Bavaria, Germany, World War I Personnel Rosters, 1914-1918

Historical Background:

Germany became a unified nation of four kingdoms in 1871; however, the previous kingdoms — Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg — kept their militaries distinct and somewhat autonomous for some time, especially during peacetime. For example, Bavaria had its own War Ministry and kept its own lists of officers. Nonetheless, during wartime the militaries of these four kingdoms banded together as the unified German Army.

About this Collection:

This data collection contains the personnel rosters of soldiers serving in Bavarian Army units during World War I (1914–1918). These rosters list information such as:

Not all of the above information may be listed for every soldier.

The original records are held by the Bavaria State Archives, War Archives division. Due to the large size of the collection, it is being digitized and published in multiple releases. Currently, the database includes about 3.8 million records of soldiers and officers in the following branches of service:

Subsequent releases will include the remainder of the Bavarian Army combat arms including:

About the Images:

When you look at the images of these rosters, you will notice that some pages have attached slips of paper that have been pasted onto the page. These attachments have information written or typed on the front and sometimes the back. In order to capture all of the information on both the original page and on the attached slips of paper, multiple scans were taken. The first was usually with the slips of paper attached in their initial position. Subsequent scans were done with the slips unfolded or turned over. However, if all of the information on both the slips of paper and the original record could be captured in a single image, then that was done. In order to see all the scans for a single page (with the papers unfolded or turned over), you will need to page forward in the image viewer.