Hans von Manteuffel-Szoege
Hans Freiherr von Manteuffel-SzoegeBaltic Landeswehr strike-troop commander who led the Liepāja coup and fell at Riga
In the assault on Riga he led a small detachment across the Daugava bridge toward the citadel holding hundreds of anti-Bolshevik prisoners; he fell in the charge, but his men reached the citadel and freed them.
A Baltic German baron from Courland who fought as a Bavarian uhlan officer in the First World War, he became a staff officer and strike-troop commander of the Baltic Landeswehr in 1919. On 16 April he led the Liepāja coup against the Ulmanis government, and on 22 May he was killed at twenty-five in the attack that retook Riga from the Red Army.
Career timeline
- 1913Read law at Heidelberg University
- 1914Volunteered for the 2nd Bavarian Uhlan Regiment; served on the Western and Eastern fronts
- 1915Promoted to lieutenant
- 1917Company commander, 18th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, Western front
- 1919.01Took command of the Baltische Landeswehr shock troops
- 1919.04Led the coup that toppled the Ulmanis government at Liepāja