Hessian units 1914/18

I think the medals are very germane to this subject. The question is, who received them. Did you have to be a resident of Hesse Darmstadt to get this medal? Who paid for it? Were there people other than residents of Hesse Darmstadt, who received this medal? Why? For some reason, the grand Duke was given permission through an AKO to make uniform changes for some of the units. Why him and not the other princes?

In the world of continuing trivia:
In the war of 1866 Frankfurt was on the Austrian side. On the 16th of July the Prussian troops, under General Vogel von Falkenstein entered the town. A fine of 25,000,000 florins was exacted. Rather than pay in full the city voted itself out of existence and into a union with Prussia, which reduced the fine to 6 million florins. On the 18th of October it was formally incorporated with the Prussian state. In 1871 the treaty which concluded the Franco-German War was signed in the Swan Hotel by Prince Bismarck and Jules Favre, and it is consequently known as the peace of Frankfurt.
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Here is an interesting little Passage about the duchy of Nassau who was part of this Hessian mess.



In 1866 Duke Adolph joined the cause of Austria, sent his troops into the field and asked the landtag for money after-the-fact. This was refused by the two chambers of parliament. Adolph became a fugitive and fled from the Prussian troops. On the 3rd of October 1866 Nassau was formally incorporated with the kingdom of Prussia. The deposed Duke Adolph entered in 1867 into an agreement with Prussia by which he retained a few castles and received an indemnity for renouncing his claim to the Duchy of Nassau. In 1890 he became Grand-Duke of Luxemburg.
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Hi,
what a great thread, it has solved a mystery that has sat on my shelf for the past year, i have a model 1915 (grey fittings) haube fitted with a ' Prussian ' wappen (the helm has impressions of the crown & wing tips on the haube, so i guess its been on a while), it came minus (as usual) cockades & chinstrap & had two sets of holes on the front !...one set grommeted (approx 10cm apart), the other set a little higher up accomadating the Prussian wappen.
It is marked on the rear visor 'KBA 18' (Hesse supply depot?, this info only found out in last few days !). I thought the helmet basterdised, until i read this thread, i am now convinced that it is & allways was a 'Prussian' wappened Hessian helmet. The blown up photo above (JR168) 3rd man wearing such a helmet, (full face beard) you can see the grommeted holes either side of the sceptre & orb (or is my eyes!). At last a helmet where 2 sets of mounting holes is not bad !!.Lastly would these Prussian/Hesse haubes sport a Hessian cockade or Prussian?. Many Thanks STEVE LEE.
 
Steve,

I have been unable to coax any more detail out of the picture. The Hessian thing is a mess, and I wish it was as simple as a wappen explanation to me. So far it has proved to be much more than that. Let me give you a series of random thoughts. First, your idea about KBA 18 might be RBA 18 looking somewhat similar to this:
rba18_2.jpg

There was no peacetime Bekleidungsamt and XVIII Corps was serviced by a reserve Bekleidungsamt during the time of M15 helmets.

One of the hardest things to make people understand is that XVIII Corps did not equal Hesse Darmstadt. The familiar and much sought after Hessian wappen came from Hesse Darmstadt only.
Wappen_13.gif


Now here is the hard part; the helmet itself was supplied by XVIII Corps. XVIII Corps was supposed to budget and supply wappen to all of the units in its corps area. The Army Corps district had nothing to do with the political boundaries. It just happened to be the XVIII Corps contained the entirety of Hesse Darmstadt. It also consisted of other areas, many of which were called Hesse or were referred to as Hesse. This did not cover all of the areas of old Hesse nor the modern province of Hesse.
This first map from 1914 shows the political boundaries in color around the Army Corps.
Menzal1914dpi600xviii.jpg


Sometimes it's hard to see around the red boundary. So here is one black-and-white;
Armee%20Korps%20Districts%20-%2018.jpg


But wait it gets worse. XVIII Corps changed as the Army expanded, and this map shows the size in 1909.
1909south18.jpg

So there was a major expansion into Prussian areas by 1914 , but XI Corps controlled a great deal of the old Hesse Cassel area. Then to make things worse. There were units located in the XVIII Corps area, that were administered by XI Corps, such as 47th Field artillery. As recruiting areas overlaped political boundaries, determining which unit wore which helmet wappen is a guessing game at times.

