SUICIDE IN THE HESSIAN FORCES DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

The article focuses on suicide among Hessian soldiers during the American Revolutionary War, with a detailed case study of Staff Captain Joachim Kimm of the Erbprinz Regiment, who died by suicide in captivity in 1783. It examines military, religious, and social responses to suicide, highlighting that such acts were rare but carried severe stigma, including denial of Christian burial rites due to prevailing Calvinist beliefs. The study contextualizes suicides within the broader intellectual movement of Sturm und Drang, which influenced some officers' attitudes toward personal autonomy and despair, and discusses the challenges of mental illness, melancholy, and trauma in 18th-century military life. Using archival records and the HETRINA database, the article documents 44 known Hessian suicides during the war, noting incomplete data and varied methods, and draws parallels to modern military suicide issues, emphasizing the enduring complexity of psychological, social, and genetic factors in suicidal behavior.