'THE MEN BEHIND THE SCOPE' - GERMAN SNIPERS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR, PART 2
'THE MEN BEHIND THE SCOPE' - GERMAN SNIPERS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR, PART 2
The men behind the scope
(…) Some of the Russians are lying 50 metres opposite us. On the country house, which is on our flank, they sit on the roof and fire at us. Artillery helps, shoots and sets the house on fire the next day. A dangerous undertaking for us as well as for the Russians, because at a distance of 30 metres, 21 centimetres can easily hit our trench as well. For once, everything goes smoothly. Three hits and a huge lance of flame shoots upwards into the sky and turns night into day. Unfortunately, we suffered heavy losses. But we took revenge. I often lay there for half an hour with a telescopic sight at the ready until some Siberian in a lambskin hat came across my sights. I put a bullet into three of those. You just start shooting as if you were looking at a roebuck. The thought that he is also a human being, that he has a wife and child at home, always comes too late. -
Landwehrmann Wilhelm Enz, Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment 21, March 1915, collection of transcribed field post letters, private collection [Franz Enz, Gera]
When planning this series, I quickly realised that there is little value in trying to write a comprehensive history of Germany’s ‘scoped-rifle marksmen’ of the First World War, as the sources which would be required for such an undertaking are just not available. Instead the modern historian is looking at a thin, layer of fragmented information found in archives, regimental histories and in surviving personal accounts. There are just too many holes in this historical patchwork quilt, and it is doubtful that these can ever be darned. As such, this series, of which there will be a third and a fourth part, can only serve as a basis for future research, help to rid the world of some of the mythology surrounding the subject and move the German sniper into the visor of future historians. In the first part of this series, we have looked at the history, composition and tactics of the German ‘scoped-rifle marksmen’ of the First World War. In this second part I will introduce some of the men behind the scopes, share their words and what has been written about them.
As mentioned in the first part of the series, unlike successful German airmen and U-Boat commanders, snipers never became a subject of public heroisation. Their portraits, names and martial achievements were never printed on postcards and they didn’t feature in the press. Just as on the battlefield, they remained hidden and out of sight:
(…) enclosed you will find a small photography which shows the best shot of our battalion. He is a huntsman from Oberfell. In this hunting attire he goes out in search of prey. He has recently been decorated with the Iron Cross. I am mentally content and my ear has almost healed. I am happy that the children are behaving well and follow my advice (…) - Musketier Wilhelm Junker, Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 28, 30 March 1915
HUNTSMEN FROM BAVARIA
Two ‘telescope-rifle marksmen’ however came to the attention of the German public during the early stages of the war. Both served the Royal Bavarian Army and both, in their civilian life, had had experienced run-ins with the law for poaching.
The noble ‘Wildschütz’
The development of modern hunting rights is directly linked to the relatively modern idea of exclusive private property of land. In Bavaria, not different from the rest of Europe, from the late medieval age up to our time, restrictions on hunting and shooting rights were enforced by official gamekeepers and foresters. They denied shared usages of forests and the peasant's right to hunt and fish, while the sole right to hunt freely remained in the hands of the nobility. However, comparably easy access to firearms increasingly allowed peasants and servants to poach by the end of the 18th century. This interfered not only with the law of the land and property rights but clashed directly with the power of the nobility. In the remote alpine highlands of Bavaria and the Tyrol, poaching was a necessity for many. Poor, hard working and often cut off from the rest of the world by ice and snow, the men of the small village communities climbed up into the mountains and forests to shoot game for survival. This was well known and the state did its utmost to end it. During the years between 1822 and 1848 more than 2000 men (!) were killed in Bavaria in skirmishes between poachers and foresters. Reform of hunting law in 1849 limited legal hunting to those rich enough to be able to pay the hunting fees and led to disappointment in the rural population which had hoped to see their rights reestablished in the wake of the Revolution of 1848. Illegal poaching continued while the poachers themselves, often distributing cuts of their prey to the poor and needy, gained rising praise and support in the population. In southern Germany and Austria, a romantic cult formed around the gallant poacher, or the ‘Wildschütz’, who took on the might of King and State while playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the law. In the Alpine region the Wildschütz, not to be confused with the low, dishonourable and greedy ‘Wilderer’, honoured the rules of the hunt, showed respect to his prey, took from the rich and gave to the poor. Criminals by official standard, they often reached saintly status among the rural alpine population.
