Review of 'Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria' by Jonathan Boff (February 2017)

Crown Prince Rupprecht was born in 1869, the eldest son of the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Bavaria (his mother, Maria-Theresa of Austria-Este was the Jacobite pretender to the British throne, being a descendent of the Stuart line). He became the crown prince when his father succeeded to the throne (1913).

Rupprecht joined the Bavarian Army after leaving school and rapidly became identified as an able soldier. A colonel then a major-general by the age of thirty, he was commander of Bavarian 1 Army Corps which became the German Sixth Army in 1914.

Rupprecht’s Sixth Army was involved in the Battle of Lorraine (first week of August 1914), in which the French First and Second Armies attempted to retake Alsace and Lorraine. Initially Rupprecht pulled his army back until the French had over extended their line, then he counter-attacked and pushed the French Army back. Eventually the offensive drew to a stalemate by late August 1914. Rupprech and the German Sixth Army were moved north as part of the ‘Race to the Sea’ in October 1914.The Sixth Army held the line from La Bassée to Armentières and Menin. Attack and counter-attack resulted in little gain and Falkenhayn moved Rupprecht’s artillery and a section of Sixth Army north for the attack on Gheluvelt. Once again, the offensive ended in stalemate.

Rupprercht’s Sixth Army was attacked by both British and French Armies during the Second Battle of Artois (May – June 1915), during which the BEF First Army under Haig attacked at the Aubers Ridge (a costly failure) and Festubert (the German Army was pushed back 3 km) while the French attempted to break through to Vimy Ridge. Rupprecht’s Sixth Army was attacked again by British and French Armies during the Third Battle of Artois (September – November 1915) during which the BEF attacked at Loos and the French once again failed to break through the German line.

At the outbreak of the Battle of the Somme, it was the German Second Army which took the brunt of the attack. The German First Army which had been disbanded in 1915 was recreated and a new army group was created, Army Group Rupprecht with the newly promoted Field Marshall Rupprecht in overall command. This army group was comprised of First, Second, Sixth and Seventh Armies. Rupprecht was to stay in command of this group (with responsibility for the northern battlefields) until the end of war. As such he was the opposite number to Haig until 1918.

Rupprecht kept a diary which he updated each day. This was published in 1924 in three volumes and gives us a clear impression of how Rupprecht viewed the war and how he made his decisions. It is interesting to compare Rupprecht’s view of the Battle of the Somme with Haig’s. Haig believed that the continuation of the battle into the autumn was essential in order to relieve the pressure on the French Army at Verdun. By contrast, Rupprecht felt that the attacks on the French Army were militarily bankrupt and the suspension of further attacks was an inevitable consequence.

Secondly, Haig felt continuing the battle was essential in order to prevent the movement of German troops from one battle field to another. Rupprecht includes many examples of the movement of men freely from one battlefield to another was if this was not a problem.

Thirdly, Haig felt it was essential to wear out the strength and staying power of the German Army by continuing the battle. This time Rupprecht agrees with Haig, he quotes the 33% casualty rate per division, a rate which was demoralising the German Army. Rupprecht felt that the Battle of the Somme had been essential for learning radical changes, in fact it was a ‘hard school’ in which all combinations of attack and defence had to be improved.

His views on the BEF changed as the war progressed. At the beginning, he felt the attempts at attacking in strength were ‘clumsy’. His views changed as the war continued but he recorded a return to ineffectual mass attacks achieving little in 1918. He saw 1917 as a continuation of tactics of attrition and by 1918 he questioned whether Ludendorff’s attacks were going to achieve anything. He went into exile in 1919 after his father’s abdication thus he never became king of Bavaria. He married again in 1921 (his first wife had died in 1912) and was courted by the Nazi party as they suggested he might return to a kingdom but this never happened as Rupprecht and the Nazi leaders, especially Hitler, did not get along.

He went into exile in Italy in 1939 and stayed, mainly in Florence, as the guest of King Victor Emmanuel, his family remaining in Germany. In 1944 his family were arrested (by this time Rupprecht was in hiding) and ended up in concentration camps, being liberated by the US army. At the end of the war he proposed the restoration of the Kingdom of Bavaria but his requests fell on deaf ears.

Rupprecht died in 1955 and was given a full state funeral, as one might expect for a dead monarch, in Munich.

Report by Peter Palmer