page_title: Blue Army (Poland)
section_title: Notable persons
hierarchical_section_title: Blue Army (Poland) / Personnel / Notable persons
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die Großeltern von Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel; Ludwik Marian Kazmierczak in Hallers Armeeuniform mit seiner Verlobten Margarethe.English: Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak in the uniform of Haller's Army with his fiancée Margarethe. They were the grandparents of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Eesti: Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak (Halleri armee mundris) oma pruudi Margarethega. Nad olid Angela Merkeli vanavanemad.
context_page_description: The Blue Army, or Haller's Army, was a Polish military contingent created in France during the latter stages of World War I. The name came from the French-issued blue military uniforms worn by the soldiers. The symbolic term used to describe the troops was subsequently adopted by General Józef Haller von Hallenburg himself to represent all newly organized Polish Legions fighting in western Europe.
  The army was formed on 4 June 1917, and was made up of Polish volunteers serving alongside allied forces in France during World War I. After fighting on the Western Front, the army was transferred to Poland where it joined other Polish military formations fighting for the return of Poland's independence. The Blue Army played a pivotal role in ensuring Polish victory in the Polish–Ukrainian War, and later Haller's troops subsequently took part in Poland's defeat of the advancing Bolshevik forces in the Polish–Soviet War.
  Throughout the fighting on the Ukrainian front, soldiers within the ranks of the Blue Army assaulted segments of the local Jewish residents, assuming that some Jews were co-operating with Poland's enemies.
context_section_description: Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak, the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, and an ethnic Pole born in Posen (Poznań), German Empire served in the Blue Army. During World War I, he was drafted into the German Army in 1915 and fought on the western front. After being taken as a prisoner of war in France, he joined the Blue Army, and subsequently fought in the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet wars. After ending his service Kaźmierczak emigrated back to Germany.
caption: Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, in Blue Army uniform, 1919
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