Freiwillige

Here you are, Eric. There's no "1923" mark on the flaming grenade though.

Thank you for replies and attention paid to my question! Any idea where can I find a confirmation of the Freikorps version or the Veteran's association?

No.2 This studio photo is dated January 14, 1919 and was made in Riesda (Saxony again!). Please note the same cockade and the absence of the shoulder straps.

Please help to identify these two photos of artillerymen (?). The strange thing is the flaming grenade cockade that is pinned instead of the Reichskokarde. As far as Vorläufige Reichswehr was formed only on March 6, 1919 it's not the Provisional Defense Force. No.1. This portrait of EKII winner is dated January 26, 1919 on the back. The photo was made in the atelier of the Saxonian town Plauen.

Thanks for the hint! By the way any ideas where I can find some info regarding medics' uniform and insignia of Weimar period?

Photo no.2. The same question. Many thanks in advance!

Could you please help with identifying these two photos of Sanitaetssoldaten? Period, uniform, possibly rank? I don't have any idea though they were from a lot of WW1 German portraits.

Thanks for an explanations, I really forgot about traditional Bavarian blue colour!

Thank you for the useful remarks, Jens! But as for the identification of the Portrait No.4 as a Bavarian Jäger - all battalions wore a green Waffenrock with red-piped Swedish cuffs except for Saxonians who wore a dark green Waffenrock with Saxonian pattern cuffs. But on this CDV one can clearly see Dunkelblau Waffenrock. How could you explain this mismatching? Thanks in advance!

No.4 Gefreiter in M1888 Dunkelblau Waffenrock. I have a question regarding this portrait: could you please identify the regiment? Some regiment from XXI.Armee Korps (according to green shoulder straps)?

No.3 Soldat of the 3.Niederschlesisches Infanterie-Regt. Nr.50 (V.Armee Korps) in M1888 Dunkelblau Waffenrock and M1867 Eigetumsstück Feldmütze with M1897 Reichskokarde as well as Prussian Landeskokarde. Yellow shoulder straps with red "50" on them, gilt buttons. Portrait was made in 1904. Again please note the Schützenshnur der 1.Klasse.

No.2 Soldat of the Infanterie-Regiment von Stülpnagel (5.Brandenburgisches) Nr.48 (III.Armee Korps) in M1888 Dunkelblau Waffenrock. Red shoulder straps with yellow "48" on them, gilt buttons. Portrait was made in 1910 at the Cüstrin photo atelier (the town where the regiment was based). Please note Schützenshnur der 1.Klasse.

Here I'd like to post several hand-colourized portraits of the Mannschaften of the Imperial army. I don't have a lot of such CDVs but here are some. No.1 Gefreiter of the Infanterie-Regiment von Lützow (2.Rheinisches) Nr. 25 (IX.Armee Korps) in M1888 Dunkelblau Waffenrock. Blue shoulder straps with red "25" on them, gilt buttons.

Many thanks for your help! :beer:

Captions on the back side of the portrait. All I can make out is: "Der Karlsruher Familie "zu dritt" mit den verwandten (...) Blut liebe (...) Gruesse fuer R. (...) Muenchen, im Februar 45. Der Gouverneur aus "Die Fahne". I'm not sure if I understood it correctly, maybe someone could give the full text. Thanks in advance!

Dear colleagues, could you please share your ideas about this officer? Country, military branch, rank, etc.? Postcard-sized photo, "Agfa" photo paper.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Thank you for the info, Andy! But it seems stripes on your photo and those on mine are different (note their length). Anyway your hint on Forstbeamte is a avluable one, many thanks! As for that mysterious "Z" patch do you have any idea where I could get a photographic evidence of such patches worn by Zeughaus / Zeppelin personnel during the last phase of the Great War?

Thank you very much for your help! As for the date written on the back (the scan of that fragment is attached here) you are right, it could be the date when the portrait was presented. The caption reads: "Zur frdl [freundlichen] Erinnerung von 15.Juli 1923". By the way could you please let me know what those stripes signified (Photo No.4)?

Thank you for the kind words, Gordon! No.5 Here's another photo of the Luftwaffe General Luftzeugmeister member. Photo was taken on November 11, 1942. Note the breast insignia - a metallic Luftwaffe-style eagle superimposed over a cogwheel. Typically this badge had three prongs which were designed to go through the Fliegerbluse.

No.4 Here's a real rarity - a good portrait of a member of Luftwaffe General Luftzeugmeister. Photo was made in 1942 somewhere in the occupied territory of the USSR. This branch was established in May 1941. The Luftwaffe General Luftzeugmeister consisted of civilian personnel who acted as comptrollers of the weapon factories in Germany as well as in the temporarily occupied territories. Please note one of three types of collar patches used by this organization. In general cloth collar tabs were gray-blue rectangular shaped patches with an outer red piping and the letters "GL" embroidered in red thread. There would be one tab per collar. Other varieties have been metallic letters "GL" punched through each collar and even patches with "G" and "L" (the variant we can see on this photo).

No.3 SHD-Mann with M40 insignia featuring new collar patches with "SHD" letters.

No.2 Sicherheits und Hilfdienst (SHD)-Gruppenfuehrer with partially new insignia introduced in March 1940. Here we can see new shoulder boards but collar patches are still missing.

Here I'd like to share with you some rare photos of various Luftwaffe-related paramilitary organizations. No.1 Luftschutzpolizei Abteilungsfuehrer

Will do, thanks!