Photo albums of a trainee Officer

[Mike Huxley]

I recently aquired 3 small photo albums that belonged to a young NCO during his training as an artillery officer at Metz during 1917. His name, as far as I can make out is Huhnlein. I was interested to find out if he made the grade and after looking throught the "Ehren Rangliste" I found only one match on page 860 .... Rick could this be my guy?

Here's a couple of small shots from the album.. with his name inside the cover

[Mike Huxley]

There are several interesting shots of training at Metz in the albums. Unfortunatly I havent been able to identify the owner of these albums from them ..

[Mike Huxley]

It seem that fun was also part of the training as well... They sure needed that !!!!

[Guest Rick Research]

VERY young indeed!

Per the Mitglieder-Verzeichnis Ehem. K.B. Kadettenkorps, issues of December 1955 and June 1969

KARL H?hnlein was born 10 May 1900, and was a member of the Royal Bavarian Corps of Cadets from 1913 to 1917. In both, he was a Rechtsanwalt living in Bad T?lz, at Amorplatz in 1955, and Marktstrasse 57 in 1969. 1955 he listed himself as "Leutnant aD" but 1969 has "Hauptmann aD."

As a Cadet Corps member, presumably a "regular" for the Leutnant part, but commissioned charakterisiert after the war on discharge and so not listed in the Ehren Rangliste. The "Hauptmann" part must either have been zV or dR zV in WW2.

Certainly a nephew of NSKK Korpsf?hrer Adolf H?hnlein, I'd betcha.

The Hptm. "Koerber" shown was Karl K?rber, born 1885, Bavarian 2nd Infantry Regiment:

Leutnant 8.3.07

Oberleutnant 18.8.14

Hauptmann 27.9.16

char. Major aD

alive 1926

BMV4X, EK2, 1911 Luitpold Jubilee, ?FJ4

[Mike Huxley]

The "Good Ricky" strikes again .... OMG where would we be without you and your knowledge. Absolutely fantastic Many thanks Rick, it just goes to show how much I have to learn yet about reserching.

At least my guy made the grade and survived ....

Rick, have you any idea on the Hauptmann in the first picture I posted?

[Guest Rick Research]

That's K?rber.

I must say, this is the first time I have ever seen pre-war dark blue overcoats being worn with gasmasks! And spike helmets, in 1917!

[Mike Huxley]

Here's a gasmask picture from one of the albums Rick

[Stogieman]

Hi Mike, neat album. I think it's always a pretty special thing when any album turns up intact. Far too much of this type of history is being ripped apart for maximum profit these days.

[Mike Huxley]

Stogie, in fact there are 3 albums all to the same guy and you are so right about this sort of thing being sold off as seperate lots.

In fact I only just managed to stop the seller of these from flogging them on eBay as 3 lots with the possibility of them being split forever

At least he saw the error of his ways and agreed to sell them to me all together

Here's another couple of shots from one of the albums ..... wonder who these officers are .... One is a General

Sorry for the small size

[Guest Rick Research]

Generalmajor Friedrich Otto retired in 1899 and had no WW1 service. He was an 1870 veteran.

There were THREE possible Richters-- Reservists Anton (BIR 12) and Siegfried (BIR2) and regular Ernst (BIR23)

and

TWO possible Els?ssers, both in BIR1: Erich (I think this must have been him) and Helmut--who had an EK1 by early 1916. NO EK1, chances are it's Erich, if these were all taken circa 1917.

[Mike Huxley]

Wow .... That's great Rick, thanks

I think that the slightly smaller guy on the right of the group in the picture is Generalmajor Otto, under a magnifying glass I can make out the stripes on the side of his trousers, he seems to be reading from a document while the young cadet stands to attention in front of him.

Strange that with Otto retiring in 1899, he is in uniform, performing what seem to be some sort of presentation at an officer training school in 1917

[Tony]

Great pics Mike and about time you made them public. I'd love to get hold of something like that instead of just the odd photo of a 'no name' person.

Tony

[Guest Rick Research]

It says "Bestellung" so I assume General Otto is reading out some sort of school graduation paperwork. They seem to be all alone in the middle of a square, but maybe it was 72 paces forward and the entire Corps are lined up off camera left!

What surprised me is that he appears to be wearing FELDGRAU uniform, and not his last-worn-19th-century gear. Though sometimes WW1 retirees appear in full Third Reich regalia when they never served a day after 1920... so perhaps it was simple interpretation of permission to wear uniform in retirement as CURRENT uniform, even when the retirement wasn't.

Maybe he was an Old Boy and this was some symbolic Old School passing of tradition, one hand to the other?

Photographs--and especially albums-- are endlessly fascinating. Mysterious, surprising... and that eerie knowledge of being frozen moments from somebody else's long ago life living on for us.

[Mike Huxley]

Tony, thanks for the comments but I know you have that fantastic diary that belonged to Sid Dore, that alone is a fantastic piece of research material

Rick, I too noticed in most of the pictures a strange mix and match situation with the types of uniform. Most pictures show greatcoats in what appears to be Dunkelblau, with others in Feldgrau. Also the fact that spiked helmets are worn, mostly with feldgrau covers, all except this on, which shows our prospective officers on parade with shiny picklehaubes and very light trousers, maybe off white. Again in 1917.

[Guest Rick Research]

Yup, those are the white drill trousers like in post 7, worn with what look more like pre-war gray Litewkas (the old kind, for fatigues, not the double breasted officer semi-dress later type).

Anybody else named in there?

Don't you just hate it when the OWNER never puts an "X" or a "me" in there, even?

If any of his Cadet Corps pals are named, can see what happened to them. They'd have gone to the front in 1918.

[Mike Huxley]

Hey Rick ... at last I think I've found a picture that shows our intrepid officer cadet KARL H?hnlein ... I'll get a closer picture of this one asap .. it lists names under it and I think he is the guy on the front left with the glasses.

Unfortunatly the pictures I have shown here were supplied by the seller and I've not had the chance to take better ones yet.

But for now here he is

[Guest Rick Research]

And that would be Harry Potter there second right.