Thank you all for your opinions and comments!
History of the Edelweiss:
The Edelweiss was worn by members of the Alpenkorps. In WW1 the regulations were not the same like in WW2 for those Edelweiss Badges on the caps. When italy declared the war against austro-hungarian empire in the first half of 1915 mostly all austro-hungarian troops were sent to eastern front. Nobody expected the italians to attack. Only a small ammount of troops were there to defend the boarders. Thats why german empire set up the Alpenkoprs to assist the austrians by defending thier boarders. At that time the Alpenkoprs wasnt a real Mountain-Division. Soldiers came from mountain areas of Germany but they never trained mountain warfare before. However they learned it and were able to defend austria in the high mountains of the Dolomites and did a good job. After a while they became real mountain troops. Austrian General Command wanted to say thank you and giftet the Edelweiss Badge to all members of the Korps fighting in Austria.
Germen Commander Dellmensingen accepted the gift and allowed to wear them on the cap. The german Kaiser did not like such badges and was not willing to allow the soldier to wear it. After a long discussion finally the emperor changed his mind, commanding officers were explaining that it will be rude not to accept the present from austrian friends. So the emperor allowed only the men which served in Tirol/Dolomites 1915 to wear it. For that reason a notice was made in the Militaerpass. In the following years there were a lot of problems with those badges, because everyone in the Alpenkorps wore them or tried to. As always, some officers saw a problem some not so the story went on till the end of the war. There was never a general order that all men can wear it till the end of the war. Personal records, photos and stories tell us that not every time the rules were respected. So we can find Units that not even belonged to the Alpenkorps wearing those badges. Württemberg is a special example, only württ. Gebirgs-Batterie Nr. 6 belonged to the Alpenkorps and was allowed to wear the badge by regulations. In fact we can see a lot of period photos of württemberg Units wearing the Badge. Specially the Württ. Gebirgs-Bataillon liked to wear them. We can see a lot of units that were part of the 14th army against Italy in 1917 wearing the badge "illegaly".
Type and shape of the badge:
It is still a mistery which type was the original gifted badge in 1915. In period photos we can see a lot of different typs of edelweiss. My friend Immanuel Voigt wrote two books about the alpenkorps and researched the history quiet deep. It is known that original type was orderd by a private producer and arround 20000 pieces were orderd. The number of alpenkorps men were higher and a lot of badges must be purchased another way. We both believe that this was one of the reasons why so many versions were arround.
The type with the stick and the leaves is for sure austrian type and was maybe given as a gift by fellow soldiers to the germans. The awarded badge was only a blossom without stick and leaves.
From period photos we can say that two versions are the most common. These are expected to be the awarded ones. They appear in photos most often, too.
The Karpathenkorps is a complete differnt story. Only a very few units served in Tirol and the Karpathen to recieve both badges. Both were mountain battlefields but the badges were not connected to each other.
If you like i can post some examples of period edelweiss and karpathenkorps badges!
Best wishes!
Andi
History of the Edelweiss:
The Edelweiss was worn by members of the Alpenkorps. In WW1 the regulations were not the same like in WW2 for those Edelweiss Badges on the caps. When italy declared the war against austro-hungarian empire in the first half of 1915 mostly all austro-hungarian troops were sent to eastern front. Nobody expected the italians to attack. Only a small ammount of troops were there to defend the boarders. Thats why german empire set up the Alpenkoprs to assist the austrians by defending thier boarders. At that time the Alpenkoprs wasnt a real Mountain-Division. Soldiers came from mountain areas of Germany but they never trained mountain warfare before. However they learned it and were able to defend austria in the high mountains of the Dolomites and did a good job. After a while they became real mountain troops. Austrian General Command wanted to say thank you and giftet the Edelweiss Badge to all members of the Korps fighting in Austria.
Germen Commander Dellmensingen accepted the gift and allowed to wear them on the cap. The german Kaiser did not like such badges and was not willing to allow the soldier to wear it. After a long discussion finally the emperor changed his mind, commanding officers were explaining that it will be rude not to accept the present from austrian friends. So the emperor allowed only the men which served in Tirol/Dolomites 1915 to wear it. For that reason a notice was made in the Militaerpass. In the following years there were a lot of problems with those badges, because everyone in the Alpenkorps wore them or tried to. As always, some officers saw a problem some not so the story went on till the end of the war. There was never a general order that all men can wear it till the end of the war. Personal records, photos and stories tell us that not every time the rules were respected. So we can find Units that not even belonged to the Alpenkorps wearing those badges. Württemberg is a special example, only württ. Gebirgs-Batterie Nr. 6 belonged to the Alpenkorps and was allowed to wear the badge by regulations. In fact we can see a lot of period photos of württemberg Units wearing the Badge. Specially the Württ. Gebirgs-Bataillon liked to wear them. We can see a lot of units that were part of the 14th army against Italy in 1917 wearing the badge "illegaly".
Type and shape of the badge:
It is still a mistery which type was the original gifted badge in 1915. In period photos we can see a lot of different typs of edelweiss. My friend Immanuel Voigt wrote two books about the alpenkorps and researched the history quiet deep. It is known that original type was orderd by a private producer and arround 20000 pieces were orderd. The number of alpenkorps men were higher and a lot of badges must be purchased another way. We both believe that this was one of the reasons why so many versions were arround.
The type with the stick and the leaves is for sure austrian type and was maybe given as a gift by fellow soldiers to the germans. The awarded badge was only a blossom without stick and leaves.
From period photos we can say that two versions are the most common. These are expected to be the awarded ones. They appear in photos most often, too.
The Karpathenkorps is a complete differnt story. Only a very few units served in Tirol and the Karpathen to recieve both badges. Both were mountain battlefields but the badges were not connected to each other.
If you like i can post some examples of period edelweiss and karpathenkorps badges!
Best wishes!
Andi
