XI Corps (German Empire)

XI Army Corps
XI. Armee-Korps
Flag of the Staff of a Generalkommando (1871–1918)
Active30 October 1866 (1866-10-30)–1919 (1919)
Country Prussia /  German Empire
TypeCorps
SizeApproximately 44,000 (on mobilisation in 1914)
Garrison/HQKassel/Bellevue Palace, Schöne Aussicht 5
Shoulder strap pipingRed
EngagementsFranco-Prussian War
Battle of Wissembourg
Battle of Wörth
Battle of Sedan

World War I

Battle of the Frontiers
First Battle of the Masurian Lakes
Battle of the Vistula River
German summer offensive 1915
Bug–Narew Offensive
Second battle of Przasnysz
Narew Offensive
Battle of Amiens
Insignia
AbbreviationXI AK

The XI Army Corps / XI AK (German: XI. Armee-Korps) was a corps level command of the Prussian and German Armies before and during World War I.

XI Corps was one of three formed in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War (the others being IX Corps and X Corps). The Corps was formed in October 1866 with headquarters in Kassel. The catchment area included the newly annexed Province of Hesse-Nassau and the Thuringian principalities (Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Waldeck).[1]

During the Franco-Prussian War it was assigned to the 3rd Army.

The Corps was assigned to the VI Army Inspectorate but joined the predominantly Saxon 3rd Army at the start of the First World War.[2] It was still in existence at the end of the war[3] in the 6th Army, Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht on the Western Front.[4] The Corps was disbanded with the demobilisation of the German Army after World War I.

  1. ^ German Administrative History Accessed: 22 May 2012
  2. ^ Cron 2002, pp. 309
  3. ^ Cron 2002, pp. 88–89
  4. ^ Ellis & Cox 1993, pp. 186–187