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5. Garde-Regt. zu Fuß Garde-Korps (Spandau) Garde-Korps

During the war, a large number of young men between the ages of 17and 20 volunteered for active service before their class was called up. In 1914, there were large numbers of these volunteers and they included some men over the age of 20 whowere in the untrained Landsturm. Thesemen had been released from their peacetime obligation but volunteered anyway. There was a significant decrease in this number by 1915 and estimates were that approximately only five percent of the later classes were volunteers. The exact number of these volunteers is somewhat controversial. The number 1,300,000 was repeated in several newspapers including the government’s unofficial voice. This number has been repeated and copied from book to book for years. More than likely the numbers were exaggerated. Prussia reported that 260,000 had attempted to volunteer, but only 144,000 were accepted. There were 32,000 from Bavaria; Württemberg had 8600; and about 10,000 for Saxony. That is a total of about 185,000. The numbers were a classic example of the press building enthusiasm for the war. The newspapers claimed that these came from all social classes, but the evidence surviving from two regiments shows the proletariat represented 33 of 413 volunteers in an artillery regiment and 64 of 450 volunteers in an infantry regiment. Students and the bourgeoisie were heavily represented