The 1. Division was formed June 1920 from Reichswehr-Brigade 1 and Reichswehr-Brigade 20.

The original seven Infanterie-Divisionen of the Reichswehr were used to form 21 new divisions 1 October 1934. These divisions used at first used cover names to hide their divisional size but in October 1935 these were dropped.
The infantry regiment of this division was used to form infantry regiments of 1. Infanterie-Division, 11. Infanterie-Division and 21. Infanterie-Division and the staff formed I Armeekorps.

Commanders

General der Infanterie Johannes von Dassel (1 Oct 1920 - 31 Oct 1923)
Generaloberst Wilhelm Heye (1 Nov 1923 - 31 Oct 1926)
General der Infanterie Friedrich Freiherr von Esebeck (1 Nov 126 - 30 Sep 1929)
General der Infanterie Werner von Blomberg (1 Oct 1929 - 30 Jan 1933)

Wehrkreis

I

Order of battle

1. (Preußisches) Infanterie-Regiment
2. (Preußisches) Infanterie-Regiment
3. (Preußisches) Infanterie-Regiment
1. (Preußisches) Artillerie-Regiment

Notable members

Werner von Blomberg (Minister of Defense 1933-1935, Minister of War 1935-1938, reached the highest rank in the German Army, Generalfeldmarschall in 1936, he resigned from his posts following the scandal involving his marriage to Luise Margarethe Gruhn)
Gustav Mertsch (Served in Artillerie-Regiment 1, later division-commander in the Waffen-SS)
Walter Model (Reached the highest rank in the German Army, Generalfeldmarschall, in 1944)
Walter von Reichenau (Reached the highest rank in the German Army, Generalfeldmarschall, in 1940)
Hans Scheider (Served in Infanterie-Regiment 2, later division-commander in the Waffen-SS)
Felix Steiner (Served in Infanterie-Regiment 1 and 2, later corps-commander in the Waffen-SS)

SdKfz 3 personnel carriers of 1. Division on exercise in East Prussia in August 1928

(Courtesy of Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Germany)

Machine gun unit of 1. Division on exercise in East Prussia in August 1928

(Courtesy of Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Germany)

Sources used

Andris J. Kursietis - Between Kaiser and Führer: The history of the German Army 1919-1933
Georg Tessin - Deutsche Verbände und Truppen 1918-1939
Georg Tessin - Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht 1933-1945
Mark C. Yerger - Waffen-SS Commanders: The army, corps and divisional leaders of a legend (2 vol)

Reference material on this unit

- None known at this time -