The old station on the border of Belgium and Germany (picture: wikipedia)

The site where the station used to be is on the right side of this picture, where the trees are.

(picture: wikipedia)

August 5 - München

Hitler’s request to join the German army is granted. He reports to the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment but he is transfered to the 1th batalion of Reserve Infanterie Regiment 16 (List regiment) of the 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment  in München.

August 16 - München

Hitler joins the army. His training takes place at the Exerzierplatz of the Türkenkaserne and on the Oberwiesenfeld.

October 8 – München

Ceremonial farewell at the Türkenkaserne, with the king present. Hitler was probably there.

October 9 – München

Hitler completes his basic training in München.

October 10 – March to Lechfeld

The 1st battalion marches to Lechfeld for fight training: through the Landsbergerstrasse - Pasing – Gilching (first day) – Türkenfeld (second day). Another source mentions the route through: Alling (a village West of München, where Hitler was said to have been spending the night in a stable) and Türkenfeld (also West of München), where they spent the night outside) Having reached Lechfeld, company 1 and 2 spent the night at Kloster Lechfeld.

October 17 – Lechfeld

Hitler completes his supplementary military training at Lager Lechfeld, Bayern.

MÜNCHEN (GERMANY)

The former Elisabethschule in München (picture: the Hitlerpages, 2016)

Türkenkaserne (Prinz-Arnulf-Kaserne)

Location: Türkenstrasse, in front of the Pinakothek der Moderne

Today: Only the gate, the so called Türkentor, is still there. It’s a small museum now.

On October 8, 1914 a ceremonial farewell of Hitler’s regiment took place at the Türkenkaserne,  with the Bavarian king  Ludwig present. Hitler must have been there too, but there’s no prove real proof of it.

The second batallion of the List regiment at the Türkenkaserne before the war

(picture: Solleder, 1932)

The Kasernenhof Leibregiment

Was this the Türkenkaserne?

(picture: Solleder, 1932)

October 20 – November 22 - First Battle of Ieper

The Battle of Ieper was a large German offensive in Belgium and France: from Bethune (France) to the coast of Belgium. Hitler’s Regiment took part in that battle.

October 27/28 – At night the troops march towards the front.

They spent the night somewhere in a castle park. Another night in that period was spent in a ruined farm.

RIR 16 marched to the front (through Cheval Blanche and La Vigne to Comines). Route: Lille, Place du Concert (where the different companies gather) – through the north of Lille (near Marquette, the industrial part of Lille) – Cheval blanc – Le Beau Chène, where they eat at the break of day – across the river Ins at noon – they pass Wervicq and Geluwe (not Geluveld) and reach Pan(n)emolen. They have to leave to Vijfwegen (between Roeselare and Rumbeke, a few miles up north). The Regiment Staff is located at the crossing of Vijfwegen. The troops serve as reserve in the open space between Vijfwegen and Pan(n)emolen in the region called Artoishoek.

October 29 - March to the front near Geluveld

1. Part of the List regiment takes position at the Grote Straat between Becelaere and Broodseinde (2nd batallion)

2. The other part, the group of Hitler, attacks Geluveld (Meldegänger were reported to have been there too, but Hitler was still a normal soldier at that time. That changed on November 9, 1914).

The route of the regiment: coming from the street Vijfwegen – Geluwe, they take the road between Geluwe and Geluveld. (1st and 3rd batallion). They leave the Artoishoek area and go southwest, leaving the road. They go to the road between Ieper and Meenen, near Koelenberg (Vieux Chien), where the road to Ieper crosses the road between Becelare and Poezelhoek (near Kruiseik). The area between the crossing and the village of Geluveld is the area of the fight. The 1st batallion is located on the right side of the Ypernstrasse (Oudehondtstraat), the 3rd batallion is on the left side, near Koelenberg. From there they go on to the Castle Geluveld and Poezelhoek. After the fight the List regiment is taken out of the fight, and falls under the 54th Res. Division. The other part of the List regiment is at the front Messines-Wytschaete.

Hitler describes the following situations about this period in a letter:

When Hitler’s regiment fought in Geluveld and Bezeluere/Beselare they went through some woods ‘on the right’. After that, they arrived at a meadow-land situated a little higher. (The hight called ‘Hoogte van Wijtschaete-Zillebeke’ runs from Mesen, Wijtschate to Hill 60 and Hill 62, but Hitler’s vague description is not enough to point out the exact area he ment.) Hitler also talks of a large pool with some woods. The Regiment gets into a fight near the road to Beselare, that was situated ‘on the right’. After that they retrieved to Osterwick (an unknown place). A known location where Hitler’s regiment fought was at the castle park on the Kasteelstraat in Geluveld. It’s also on a road to Beselare.

