Mützenbänder of Imperial Times

Greetings,
Well, this is an area that I love to collect and one of my passions in the collecting community.
As a background for information: Imperial tallies did not use umlauts, they used the "e" in place of those umlauts so say Möwe would be Moewe. Block lettering was standard for these units. For larger ships the German Navy would not state the type/class of ship if it was a named ship like Kreuzer Emden, it would be S.M.S Emden. Now, there are named individual units like S.M. Torpedoboot Taku.
During Post WW1, during the Reichsmarine period, The navy used only gold colored thread (Metalic Metallfaden, Baumwool Cotton and eventually Cellon) and eventually transitioned into the gothic fraktur script of the Third Reich.

Now there are three different script colors:
Gold Script: Seemännisches (Deck Related personnel)
Silver Script: Schiffstechnisches Technical (engineering) Administrative
Red Script: Schiffsjungen (Cadets)
Metal thread was used. Cotton thread was introduced in early 1917 so Yellow Cotton for gold and white cotton for silver.
S.M.S. is Seiner Majestäts Schiff (German for His Majesty ship)
K.u.K. (Austrian) Kaiserliche und Königliche

Hope this brief info can help you start and get your cameras ready to take some pictures and share.


Best Regards,
JustinG

This was one I did a photo postcard and with some editing, was able to incorporate the Mützenband.
Best regards,
JustinG

Welcome! I thought I saw or read somewhere that the torpedo staff on the capital ships also had the red script.

Torpedo staff would be issued Silver as they would be technical. Only cadets and boys would be issued red script tallies.

I am especially pleased with these. Great condition tallies. These were some of the smaller named units that took place during the battle of Jutland/ Skagerakschlacht. These particular tallies don't come along as often as some of the bigger ships.
That being said, at over 100 years old, these tallies aren't in too big of an abundance.

Here are some more I have done with photo merge
JustinG

Here is one from the S.M.S Yorck. Quite a sad story with this ship.

JustinG said:

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Interesting way of doing a display
Steve

I have been playing around. I keep my Mützenbänder in 35mm Film canisters. I have scans and have been looking at creating a coffee table book kind of like what I have shown, some with sailors wearing said Mützenband. It makes it a bit easier to see and definitely easier to share. I have around 100 imperial bands and about 300 Third Reich ones. I don't have enough walls... I was able to complete all the named ships from the Battle of Jutland. I am working on completing the East Asia Squadron. I have also got several Surface Raiders. (Möwe, Seeadler, Wolf) Thanks all for checking out my posts. I look forward to seeing what others have too.

Best Regards,
JustinG

There is a really easy way to tell if a Mützenband is period or not. It all goes to the reverse of the construction. The Jacquard loom used to make the tallies created this great "sawtooth" pattern as you see here. Very hard to recreate.

As said, majority of these are going to be metal thread so they are hard to copy.

Best Regards,
JustinG

Hello,
What are your opinions about this monograph?
Kind regards.

This is one of the "Bibles" with regard to imperial tallies. One of the most comprehensive ones out there. Actually, in all respects, Horst Rivier book: "Die Mützenbänder Der Kaiserlichen Deutschen Marine 1848 1920". which just lightly covers mützenband, The book you shown is the one of the two that is the recommend book of the two.
Markus Bodeaux helped me along with my Mützenband hobby. Bernd W. has been silent since his wife passed away I believe in 2020. .

Best Regards,
JustinG

Remember, If someone is thinking of purchasing a Mützenband. Make sure that there is a reverse shot, so you can see the stitching pattern shown above. Now for later Third Reich period pieces, they use a similar but a bit tighter weave. Still getting that "sawtooth pattern" Here is an example.

Please note, that there are several examples that showcase that stitching pattern I was describing. "Sawtooth" is what I like to call it. These are present on all issued or approved Mützenbänder from the German Navy. No matter what it was called (Kaiserliche Marine, Reichsmarine, Kriegsmarine or Bundesmarine)

JustinG said:

This is one of the "Bibles" with regard to imperial tallies. One of the most comprehensive ones out there. Actually, in all respects, Horst Rivier book: "Die Mützenbänder Der Kaiserlichen Deutschen Marine 1848 1920". which just lightly covers mützenband, The book you shown is the one of the two that is the recommend book of the two.
Markus Bodeaux helped me along with my Mützenband hobby. Bernd W. has been silent since his wife passed away I believe in 2020. .

Best Regards,
JustinG

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Thank you very much for the information.I did not know this monograph by H. Rivier.
I join you in expressing my respect.

Hello Justin,
Thank for sharing your collection and information Its a subject I don't know much about and I really learned a lot.
Wonderful thread

Excellent post, I have learned a great deal! Thanks