Help with identification

D

desny

New member
Hi,
The soldier I am interested in is at the bottom row on the right (with a pipe in his hand):

[img
Döberitz by desny12, on Flickr[/img]

I know he was born in 1877 and fulfilled his military duty when he was 20 years old in Berlin says the "family memory". I found this picture of him (and 9 of his mates, some with different shoulder straps) sent in 1907 to a relative. It is postmarked Uebungsplatz Döberitz on the back. I assume he went to Döberitz which I found was a training camp for the Garde while he might have been in the Reserve. His shoulder strap looks to me like a Königin Augusta Garde Grenadier Regt No. 4 (thanks to Kaiser's Bunker):

8106862027_21445298db_m.jpg


I would be grateful to know if indeed he served in this Garde Regiment and anything else about him (rank e.g.) which escaped to my (very!) untrained eye.

I hope the pictures will be posted in this message at my first attempt!

Thank you in advance. Kind regards.

Roland Schaeffer
 
Roland,

Nice picture. These guys are in the Landwehr training cycle of 1907. Most likely he started when he was 20 in the active force and then moved to the reserves. He was transferred into the Landwehr generally at the age of 27. In the Landwehr there was a training requirement that affected individuals twice up to the age of about 32. During the training requirement a unit was cobbled together. The Landwehr was not controlled by the Regiment but rather by the Landwehr districts or Bezirkskommando Therefore these nine guys could have served their active time in variously different regiments. The grouping is probably a photo memory of the guys in a Stube. That was a big room that everyone slept in and were identified with. Sort of his squad.
 
Joe,

Thank you for your reply.

1) So he was in the Landwehr. This also explains why the bottom cokade of his cap did not show the usual colored central dot. It seems to me (now that I know what I should see!) that one can guess (just!) a Landwehr cross on some caps or is it just my wishful seeing. This picture was taken at the end of his 1907 training cycle, as he writes on the back that he expects to be back home "by next Friday". It also says on the back that he is with 9 mates all from Alsace (Elsaß at that time), maybe not all not from his "Stube".

2) Now, what about his shoulder strap which I rotated and enlarged in my previous message. Any confirmation that he (and others on the picture) was indeed a Garde (because of Döberitz) and more specifically a Königin Augusta Garde Grenadier Rgt No. 4 (because of his shoulder straps)?

Kind regards

Roland
 
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