Whereas the deeds of wartime snipers might not have been considered honourable enough to make room for them in the publications of the day, in Bavaria and southern Germany at least, the romantic, heroic image of the noble Wildschütz, was powerful enough to turn two men into heroes as soon as they had fired their first shots.
GEORG HERRNREITER
‘There are tales about a man of the Bavarian regiment “Kronprinz”, who distinguished himself through his most successful and specialised work on the French front. His fame reaches far, turning him into a kind of mystical being. Like all heroes, he is a man of little words, yet unlike most heroes, he has the physique of a bear. Truly handsome he certainly isn’t, with his sharp, not really indulgent eyes, his short neck and his blond war-beard. I for one would not like to stand in his way when he is on the trail of a good six-pointer and if I’d be a forest warden. He made a name for himself at Lihons, where much good German and even more good Kronprinz-blood has been shed. He was annoyed about some French sitting in the crowns of the trees taking potshots at our brave men below. “I can do that too” he said, climbed up a tree about 200 metres in front of our lines and began to work. And he worked well, 48 confirmed and witnessed direct hits he scored so far and I am happy to believe he will score 120, maybe even 150. He shot everything that was worth shooting: officers, cyclists, patrols, artillery horses. With eyes like a hawk he had a talent of spotting enemy artillery positions. He even tried his luck with map sketching. I would like to see these works, drawn by a clumsy farmer’s hand, in the army museum. Not long until the French got to know about him. At one time they shot his rifle to pieces, then a shot through his trouser pocket, close to where he carried his dagger, and finally they honoured him by shelling his tree: “That made me quickly slip down onto a branch on the third floor”. Yet he didn’t climb down and they failed to hit him. That way Herrnreiter spent his weeks, from the morning at first light, until the dusk when the lights went out. Then he climbed down and walked back to his company, or to the garden which was home to the regimental staff and sat down in the small kitchen, next to a small stove, all quiet and drinking his coffee. Never bragging, because he is a quiet hero. Only when one asks him about his day's work will he get a brief, factual and eloquent reply like this: “today I got three”. He will shortly be decorated with the Iron Cross.’ - Liller Kriegszeitung, October 1914.
The above is one of the first descriptions of a man who would achieve near legendary status not only in the Kingdom of Bavaria, but throughout Germany. Herrnreiter was born in Reisbach near Dingolfing in Bavaria in May 1891 and was in employment as an earth worker when the war broke out. He joined the 2. Bayerisches Infanterie Regiment on 8 August 1914 only a month later he had laid the foundation stone of his reputation as a sniper. Strapping himself into the crowns of trees or firing from the undergrowth with a scoped civilian hunting rifle he raked up an impressive score in a very short period of time. On 15 October 1914 he was decorated with the Prussian Iron Cross 2nd Class and at the end of November with the highest gallantry award his home kingdom, Bavaria, had to bestow, the Golden Military Merit Medal, also known as the Golden Bravery Medal. The citation reads:
‘On 26 September 1914, Gefreiter Herrnreiter, of 3rd company, 2. b. Inf. Reg, volunteered to take up a sentry position in a tree, from which he successfully shot everything alive, whatever valuable target showed itself in the trench ahead and further on towards Lihons, while at the same time delivering valuable reports about the proceedings on the French side. Day after day, during the whole time in which his regiment was in positions at Lihons, from 26 September to 15 October 1914, he moved into his position and held it, keeping up his fire, even though he was continuously shot at by individual fire, whole fusilades and with artillery shells. Even though he was wounded by a grazing shot, two rifles were shot to pieces in his hands and a third was heavily damaged. He shot down a mass of foes, reported enemy artillery positions and guided our own artillery’s fire onto them.’
