A Prussian Officer Mle 1907/10 Feldrock - For your appraisal

Hi everyone,

I have checked during the last few days with various German collectors/dealers and they came to the same conclusion summarized below :

"Yes it is correct, usually the Pioniers have different cuffs, however officers were quite free to choose a different cuff.
This officer has chosen to wear a uniform with the cuffs of the infantry, but with the black piping on the sleeves it is clearly a Feldrock belonging to a Pionier Offizier".

Thanks again
 
I would like to contradict you here. Of course, the officers had a lot of freedom. But they had a dress code or regulation. I don't think an infantryman should wear a pioneer or cavalry uniform just because it looked nicer.
 
As far as I know, only the air force units had this freedom. They were allowed to continue wearing the tunic from their unit. Perhaps only the propellers are missing on the shoulder boards.
 
meme32 said:
"Yes it is correct, usually the Pioniers have different cuffs, however officers were quite free to choose a different cuff.
This officer has chosen to wear a uniform with the cuffs of the infantry, but with the black piping on the sleeves it is clearly a Feldrock belonging to a Pionier Offizier".
Click to expand...

You need to look for better advice as that is completely incorrect.

As Reiner said in #23 officer were absolutely not allowed to randomly choose cuffs of collars or any part. Their uniforms has to fall within clothing directives.

Also noted by Reiner in #24 Fliegertruppen could wear the uniforms of their previous units, but they were not allowed to make it up.

The logical explanation for your Feldrock, is that the shoulder boards have been replaced. Good luck with what ever you decide to do with it.

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Thanks a lot Tony,this is very clear and as I wrote in post #18, I do agree with you that the most logical explanation seems the shoulder boards to have been replaced.
That is really a shame since it is a nice field worn feldrock.
Considering the asking price, I will not take it.
Thanks a lot to everyone, that was a very insteresting discussion. I will look for another Feldrock !
 
Thanks for that link; Indeed I looked to to that Feldrock at Weitze and I even contacted him last week and asked him his opinion on "my" Feldrock....He replied yesterday that it is an Offizier Pionier Feldrock...
Considering the cost of such Feldgrau uniform and the fact I am a novice in that topic, I will stick to textbook items, I will not take any risks and follow the forum's concensus !
 
I have just received a nice reply from the German Society for Army Science (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Heereskunde) as suggested by Sandmann.
I am surprised, they replied very quickly and the reply is :

"it´s really a Feldrock M 1907 for officers of the Fußartillerie. But the backing of the Achselstücke would have to be white. 1915 the color turned yellow."
 
Hello all, I found an interesting article in the Militär-Wochenblatt from 1896, according to which the black fabric under the shoulder strap could be plausible after all. The article is about the introduction of the clothing regulations for enlisted men of 1896, which was the final version of the drafts that had been in circulation since 1893. The article states that Prussian officers seem to think that they only need to study clothing regulations if they are appointed to a clothing commission or aspire to a career in the clothing office. This suggests some ignorance regarding the clothing regulations, or at least a superficial interpretation of them. For me it seems therefore not impossible that a tailor or officer in ignorance of the regulations chose a black undercloth, since this matches the piping of the collar and also the trimming strip of the cap.
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Collecting Imperial German is really complex o_O...

Thanks a lot Sandmann for taking the time to scan and translate this article.
I had a bid dilemna with this Feldrock; I liked it a lot but this shoulderstrap thing was bothering me....at the end I prefer to start with a "textbook" feldrock in my collection !
 
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