October 30 -  Geluveld area

The 1st batallion was located in the triangel between the two streets to Becelare (on the right) and Ieper (left). The batallion was supposed to back up the attack of the 3rd batallion with fire from their trenches.

October 31- Attack of the Geluveld Castle

The 1st batallion attacks the Castlepark of Geluveld. The other batallions are on the left (with the windmill as an orientation point) and the right wing. They take Geluveld, but List dies in the castlepark.

November 1 - Geluveld, after the attack.

The grounds behind the castlepark must be cleared from enemies. The castle, church and ‘ostfriedhof’ are ruined. The castlepark is the central point. All messages go there, but Hitler was no Meldegänger yet. At night the List regiment gathers at the castlepark. It marches back to the crossing and take the road back to Wervicq. On their way there, the soldiers have a meal at the village of America.

An old map of the battle of Geluveld, 1914

(source: Solleder, 1932)

Leftovers of the old windmill

Location: Geluveldplaats

Today: The mill was ruined in 1914 by the Germans, but it was rebuilt in 1926. Today only a part of the construction is still there.

The troops attacking the village of Geluveld use the windmill on the Geluveldplaats as a landmark. Hitler was part of the batallions that came from the other side.   

The windmill of Geluveld after it was rebuilt in 1926

(picture: unknown)

GELUVELD (BELGIUM)                                                                                          the first battle

IEPER (BELGIUM)

AMERICA (BELGIUM)                                                                                          after the battle

English prisoners transported through America

(picture: forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl)

November 2 - 8 - Rest at Wervik and Comines

The regiment history mentions no exact locations in Wervik for this period.

November 4 - Comines

The regiment serves as reserve regiment on the westside of town, directly behind the channel.

November 5 - Bas-Warneton

The regiment goes to Bas-Warneton, but returns to Comines on the same day and stays there until November 8. It goes to the fields of Warneton on other days too. The soldiers always return to Comines at night.

November 6-22 – Messines/Wytschaete

The regiment fights in the region of Messines/Wytschaete (Belgium). For two months Hitler’s regiment is in this area. Hitler stays at Bethlehem farm, near Messines, for a while. The staff is in Messines too.

November 9 – 12 - Messines

On November 9 the regiment marches from Comines through Warneton (Ferme de la Croix) to the Bethlehem farm. There it replaces RIR 20 at the west side of Messines. The troops were located at the southwest entrance of the city. On November 9 Hitler becomes part of the Regiment Staff, as a Meldegänger. His period of fighting in the front line is already done. The regiment staff stays at the Bethlehem farm in Messines.

November 12 – 14 - Oosttaverne - Wytschate

In the night of 12/13 November the regiment travels north to Oosttaverne. (Oosttaverne is east of Wytschaete. There are still a lot of WW1-cemeteries there. The German trench network ran northward from the Lys, to the Comines channel, passing the east of Oosttaverne, about 2 km. from Wytschate.) There the regiment built reserve lines fronting the West-Northwest. The next day they’re already under attack.

November 13/14 -  Holleweg

The regiment goes to the former hospis Hohlwegen (Holleweg), northwest of Wytschaete. But after a few hours it goes back to Oosttaverne.

November 15 - 16 - Wytschate, Holleweg (Vierstraat, Voormezelstraat)

The regiment has to clear the woods from the French soldiers that are still in there. It storms the axe-shaped-wood (now called Bayernwald). The first and second batallion travel on both sides of the Vierstraat (coming from Wytschate) to the westside of the forrest. The other batallion is located east of the street Wytschaete-St.Elooi. Behind the first woods is the axe-shaped-forrest. Years later a famous story was told about an act of heroïsm of Hitler that took place during this battle. When he and another Meldegänger, by the name of Anton Bachman, saw their regiment commander Philip Engelhardt leave the shelter of the woods, French soldiers started shooting at him immediately. Hitler and Bachmann were said to have jumped in front of him to bring him to safety. They ‘didn’t want to lose another commander.’ This took place near the Holleweg at the edge of the forrest. Historian Thomas Weber refines this story by showing that there probably were two more Meldegänger present. He states that in the 1915 version of the story, Bachmann was the hero. Hitler played a minor roll. It was Bachmann who ran 30 or 40 meters from his trench to bring Engelhardt to safety. Later the troops were taken out of the axe-shaped-forrest, because the Germans wanted to use artillerie to get out the French. After that the Germans took the forrest. But they were still under fire from the Kemmelberg.

November 17 - Bayernwald

The regiment has taken the lines between the Bayernwald and the Hollandse schuur-farm. The primitive regiment staff location is at the bend in the Holleweg leading to the Bayernwald, which could be the location where the former café Croonaert is. On this day the command post of the regiment, a simple wooden construction, was hit by a granate. Hitler had just left the command post. Seven people inside the simple building died. (In the woods along the Kroonaardsstraat is a German ‘Mineshaft’. A route along minecraters runs through the area.)