In the Winter of 1915/1916, the “Kronprinz” Regiment clung to a series of muddy, lose positions on the far eastern slopes of Vimy Ridge. On 28 January 1916, following great mine detonations under the French lines. a great attack was launched in which the Bavarians took a 2 kilometre long stretch of trenches and 340 prisoners. The following night Georg Herrnreiter, who during his career had carefully picked his victims before dealing out death, fell to the great, undiscriminating mass killer of the First World War, when he was hit by a shell splinter.
‘Munich: Painful regret has been caused by the news of the death of Gefreiter Georg Herrnreiter, one of the best shots of the Bavarian Army, a simple worker from the governmental district of Lower Bavaria. He was not only a cold-blooded master marksman, about whom we reported when he had bagged his 86th Frenchman, he was also an audacious soldier, much valued by his superiors. It is well known that every person in Bavaria knows his name, that a lot has been written about him and that in addition to the Iron Cross, he holds several other awards. Once he was allowed to review his regiment standing next to his General and it is said that the feast which followed and which had been paid for by his regiment’s officers he preferred to consume Bavarian beer and snuff tobacco instead of expensive Champagne. In Herrnreiter there lived a piece of the hero Siegfried and with it the firm belief in his own indestructibility.’
His comrades memorialised him in the regimental history which was published in 1924:
‘A true hero was Gefreiter Herrnreiter, the old Bavarian poacher, who was killed near Neuville. He is dead, but his memory lives on in the ranks of the regiment. His comrades thought him bullet-proof, as he faced each projectile directed at him with a smile. Deeds of honour have been performed by him and long has he been wearing both crosses, the Prussian and the Bavarian, on his chest. When the 2. Infanterie-Regiment was still in a different sector of the front (Vermandovillers), the old and experienced poacher and hunter built himself a hunting seat in the crown of a lonely tree, and he remained up there while it kept whistling and howling around him, over a course of many days and whatever they threw at him, they could not get him. Since the time in his elevated position above the French positions he has felled 121 enemies with his telescope sight equipped rifle. Wherever patrols had to be conducted, Herrnreiter was there. It wasn’t possible to promote him to the rank of Unteroffizier. not because of his civilian criminal register, but because his rather simple grade of education didn’t allow it. When the glorious soldier had again proven himself in combat and when he was decorated with the Golden Bravery Medal in the old French barracks at Peronne, his regiment granted him an honour which has remained unique ever since. The whole regiment paraded past the Gefreiter Herrnreiter. When it was over Herrnreiter remarked: “Well I have seen better parade marches”
Georg Herrnreiter, holder of the Prussian Iron Cross 2nd Class (15 October 1914), the Bavarian Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with Swords (22 January 1916) and the Bavarian Golden Military Merit Medal (30. November 1914), is buried in the German Military Cemetery of Neuville St. Vaast, Block 2, Grave 196.
