One of my fellow contacts in the Great War Group community, Dr Rich Willis, wrote a message to me and told me about a very interesting database with German casualty lists from the Great War.
When I looked at the database I remembered that I had seen it before, but in another version. The collection includes, among other things, the names of soldiers, victims of war and violence from the following wars: the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), the Coalition Wars against France.
It also includes the Napoleonic Wars and the Wars of Liberation, the Schleswig-Holstein War of 1848-51, the Franco-Prussian War of 1866, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the Boxer Rebellion in China, the Herero Rebellion in German-Southwest Africa, World War I and World War II, victims of the division of Germany (in a separate section), as well as a number of members of the Bundeswehr (Federal Armed Forces) and the former National People’s Army of the GDR who died in the line of duty.
In this case I have concentrated on following up those who died in the Great War. It is possible to search through different options in the database, and I started to search within the Place of Birth (POB) and I used the German word for Sweden, Schweden, and then I got quite a lot of results, almost 50 hits.
Although, the place “Schwedenhöhe” was mentioned in lot of the results, which was a village in old Prussia, near the town of Bromberg, today the town of Bydgozcz, in Poland
When I sorted out those from the total result, I found around seven individuals who were born in Sweden. I have now looked them through and it turned out that five of the soldiers were born in Sweden, but with German parents, who at the time were living in Sweden. They does not fall within my criteria at the moment. Two of those seven soldiers were born in Swedish families.
Fusilier Julius Björnssen (Julius Björnsson)
Julius was born in Osby parish, Skåne county, in the southern part of Sweden, on April 8th, 1878, and was raised by his mother, the maid Anna Nilsdotter but without a father, as he was not known when Julius was born. However, I can see in the Swedish church book that Julius and his mother Anna lived at the same location as a specific Mr Björnsson and his family, so who knows, maybe he received his surname after this person.
Anna emigrated from Sweden to Rohlstorf, just east of Wismar in Germany, in 1885, and it looks like Julius emigrated later, in 1892, probably to his mother but I haven’t been able to confirm it. Julius fought within the 8th company, in the 35th Infantry Regiment .
He fought with his unit just north of Massiges in France, around Hill 199 (top yellow marker), when he became Missing in Action on February 12th, 1916. I have also marked the specific trench area of Main de Massiges which I have visited a couple of times. (middle yellow marker)
At the moment there is no known burial site for Julius, may he rest in peace, wherever he is.
Fusilier Karl Jonasson
Karl was born in Asarum parish, Blekinge county, in the southern part of Sweden, on September 5th, 1877. He was raised by his mother, the maid Christina Jonasdotter. Karl, as Julius, didn’t have a known father.
When I look in the Swedish church book I find that Karl’s mother emigrated to Germany already in 1877, and Karl may have done that as well. It is mentioned that she emigrated to the area of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.
Karl Jonasson fought in the 11th company in the 85th Landwehr infantry Regiment. Karl was killed in action in the Aisne region in France on May27th, 1917.
He is today buried in the Laon “Bousson” cemetery, north-west of the city of Reims in France. I haven’t been able to find a photo of his headstone, but I will try to visit his burial site when I am in the area next time.
It is always interesting to find as large piece as possible when it comes to the history of those Swedish born soldiers who fought and fell in the Great War, but is always a greater challenge to find facts about the soldiers who fought in the German units.
The majority of the Swedish soldiers who fought in the German units in my research were Swedish officers who signed off from the Swedish Army. However, now I have found more Swedes who also were soldiers, and that is always interesting, as the information about the soldiers is a lot harder to find, from my perspective.