November 20 - Resting

The regiment rests for three days at different locations:

1. Garde Dieu (Some say it’s a neighbourhood in Wytschate, but it seems to be the area between Wytschate and Neerwaasten/Warneton.)

2. Hollandseschuur (The farm and a mine crater are still there.)

3. Partijntje (Unknown)

4. Pillegrems-Ferme (Houthem near Hollebeke/Zandvoorde)

The 1st batallion was at the Pillegrems Farm. The 2nd at Garde Dieu.

November 24 - Wytschate - Messines

‘Winterstellung’ between Wytschate and Messines, between the roads to Wulverghem.

On November 24 the regiment marches through Gapaard (area south of the Gapaardstraat) to Messines. The soldiers make new trenches in the area of street Wytschate – In de Kruisstraat – street Messines to Wulvegem, under heavy fire. (This, most likely, was between the Kruisstraat – Katteputstraat - Mesenstraat.)

November 26 - Messines

The 1st batallion goes to the village and the Kloster of Messines for a rest.

December 2 - Beselare

Together with three other Meldegänger Hitler receives the Iron Cross 2nd Class at Beselare (Belgium), for helping pull Lt. Col. Engelhardt to safety while under heavy fire.

December 11 - Comines- Messines

The regiment becomes the Division Reserve and finds shelter at the Fabrik Gallant in Comines.

After that it goes back into the trenches in the region of Messines (no exact date and locations).

December 17 - Comines

Only the ‘Stabsquartier’ is relocated at Comines, because the old one was under constant fire.

Around Christmas 1914 - Messines

WERVIK - COMINES - BAS-WARNETON (BELGIUM/FRANCE)

1914 - 1915 - 1916 - 1917 - 1918

In 1914 Adolf Hitler lived in München. When the First World War broke out, he joined the Bavarian Army. After a short training he was transported to Belgium where he fought his first (and only) battle near Ieper in the fields of Geluveld. Hitler was a soldier in the Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 16 (List-Regiment or RIR 16), that was a part of the 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment. The first and second batallion were his batallions, but since he served as a regimental dispatch runner (Meldegänger) his whereabouts and shelters could be different from the locations where the front soldiers where. Sometimes there was a special shelter for dispatch runners, but most of the time he must have lived at the regiment staf buildings behind the front. The idea that he brought a lot of messages from the staf to the soldiers in the front line has been doubted recently by Thomas Weber. Hitler must have been working behind the front lines most of the time he served in the army.

October 21 – Travelling to Lille by train

The first batallion of the List regiment gets transported to the front by train from Güterbahnhof München,  through: Augsburg – Neu-Ulm – Bietigheim – Boppard am Rhein – Köln – Aachen – Border of Belgium at Herbestal (October 22, Hitler crossed the border on October 23) – Brussels, station Schaerbeek – Lille, station St. Madeleine on October 23 (the 2nd and 3rd batallion arrive at Lille on the 24th)

Hitler’s letters speak of a similar route: Along the Rhine, Aken, Luik (Hitler describes a ruined station in his letter.), Leuven (He writes about a ruined city.), Brussel, Tournai (Doornik, where the soldiers hear the first sound of cannons), Lille (Hitler writes that here was no end to the heavy sound of the cannons.), at night the group of soldiers slept at a courtyard of a trade centre and on another night they slept in a large ruined hall of glass.

October 24 - Lille

The regiment reaches Lille.

The main station of Augsburg today

(picture: wikipedia)

The tracks passing the station

(picture: wikipedia)

An old postcard of the station of Neu-Ulm (picture: wikipedia)

The station of Neu-Ulm today

(picture: wikipedia)

The old station of Ulm in 1904

(picture: wikipedia)

The station of Ulm today

(picture: wikipedia)

The tracks passing Ulm station in 1905 (picture: wikipedia)

The old station of Stuttgart in 1910

(picture: wikipedia)

Inside the station building, 1913 (picture: wikipedia)

The old station of Ludwigsburg in 1860 (picture: wikipedia)

The track passing Ludwigsburg today (picture: wikipedia)

The tracks in Ludwigsburg in 1910 (picture: wikipedia)

Station Bietigheim-Bissingen today (picture: wikipedia)

The railroad track in Heidelberg (picture: wikipedia)

The tracks and station of Mannheim today (picture: wikipedia)

The tracks and station of Boppard today (picture: wikipedia)

The Boppard Hunsrückbahn in the 70’s (picture: wikipedia)

The old station of Boppard (before 1906) (picture: wikipedia)