‘For more than a year now, a dangerous subject in the person of the shoemaker Georg Mühlberger has been prowling around the communities of Pittenhart, Amerang, Hollwang and Halsing, which belong to the border areas of the districts of Rosenheim, Wasserburg and Traunstein, and has so far masterfully managed to evade the persecutions of the inadequate security organisations. Mühlberger, who is wanted by the public prosecutor's office in Traunstein for numerous offences, was given the honourable nickname 'Radlschuster' (bicycle cobbler) by the population because of his numerous bicycle thefts, feeds only on the proceeds of his burglary thefts and the commercial poaching he practises day and night at all times of the year. A reward of 200 marks was offered for his arrest, but all in vain. If the authorities do not soon take vigorous measures to apprehend this man, the following months may bring unpleasant surprises. The 'Radlschuster' is already surrounded by the nimbus of a folk hero, and it does not seem impossible that the criminal, hounded like a deer, will simply shoot down the next gendarme or huntsman, in the event of a sharp encounter. Mühlberger is more than abundantly provided with hawkers and people who give him quarters, which makes his arrest extremely difficult. In the sparsely populated area and the countless natural hiding places, it is impossible for the four gendarmerie stations, each with two men, to get hold of the shoemaker in the miles of territory. It is now finally time to provide the officers, who have already been subjected to general ridicule, with productive support. - Rosenheimer Anzeiger, 12 February 1912
GEORG MÜHLBERGER - THE BROKEN HERO
Georg (Josef) Mühlberger had reached a near mythical status in the Chiemgau region in Upper Bavaria, even before the start of the war. Born in Pollersham on 29 July 1880 he learned the trade of a shoemaker and had started poaching in his late teens. He did compulsory military service between 1901 and 1903
. There is no room here to tell the stories that exist about him; suffice to say that within a decade he made a name for himself as a skilful and cunning poacher, who assisted those in need and who had a highly successful track record of evading the law. In addition he was known to be a regular instigator of fierce brawls in the local taverns and guest houses. By 1912 however, when the government and some local landowners placed a bounty of 400 Marks on his head, about 4-5 times of what the average worker could earn in a month, the noose around Mühlberger was tightening, at which point he disappeared from the face of the earth.News on his whereabouts first became known shortly before Christmas 1914, when the following was published in a side column of a local newspaper:
‘News from a Bavarian poacher. News about a man who is well known in the whole of the Inn and Chiemgau regions, the shoemaker Georg Mühlberger arrived from France in a letter addressed to his cousin Johann Mühlberger, farmer in Ried. It appears that the once feared poacher, who is now a war volunteer, has been awarded the Iron Cross and the Bravery Medal for his heroic deeds in enemy territory when during an assault he shot dead or disabled 50 Frenchmen.’
Chased by the law, Mühlberger had fled across the border into Switzerland, where under a false name he had taken up work as a shoemaker. When the world erupted into flames in the summer of 1914, he had made his way back to Bavaria, volunteering for service and joining the ranks of the Bavarian 12. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment.
Only about 3 months later, he found himself with the regiment in the Artois, in France, in positions which would soon become known as the ‘Labyrinth’, an infamous maze of trenches located between Neuville-Saint-Vaast and Écurie (Pas-de-Calais). It was there, on 24 November 1914, where Mühlberger became a national hero.
‘The shoemaker Georg Mühlberger from Prien on Lake Chiemsee, known as "Radlschuster" [lit: ‘bicycle cobbler’, see explanation furher down] by the people, made the whole of Upper Bavaria unsafe in recent years to such an extent that a bounty of 400 marks was finally offered for his capture. He disappeared one and a half years ago. During his disappearance he was a hunting attendant in Tyrol under a false name. When war broke out, the Radlschuster was on hand. He came to Belgium and was soon in the front line trenches. A battalion of a Bavarian reserve infantry regiment, which earned the name of the 'iron battailon', was to take a trench. The leader asked who would like to go forward as shield bearers, sharpshooters, etc. The whole group, all land soldiers, volunteer. Then a man who had been listening from a foxhole asked: "Herr Leutnant, may I join in too? I'm a poacher and I'm not a bad shot! His request is granted, of course. Then the men report to the battalion commander. He says to Mühlberger: "So you're a poacher?" - "Yes, Herr Hauptmann, 400 marks are offered for me!" In the afternoon the attack is launched. Mühlberger is assigned as a sniper to cover the shield bearers. Since the trench barricade over which he is to shoot is an obstacle, he climbs up it and, standing free, shoots down 45 Frenchmen in the fiercest enemy fire. He himself was only slightly wounded. The Iron Cross and the medal for bravery are the poacher's reward. Hopefully, after the campaign, a forester will be found who will guide this dashing fellow's passion for the hunt into a legal direction. - Deutsche Jägerzeitung, January 1915
The citation for the award of the Bavarian Golden Military Merit Medal, supports the more elaborate and dramatic account of the Jägerzeitung, although the number of Mühlberger’s victims is lower: “
‘During the trench fighting near Ecurie at Arras the 9th company of b.Res.Inf.Rgt 12 already held possession of a line of French trenches and was now supposed to take the other half as well. Yet a well positioned sniper of the Chasseurs d’Alpine makes every further advance impossible, having already shot dead 11 of our men within two days. When he was finally taken out on 25 November 1914, he was immediately replaced by another. This one was quickly silenced by Mühlberger firing over the parapet. The way being clear for a brief moment, some courageous men charge forward. To support them Mühlberger climbs onto the parapet and shoots no less than 25 Frenchmen, including one officer, dead. This deed greatly aided the advance of his comrades.’ [published in Bayerns Goldenes Ehrenbuch, 1928]
However many French soldiers had fallen victim to the precision fire of the ‘Radlschuster’, the story itself went viral in the south German press, turning the poacher into a hero, and instantly clearing his substantial criminal record.
