Chip

Tony,

Yes, there is a book. Back in the early 90's I was contacted by Herr Meinlschmidt and along with many other contributers, provided him with photos and drawings of tags. The book is quite good and came out in German originally, but was subsequently printed in English in 1993. The book is soft backed, 199 pages. It was self published by the author and I can find no ISBN number on it. I will send you the author's last mailing address by PM.

Regards,

Chip

Chris,

If you have seen Peter Meinlschmidt's book "German WWI Identity Tags/Disks" you will know that there were many more kinds of Erkennungsmarke. For instance, sea based naval troops wore a pin backed tag. My example is shown in the book. There were also several other shapes of tags that were worn, seemingly by entire units. Some of the colonial disks were round. I have about 75 disks and all but a few fall into the standard issue categories that Tony describes. Oooh, I really like that Saxon J?ger tag. Nice. Have you ever seen a Saxon example with a green and white cord? I have nearly all of the state colored neck cords, but have not been able to find a Saxon one.

Chip

Chris,

It's a dream of mine to own one, but the current prices put them out of reach. I should have bought one back in the 1970s when they were less than $2,000. I have never seen a Bavarian manufactured one before. That has got to be a rarity. Congratulations!

Chip

P.S Do they make reproduction carrying straps for the MG08/15?

Daniel,

I have taken the terminology from Kraus' books. Years ago, when I did my first article on the subject, little was known about the correct terminology or the chronology of use of the various pieces of German anti-gas equipment. Reenactors at the time were calling the bag a Saccule, which just did not sound right to me, so I never used the term in my writings. Kraus did his homework and came up with the actual official names used during the period. Given that new information, I went back to the posting on the "Before 1919.." website and updated my information.

These pieces are shown in Johan Somer's new book, "Imperial German Field Uniforms and Equipment 1907-1918".

I have also seen this Stofftasche f?r Atemeinsatz 1917 in the aforementioned ligher weight, red canvas material.

Chip

Daniel,

What a luxury to have a choice! I got both of my bags back in the 1980's when you didn't have to take a second mortgage on your house to get one! The red/brown bag that I had was the lighter weight material, like these earlier gray examples.

Too bad the markings are not legible on your piece, but this is pretty typical. Many were never marked at all. The earlier one that I have has a decent maker mark and is clearly dated 1916.

Chip

Daniel,

Nice set. My early one has the spare filter compartment on the other end and two additional button holes added (by the owner) to the sides of the flap to better hold it down.

Chip

Whoops. Both of us adding something at the same time. Looks like yours is the earlier model that had the 1916 changes added. One of mine is like that, with the "D" rings added and the third compartment divider removed.

Chip

Daniel,

Is it maker marked or dated inside? Both of mine are size "2"s. I have seen a "3". but never a "1", except in period photos.

Chip

Hauptmann,

I was on the staff of Kaiserzeit from 1972 unitl it died. It was a great run and about the only place you could get any information on imperial German militaria at the time. The downfall was the last printer, who seemed to decide that he would just keep the subscription money and not send anything out. He had the gall to ask people to send more money after getting only one issue for the previous years $15.00 payment. Finally, everyone got tired of waiting and sending money and just threw in the towel. Kaiserzeit lasted for over ten years, which is a long time for a publication that was put together with articles by unpaid enthusiasts. I still have a complete set of the journal.

Chip

Could this be the same man? Lots of similarities, i.e., last name, theater, Beamte (only at this date he is a Feldlazarett Inspektor Stellvertreter).

Chip

Daniel,

Sure, I have two of the Segeltuchtasche, one the M1915s (converted to M1916) and a M1916. Over the years I have had about five of them, even one in redbrown canvas. I wrote the first article printed about them, which appeared in Kaiserzeit in 1982 and was reprinted in the Phoenix Exchange a few years later. The article is now visible on Johan Somers' "Before 1919" website. Of course, much more information has been uncovered since then and is available in Kraus's 1999 books "Die Feldgraue Uniformierung des deutschen Heeres 1907-1918" (though he did pinch at least one bit of information from my article). I also have a Atemeinsatztasche M17.

Chip

OK Jens, about your website, I gotta ask.....which one of these Grabenschweine are you? I'm surprised the museum would let you climb all over their main exhibit. Ausgezeichnet!

Chip

Simon,

My items are in storage in my basement, but I will be glad to dig them out this coming weekend and take some photos for you. I must say, however, from your description, the belt sounds fine. I would say that if your buckle has an original leather lead tab that matches the buckle in condition, there would not be too much to worry about. I did pull out about six of my M95 buckles and none of them has a steel keeper on it. That part doesn't sound good. We shall see.....

I went to my notes to look up Offerman & S?hne and found that you have asked about this buckle before, because I have an entry in my imperial leather workers list with all of this information from the tab, with your name. So you must have given it before.

