This comes from a picture of a bunch of schutztruppen

joerookery

joerookery

Well-known member
Looks to be some sort of a reunion of sorts. There are two guys with pickelhaube, based on their uniform, what are they?
shutz1.jpg
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Joe,
The uniforms are very dark, but both helmets seem to have guard eagles/stars and chinscales.

That certainly is a dapper chap with the derby. :wink:

K-B
 
I saw that and it gave me pause also. Guard star? One has a rounded front visor and the other has a squared front visor. I was hoping that this was one of those colonial Beamte guys -- no joy. The real question in my mind is, are these the famous LG?

It's not that I know diddly about uniforms. I know so very little that I know enough to get myself in trouble.
 
joerookery said:
I saw that and it gave me pause also. Guard star? One has a rounded front visor and the other has a squared front visor. I was hoping that this was one of those colonial Beamte guys -- no joy. The real question in my mind is, are these the famous LG?

It's not that I know diddly about uniforms. I know so very little that I know enough to get myself in trouble.
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You'll also notice the second soldier, with the square visored haube, also has a leather belt going across his chest like a cavalry cartouche belt. His uniform looks basically the same as the other guy, but he appears to be a mounted soldier.
 
Mike,
Good catch on the cross-belt and square visor. Your eyes are much better than mine!

Joe, look at page 95 of Randy Trawnik's book for a nice example of a guard grenadier. Also see the cover for a nice guard dragoon (note that the grenadier's issue guard star is flatter than the private-purchase one on the dragoon). I think the two gents in the photo represent those two types of units.

Skøl!
K-B
 
KB,

I don't think so. Now you have to understand, I know so little about this that I am showing my complete lack of knowledge. The uniform guys have yet to jump in. What I do not see on these two gentlemen is guard Litzen. We know that the LG guys had both mounted and dismounted folks. We know that they wore a guard star. I see no Litzen. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to see.
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Joe,
Just to be sure I understand correctly: are you referring to the Leib-Gendarmerie?

There were three types of Guard Litzen: double white, Old Prussian white, and Old Prussian yellow, but I don't see any Litzen on the photo either.

Maybe some of the uniform experts can help us further?

Cheers,
K-B
 
I should have been clearer LG is Landes Gendarmerie. It is sort of a provincial police. The helmets are stamped LG and are often sold as guard or guard Dragoon. We had long discussions on these in the old form. Tony had a picture of an older, LG that he posted in the old forum. It's a good question.
 
We had some long discussions about LG helmets in the old forum. Does no one of that group have an opinion?
LG1.jpg
 
Joe, is there a chance that we can see the entire photograph? Could it have been taken in one of the colonies? The fellow with white collar and folded up hat and the fellow on the right with straw hat give me cause to wonder. Also the man wearing the round visor pick is armed, could he be a reservist from a Garde unit. The holster gives the impression of either a Reichsrevolver or one of the .32 calibre autos.

The two pix certainly seem to be adorned with Garde Wappen but both wearers appear to be past their prime and a bit beefy to boot. The Garde Wappen certainly preclude their being any type of police so I think they are reservists. The weapon and attire of the civilians make me think it might be a colonial group.
 
Hey Joe, I tend to agree with George, if it is a colonial photo, one might see Dunkelblau during the war, and the colonists would no doubt be reservists, even in the US land was given to veterans, and the only land available was in the colonies for German veterans.
Gus

By the way, I have been reading a book I got from Torsten of fleabay, and noticed that in 1915 (when the book was written) deutsch was not capitalized, as it was an adjective, as in german Soldier.
 
The Garde Wappen certainly preclude their being any type of police
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I thought we all agreed that the LG Landes gendarmes wore a guard wappen. I don't know why I didn't post more of this earlier.
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The picture is mounted on a hardback in. It is larger than a postcard there are no marks, dates or any information on it.
 
Well shucks Joe, I blew my chance at being a detective. The spruce in the background certainly throw Africa out of the picture as well as the Pacific islands. It's not likely Tsingtao and sure seems to be a reunion post WWI as you first surmised.

So my second wild-ass guess is that they are indeed at a reunion and they are probably DSO veterans. The two guys in pix were Garde unit reservists who were rather proud of their former affiliation.
 
Further detective work, and some help from Chris, says that these guys are not Schütztruppen. Rather it is a gathering of hunters. I can only assume that these are LG guys... opinions have been scarce.
 
Hi Joe,

no mystery here. As you rightly surmise these guys are Prussian Gendarmes. The "Foot" or Fußgendarmen had the round peak and the "mounted" or Berittene Gendarmen the square peak. The Guard Star was introduced in 1905. Here is an illustration taken of a Foot Gendarme's helmet in 1914 from a 1976 edition of the Zeitschrift für Heereskunde.

Regards
Glenn

lg.jpg
 
Glennj said:
No mystery here. As you rightly surmise these guys are Prussian Gendarmes. The "Foot" or Fußgendarmen had the round peak and the "mounted" or Berittene Gendarmen the square peak. The Guard Star was introduced in 1905.
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Glenn, are you are saying these are Landgendarmerie? Or Army Feldgendarmerie?

Some of the confusion may be my fault, I had said once that the Preußen Landgendarmerie (Rural Police) wore Polish cuffs with a single Garde Litzen, but I did not mention that in 1889 Swedish cuffs with double Garde Litzen were adopted for the Landgendarmerie. According to Ingo Löhken Die Polizei-Uniformen in Preußen 1866 1945 (p.19) the Garde star was adopted in 1895.

The Preußen Army Gendarmerie, according to Jürgen KraussBand 2 (p.769) wore only Dragoner pattern helmets w/ gilt fittings.
 
Glennj said:
these guys are Landgendarmerie,
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That's what I thought you meant. There are two threads going on the LG, so it jumps back and forth. I asked my friend to scan the LG pages from Ingo Löhken Die Polizei-Uniformen in Preußen 1866 1945 which I will translate and post.
 
I don't know. He is wearing the right helmet, has the post-1889 Swedish cuffs, the cuffs appear to be light enough to be blue.......

Here is the older LG chap with the Polish cuffs worn up to 1889.

LG.jpg
 
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