Mühlberger’s story continued on unusual lines. In June 1915 he was released from hospital after being wounded in the head by a shell splinter. Briefly transferred to the replacement battalion of the German Alpine Corps, where he received official sniper training in the use of the scoped rifle. Briefly returning to the front, he surfaces briefly in the news for having 'shot down marching column of 14 Frenchmen'. On 5 September 1915, on leave in Gehering, Mühlberger visited a tavern and got into a brawl with some of the locals. In the skirmish which followed one of them, a farmhand by the name of Sebastian Mühlbauer drew a dagger and stabbed the ‘Radlschuster’ several times in the arms and chest. Patched up by the tavernkeeper and his wife, he was immediately taken into hospital in Rosenheim.
After hospitalisation, as a convalescent, Mühlberger rotated through various replacement formations and finally appears again in June 1916 as a member of Ballonzug 261 of Luftschiffer-Abteilung 66b, a balloon observer unit of the German Air Force, a rather uncommon change, possibly fostered by the fact, that his health didn’t allow him to serve as an infantryman anymore.
The after-effects of the stabbing attack, ultimately led to his discharge from the army on 17 April 1918. A brief handwritten note in his service files states: ‘Order Number 49349, 1st Bavarian Army Corps, Temporarily released from service to take up work duties as gamekeeper to Baron Cramer-Klett, Forestry Office Hohenaschau, until 1 August 1918.’ - The Radlschuster was going home, to protect the game in the forests owned by the powerful Chiemgau landowner Baron Cramer-Klett. A territory in which he had illegaly hunted before the war.
People in the region are still familiar with the stories of the old poacher Mühlberger, who became a war hero and, if one bought him a beer in the tavern, used to tell stories about his martial and poaching exploits. Yet he never settled into a normal civilian life, or even that of a law-abiding citizen, he regularly got into fights and was not rarely taken into custody for causing mayhem when drunk. As such it comes to no surprise that when a local poacher was fatally shot and left to bleed to death on the forest floor, that Mühlberger - though not guilty - became the prime suspect. Slowly but surely what little remained of his standing in society and his sanity crumbled away. Pressured by the events Baron Cramer-Klett was forced to relieve Mühlberger from his duties, yet not without finding new employment as a state forester for his former adversary and now good friend.
Whether by defiance, need or boredom is hard to say, but Mühlberger’s tale ends in 1921, when he shot several Alpine Roebuck without permission and was again charged for poaching. Subsequently he took his family, wife and children and simply disappeared, never to be seen again.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 3 OF THIS SERIES
Where we will be taking another look at the organisation of the Germany’s scoped rifle marksmen.
In 1903 local newspapers listed Mühlberger in a list of deserters, but he seemingly was only absent (without permission) for a short period, as his surviving military records fail to mention it.
This had already been the second time Mühlberger had been attacked with a knife. In 1902 he had been delivering milk in Rosenheim, when he was insulted by a man on the street. The 22-year old Mühlberger retaliated by striking the man with his whip. The man’s brother then joined the fray and together with his sibling pulled Mühlberger off his cart, pushed him down on the cobbles and, while kneeling on him, the two stabbed him several times with their daggers, inflicting six shallow cuts and several deep piercing wounds.
Very interesting and rich in information, well done!
This is really good stuff. Huzzah!