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The Jäger Movement (Finnish: Jääkäriliike) consisted of volunteers from Finland who trained in Germany as Jägers during World War I. Supported by Germany to enable the creation of a Finnish sovereign state, the movement was one of many means by which Germany intended to weaken Russia and to cause Russia's loss of its western provinces and dependencies.
History
A plaque at Liisankatu 17 in Helsinki: ‘The secret Jäger recruitment center "Helsinki Forest Bureau" operated in this building in 1915.’
The recruitment of volunteers from the Grand Duchy of Finland was clandestine and dominated by German-influenced circles, such as university students and the Finnish upper middle class. The recruitment was however in no way exclusive.[citation needed] In all, over 1,100 volunteers are estimated to have "slipped off" to train in Germany.[1]
The recruits were most often clandestinely transported across Finland's western border via Sweden to Germany, where they were formed into the Royal Prussian27th Jäger Battalion. The Jäger Battalion fought in the ranks of the German Army from 1916 in the battles on the northern flank of the eastern front.
Finnish Jägers parading at the town square of Vaasa 1918.
After the outbreak of the Civil War in Finland the Jägers were engaged on the "White" anti-communist side in the war and formed the nucleus of the new Finnish Army. In Finland, these 2,000 volunteers were simply called the Jägers (Finnish pl. Jääkärit).
Their contribution to the White victory was crucial, not least through improving morale. Having been professionally trained in Germany, many were also the best candidates to assume command over the untrained troops of the Civil War.
Immediately after the Civil War, they were allowed to use the word Jäger in their military ranks. Many of the Jägers continued their military careers. In the 1920s a long feud between officers with Jäger-background and Finnish officers who had served in the Russian Imperial army was concluded in favor of the Jägers. Most of the commanders of army corps, divisions, and regiments in the Winter War were Jägers. The Jäger March composed by Jean Sibelius for the words written by Jäger Heikki Nurmio, was the honorary march of many army detachments.
Timeline
17 November 1914 – In the press of the Grand Duchy of Finland, the so-called Great Russification Program is published.
Ostrobothnia house in Helsinki, Töölönkatu 320 November 1914 – The Jäger Movement begins when a group of student activists gather at the Ostrobotnia House in Helsinki. The Russification Program is regarded as a major threat that would practically abolish the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland, making Finland just another province of the Russian Empire. It is decided to acquire both weapons and training from abroad in order to separate Finland from Russia.
25 February 1915 – The first group of volunteer Jägers arrives in Germany at the Lockstedt camp for training.
26 August 1915 – A separate unit is established in Germany for Finnish Jägers. The number of recruits increases significantly.
The Jäger conflict derived from rising tensions (short of armed conflict) between German-influenced Jägers and politicians who looked to Germany as their ally on one side, and the faction centered on former Russian General and Finnish Commander-in-Chief Baron Gustaf Mannerheim on the other side. The Mannerheim side was oriented towards an alliance with Sweden, which remained neutral during the war but which was opposed to Russia, and with which Finland shared its history up to 1809. Mannerheim, who was from a Finland Swedish family, was respected among Finns, Russians, and Swedes alike. Baron Mannerheim and some of the Swedish-speaking officers of the Finnish army left Finland as a direct consequence of this conflict, as the Finnish senate elected a German prince as King of Finland and would have made Finland a monarchy. However, the kingdom was never realized beyond this election; and when World War I ended and the German Kaiser fled, the nascent Finnish monarchy was replaced by a republic, whereupon Baron Mannerheim returned.[citation needed]
