[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] conscription age

[Paul Rakow]

Dick Benert wrote: 

> Was your Luis Gruenke possibly still a German subject?  If already a Russian
> subject, did he have dual "citizenship"?  In either case, he might have been
> obligated to serve in the Prussian army.  Of course, he may have felt
> patriotic, too!
> 
> Dick B.

 Dick, 

     That's a good question. I think that at the time, 1870, the
 Gruenkes thought they were still Prussian subjects, and not Russian.
 In 1873 Luis's father Ludwig wrote a long letter back to the
 authorities in Germany, asking for a certificate that he was still a
 Prussian citizen. He pointed out that his first son Luis had been in
 the German army,
    "In the year 1870 our Fatherland was threatened with war by France,
 and the high consul appealed to all the Fatherland's children in Volhynia.
 So I sent my eldest son Luis to Prussia, as he had just reached the
 military age."  

    He also promised that his other four sons would also "fulfil their
 duty to the Fatherland" as soon as they were old enough. However, after
 passing Ludwig's application from office to office for about 6 months,
 the bureaucrats eventually turned him down, and wrote back telling
 him he wasn't a German subject any more. 

              Paul Rakow
               rakow at ifh.de

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Rakow" <rakow at ifh.de>
> To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 2:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] conscription age
> 
> 
> >
> >  Dick,
> >
> >     I know that two of my great-uncles were in the Czar's army in WWI,
> > one spent the War in Vladivostok, and one on the Turkish front, so
> > neither were sent to fight directly against Germany. I've always thought
> > that that was rather considerate on the part of the Russian command.
> >
> >     Since you are asking about which land had the GRs loyalty, I also
> > have an example of loyalty to Prussia lasting a long time after emigration.
> > When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, my great-grandfather
> > Luis Gruenke travelled back from Liske in Volhynia to Bromberg, and
> > enlisted in the Prussian army, even though his ancestors had left
> > Prussia by 1820.  I confess that when I first heard from relatives
> > that Luis had been in the German army in 1870 I was a little sceptical,
> > I thought there might be a muddle between the Kaiser and the Czar, but
> > I've confirmed this by finding records of his service in Berlin. The
> > elderly aunts really do know what they're talking about.
> >
> >        Paul Rakow
> >        rakow at ifh.de
> >