Feldjägerkorps

The Feldjägerkorps () ( field hunter corps) was a military provost organization in the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was established on 27 November 1943 and consisted of three Feldjäger commands that reported directly to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, headed by chief of staff Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel. It was recruited from veteran, battle-hardened troops and was senior to all other military police organizations. It operated approximately 12 miles behind the front lines, and its main function was to maintain order and discipline among the troops, hunting down deserters and stragglers and meting out punishment, which could include drumhead courts-martial and execution.

== Background and precursors == === The SA-Feldjägerkorps === There were no military units with police-like duties in the Reichswehr, the armed forces of the Weimar Republic. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, a type of police force was established for the Nazi Party's largest paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA). The SA played a key role in the Nazi consolidation of power by intimidating and coercing their political opponents with physical violence. The level of violence was so extreme that the political leaders felt the need to exert more control over marauding, undisciplined and often drunken SA stormtroopers. They also sought to protect the SA personnel from legal prosecution by those elements of the regular police force and the judiciary that were not yet fully under Nazi control.