Life Guards (Prussia)

The Garde du Corps was the personal bodyguard of the king of Prussia and after 1871, the German emperor (in German: Kaiser). It was founded in 1740 by Frederick the Great with Friedrich von Blumenthal as its first commander. He died suddenly in 1745, but his brother Hans, who, with the other officers of the regiment had won the Pour le Mérite at its first action at Hohenfriedberg, assumed command in 1747. Hans von Blumenthal was wounded leading the regiment in a successful cavalry charge at Lobositz and had to retire from the army. Initially the regiment was used partly as a training ground for officers as part of a programme of expansion of the cavalry. Early officers included the rake and memoirist von Trenck, who describes the arduous life of sleep deprivation and physical stress endured by officers, as well as the huge cost of belonging. The Cuirasses, for example, were silver-plated.

Unlike the rest of the Imperial German Army, the Garde du Corps was recruited nationally and eventually reached a full corps strength.