The Freikorps Grün Loudon started as a German mercenary formation raised in spring 1790 to provide the Habsburg army with a light infantry force against the short-lived Brabant Republic. The Freikorps continued to serve during the First Coalition War against Revolutionary France (1792-97). As the conflict dragged on, the Rhineland, which served as its primary recruitment area was occupied by the enemy. As a result, the Freikorps shifted its main recruitment efforts to the Habsburg province of Galicia where a large Jewish population lived. The first Jews volunteers were enlisted in spring 1796. Within a year, Jewish soldiers comprised more than one per cent of the unit's strength. This proportion was kept until the Freikorps was disbanded in summer 1798.

With a total number of 27 individual entries, this dataset covers every single Jewish soldier who served in the unit. In addition to basic bibliographical information, the dataset includes reconstructions of complete service itineraries. Some of these are so detailed that the whereabouts and doings of individual soldiers could be traced month after months. After Freikorps Grün Loudon was disbanded, 22 surviving Jewish veterans were transferred to the 3rd and 4th Light Infantry Battalions. Their subsequent service and eventual fates are covered as well. In the dataset includes partial information about three spouses and two children, whose their existence can be discerned from soldiers' personal records.

In terms of their service experiences, the Jewish members of the Freikorps Grün Loudon did not differ much from other mercenary soldiers of that period. As implied by their name, Freikorps units did not form part of the standing army. Manned by foreign renegades and local volunteers, their soldiers were considered more expandable, and Freikorps used to suffer high combat losses. Tactically, Freikorps were often divided into small raiding detachments, which meant their soldiers often remained outside of the direct supervision of their officers. This resulted in high desertion rates. At the same time, the Freikorps also had a committed core of highly-dedicated professional soldiers. Among the veterans of the Freikorps Grün Loudon was Samuel Prager – one of the first documented Jewish soldiers in modern history to rise to the rank of Company Sergeant Major.

For more information on the Freikorps Grün Loudon, see:

Alfons von Wrede, Geschichte der k. und k. Wehrmacht, 5 Vols., (Vienna: Seidel, 1898–1905), Vol. 2, pp. 445-6.

For more information how to identify Jewish soldiers in Habsburg military records, see:

Ilya Berkovich, 'Nachweis von Konfession und Religion in habsburgischen Militärmatriken', Die Habsburgermonarchie: Fragen, Quellen und Ergebnisee zur Geschichte der Neuzeit (Blog), (10 January 2020).