[peter monahan]

Gorgeous!  And obviously kept with loving care, or beautifully restored.  I would love to own such a piece of history which is also so asthetically pleasing - at least to a person of my perhaps odd tatstes!

[Stuka f]

Love it too!

 

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Beauty!