There were also company sized Corps units that scavenged through old battlefields, picking up equipment. When they found a recoverable item such as a helmet it was returned to the Corps. So an old helmet with a Hessian wappen could be returned to a Prussian unit in the same corps. The possibilities of hand downs are endless, and being that they didn't start with the same helmet all the time makes it even harder. These are just random thoughts.
 
For some reason, the grand Duke was given permission through an AKO to make uniform changes for some of the units. Why him and not the other princes?
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Got this all figured out finally.it depended on how the convention was written and Hesse was not alone. An interesting tidbit is that when Northern Hesse joined the North German Confederation in 1867the entire army both North and South was integrated into the Prussian army.
 
In the never-ending struggle to understand Hesse, yesterday I lost a very interesting postcard. I could just kick myself for losing this one. Hopefully one of you guys won it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT&item=110331422437
Obviously this soldier is from XVIII Battalion number 41. That is the Landsturm Battalion Dillenburg.
Dillenburg is in Nassau not Hesse Darmstadt. This soldier has a wappen from Hesse Darmstadt, and even though this is a line wappen with only one wreath, there is a bandeau from the 115. The helmet is an M15 helmet. There was a sister picture, which I also lost that showed two soldiers from this Battalion that were wearing Prussian belt buckles. So again I make the claim that it is very difficult to put helmet wappens and units together especially in Hesse. Formed in 1915, March. It looks like this unit was only in existence until August 1915. I am quite interested in anyone's thoughts on this one.
dillenburg.jpg
 
Just a short question in this context, I remember an article about the XI. Korps on Joes Website - is this still present somewhere? On a first search I found different sources telling that the Nassau regiments were either in the XVIII. Korps (which is more probable) or in the XI. Korps.
 
No I took it down. It was incomplete anyway. The focus of that was the battle of Lodz with the thought that all the really neat helmets from Army Corps XI, must have gone missing sometime around this engagement. It was an early article, and I found myself unable to get enough information to finish the research. I do remember an interesting thread here where someone had been digging in the mountains of Carpathia and found a belt buckle from Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
 
That is another bucket of worms! There were two active regiments that were called Nassau. Nassau – 2
1. Nassauisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr.87
2. Nassauisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr.88

The problem with these guys is that they were both centered on the city of Mainz. Both were in XVIII Corps. Shown below is an 1856 map of Nassau.



mainz1856.jpg


On a first search I found different sources telling that the Nassau regiments were either in the XVIII. Korps (which is more probable) or in the XI. Korps.
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Probably the various units in Mainz were a bit interwoven anyway. For example, the Hessian Landwehr Infanterie Regiment 118 was mobilized to the greater part under the command of an Oberstleutnant from the 1. Nassau Regiment (reg 87).

Here are unit histories of the troops stationed in Mainz, allthough in German:

http://www.festung-mainz.de/bibliothek/aufsaetze/regimentsgeschichte.html

The history of the Landsturm-Infanterie-Bataillon Mainz gives an imnpression of the mobilization, it is stated that the depots wre empty and the soldiers started out with no more than rifles and stamped arm bands. It took quite a while to equip all companies in a somewhat equal way. It is mentioned that the insignia of four different regiments were worn at the same time. It is also told that the three battailons of this regiment came from the Pfalz, Rheinhessen and Hessen-Kassel (Kassel, Mainz and Kaiserslautern).
 
joerookery said:
In the never-ending struggle to understand Hesse, yesterday I lost a very interesting postcard. I could just kick myself for losing this one. Hopefully one of you guys won it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT&item=110331422437
Obviously this soldier is from XVIII Battalion number 41. That is the Landsturm Battalion Dillenburg.
Dillenburg is in Nassau not Hesse Darmstadt. This soldier has a wappen from Hesse Darmstadt, and even though this is a line wappen with only one wreath, there is a bandeau from the 115. The helmet is an M15 helmet.
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Actually Joe, he is just wearing a standard M15. That is a reflection you see, not a Bandeau. IR115 Bandeau curve up and back. Not down in the front.
 
You are absolutely correct! Did you win this one? Super super nice photo! for some reason Hesse seems to be just a big problem. 8) 8) 8)
 
! Super cool picture! At least it went to a very good home. I must admit I'm jealous of the picture of the Hessian wappen with a Landsturm collar number that is not in Hesse. Congratulations! :D :D
 
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