The tracks and station of Köln today (picture: wikipedia)

The station today (picture: wikipedia)

The old station of Köln in1900 (picture: wikipedia)

The original station still exists. (picture: wikipedia)

The track (picture: wikipedia)

Aachen Hauptbahnhof in1932

(picture: wikipedia)

The new station, completed in 2009 (picture: wikipedia)

Gare Guillemins in 1905

(picture: wikipedia)

The city of Leuven in 1914

(picture: wikipedia)

The station of Leuven today

(picture: wikipedia)

Station Schaerbeek today

(picture: wikipedia)

Station Schaerbeek in 1920

(picture: wikipedia)

The tracks of station Schaerbeek (picture: wikipedia)

An old postcard of the station

(picture: photorail)

Station Tournai today

(picture: wikipedia, Jean-Pol Grandmont)

Station Tournai in 1879

(picture: wikipedia)

The monument du Maire André on the Place du concert

(picture on an old postcard)

German troops in Lille. This picture was not taken in Lille North, but on the Grand Place.  

(copyright picture unknown)

WERVICQ-SUD (FRANCE) -  WERVIK (BELGIUM)                route to the front

The Panemolen windmill near Geluwe  

(copyright pictures unknown)

COMINES (BELGIUM)

Fabrik Gallant

Location: Rue en route d’Armentières

Today: The buildings were completely destroyed in WW1. The company went to Roubaix. Since 2006 the factory is back in Comines, again on the Rue en route d’Armentières. Not sure about the exact location.

On december 11 the regiment goes to Comines, where it becomes the Division’s reserve. Hitler's regiment found shelter at the Fabrik Gallant (weavery) in Comines. They go back to the trenches near Messines somewhere in the same month. (Thanks again to Gui Mahieu for his information and picture.)

German troops inside the weavery

(copyright picture unknown)

A letterhead of the company of 1910

(copyright picture unknown)

WIJTSCHATE (BELGIUM)

MESEN (MESSINES) (BELGIUM)

OOSTTAVERNE near WYTSCHATE (BELGIUM/FRANCE)

MESEN (MESSINES) (BELGIUM)

Whereabouts of Hitler’s regiment in november/december 1914

Location: Rijselstraat, Kortemooistraat. The regiment is in the trenches or building new ones in the area.

Today: The rebuilt Betlehem Farm and the rebuilt church are still there.

From november 24 until February 1915 the regiment is mainly in the region of Mesen. They march through Gapaard to Messines on November 24. For pictures look here. On december 11 the regiment goes to Comines, where it serve as the Division’s reserve. After that they go back to the trenches near Messines.

BESELARE (BELGIUM)

The ruined village of Beselare in 1918 (picture: copyright unknown)

The blown up windmill of Beselare in 1914 (picture: copyright unknown)

Hitler’s decoration

Location: Unknown, but there seems to have been army barracks in Beselare. Unsure if this location is correct.

Today: Beselare was completely ruined at the end of WW1.

It is said that Hitler’s decoration on December 2, 1914 took place in Beselare, but this might also have taken place at Messines, where Hitler was stationed at this time. Adolf Hitler, together with three other Meldegänger, received the Iron Cross 2nd Class at Beselare, for helping pull Lt. Col. Engelhardt to safety while under heavy fire, on November 14/15/16, 1914.

The original Pillegrem’s Ferme

Pillegrem’s Ferme, June 27, 1916

Leterme Farm today with on the

right the church of Hollebeke

(picture: Guy Mahieu, 2010)

Leterme Farm

(picture: Guy Mahieu, 2010)

The Farmhouse

(picture: Guy Mahieu, 2010)

The only leftovers of WW1 are the explosives the famer still finds when he plows his farmland.

(picture: Guy Mahieu, 2010)

The new farm today

(picture: Guy Mahieu, 2010)

The entrance of the old farm was on the right side of the trees next to the barn. (picture: Guy Mahieu, 2010)

The exact location of the old farm. A pole in the ground marks it.

(picture: Guy Mahieu, 2010)

Pillegrems Ferme

Location: West of Houthem, Pont Malletstraat, between the Houthemstraat and the Kaleutestraat

Today: Before WW1 the farm was known as Ferme du Pélerin (the French word for Pilgrim). A new farm was built after WW1, next to the original location. The old farm was completely ruined. The farm is known as Leterme Farm now.

On November 20, 1914 Adolf Hitler's regiment rested at different locations in the area of Wytschate. One of the locations was the farm called Hollandse Schuur, near the Beilförmiger Wald (the Bayernwald). Another one was located near Houthem. It was called the Pillegrem’s Ferme. Adolf Hitler might have been in Houthem too. (Thanks to Guy Mahieu for his pictures and information.)

HOUTHEM (BELGIUM)

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