Foreign legions and German grand strategy: A comparative analysis of the symbiotic relationship between foreign nationalists and Imperial Germany 1914-1918

This dissertation aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the joint endeavours of the German Empire and foreign nationalists to establish military units which were meant to facilitate the break-up of imperial rule in the Russian and British colonial peripheries. The internal mechanisms, structures, and outcomes of these initiatives have generally been overshadowed by more familiar, and more accessible events of the Great War, leading to incomplete and sometimes distorted conceptions of these obscure legion projects. By investigating and comparing core features of three of these legions, the Irish Brigade, the Finnish Jägers, and the Georgian Legion, I am going to identify underlying patterns and points of friction, which in turn reveal aspects of German strategical planning and demonstrate how theoretical considerations of grand strategy played out in the tangible realities of the foreign and German actors involved. My research findings further suggest that foreign elements were not simply exploited by their German partners, but that the foreign nationalists were often able to safeguard their own interests through a subtle understanding of internal German processes and relations, as well as by being confident allies, which knew when and when not to disagree. By understanding these joint endeavours as symbiotic, rather than as exploitative projects, the dissertation will highlight the convergence of foreign and German visions of the post-war order. Uncovering the flawed implementation of said endeavours will furthermore contribute to dismiss the popular, yet false perception of Germany’s revolutionary mastermind strategy, often named the ‘Programme for Revolution’, by deconstructing both the successes, but mainly the failures of one of its core offshoots.