Chip

Yes, I have several pieces. It seems his specialty was Sanit?ter and Krankentr?ger pouches. I have also logged several of the kidney shaped, three clip ammo pouches that were worn mostly by pioneers and second line troops that carried the carbine (Eisenbahn, Telegraph, usw.). This is the first belt I have encountered, but I would be relatively sure that it is a good one. The buckle being bad is not a gaurantee that the belt is also bad. Can you post a photo of the two items in question?

Chip

Rosenberg,

Normally, the field badge is attached to a looped wire that is pushed down into a slot just behind the eagle's head.

Anyway, except for the missing silk liner and the bit of reshaping that has to be done, you have yourself one of the most desirable shakos that was worn in the German army (an officer from an elite unit). Congratulations!

Chip

Rosenberg,

If you have the shako, can't you just pull the field badge out and take a picture? I don't own a Prussian officer's shako, but you can look at one here... http://www.kaisersbunker.com/dunkelblau/helmets/ There's a Prussian J?ger officer's helmet on the left about 3/4 down the page. This is a very similar eagle to the one that would be on your helmet. Notice the "holes" in the crown on the eagle plate. This is what I was refering to earlier.

Chip

Rosenberg,

The officer's shako would have the same general design of the Prussian eagle on the helmet plate, but normally of a nicer finish and with a pierced or voided crown. We cannot see what the crown on the eagle looks like, because it is obscured by the field badge in your photos. I was assuming that it is an officers.

I am a long time collector and pretty much out of touch with current prices (living in the past). All I could tell you is that something this rare would be several thousands of dollars. The only way to know for sure these days is to run something on an auction and see what the market price really is. From what I have seen, setting your own price often leads to you getting what you ask for, but losing a whole lot more. There seem to be few collectors with spending limits!

Chip

Rosenberg,

It looks like an officer's shako from one of the Prussian line Maschingewehr Abteilungen. These were relatively small units and items from them are highly collected. They were in existence from 1901 until very early in the war, when reorganization of the MG troops made them redundant. It looks fine from what I can see. The silk lining is missing, but this is a fairly minor detail.

Chip

Ramblin,

Yes, that's the show. The only one we have here all year. The only thing that keeps me going the rest of the year is being on the collections committee of the National WWI Museum at the Liberty Memorial. The long awaited and hugely expanded museum opens up this coming armistice day. What an event that will be! The new auditorium is already open with a WWI lecture series going on this year, as well as a long running WWI movie night. The new research library, displays designed by the company that did the Holocaust Museum and everything else will guarantee that I will be spending a lot of time there. I hope to give tours when I retire someday.

I would enjoy meeting you. Perhaps next year. I just hope that the rather poor public attendance does not drive away too many out of state dealers. It may force me to go to some other regional shows. A friend tells me that there is a good one in Minneapolis this fall.

Best regards,

Chip

Chris,

I totally understand. I have a lot of material that I hope to use for a book some day and though I would love to show it now, no one likes to buy a new book and see a bunch of period photos that they have seen before.

If it is done by the same artist who did the well-known 'Das Deutsche Alpenkorps" EK document, then I am sure it is very nice to behold. I can wait until it appears in print.

Chip

Thanks Ulsterman,

Ouch, well, like I said, it was cheap ($15.00) and I made out pretty well on the MMO and the lifesaving medals. So, you win some and you lose some.

Best regards,

Chip

Gerd,

Thanks for your comments. Do you know what ribbon it is that is on the Landwehr Dienstauszeichnung? I do not have a referece for ribbons.

Chip

Thanks all. The medal is marked "950" and "J.L." on the back of the suspension and "900" and "J.L." on the back of one of the swords. Unfortunately, the only reference I own is a 1978 Nimmergut pocket catalog and it is not very clear about how to identify the classes of the MVO.

I also ran across a Prussian lifesaving medal with ribbon and a Bavarian Landwehr Dienstauszeichnung II.Kl. with ribbon, once again, so inexpensive that I could not pass on them, not knowing what they are worth. I can't find out much about the latter. None of the usual websites show or discuss it. Must be something very common, but I had not seen one before. It's the same small size as the lifesaving medal.

Chip

I guess I have been reading this forum and its antecedent for about a year now. Prior to this, I had collected imperial German items for nearly forty years, having gotten only two medals in my collection. I will never be a medal collector on the scale of most of the participants here...far from it. But I do love the history and all that is contained in the stories of owners of these medals of another time. I have learned a lot and am thankful for the vast knowledge of others here.

Today, at a local show, I was fortunate enough to find the medal shown below. A year ago, I probably would not even have asked to see it. A year ago, I would not have asked how much it was. I still don't know anything about prices and don't have much hobby money anyway, but I knew enough from reading here that this was a good one. I'm embarrassed to say how cheap it was. The guy wanted the same price for the copper version with sword and crown and no ribbon. So, even with a flake or two missing, I finally have a very nice medal.

Chip

So Rick, please excuse these, perhaps, novice questions, but is the maker of this bar using original ribbons? It seems to be a chore to find nice original ribbons and would not newer ribbons show up under a blacklight? Are good ribbons being abused here, if not, why would someone use newer ribbons that could be easily detected?

Chip