The Yankee J?ger......

[Chris Boonzaier]

A friend of mine saw one of those boring group photos at the flea market..... It was in a period frame and was going begging......

[Chris Boonzaier]

The sign says Kaporalschaft 7 1914-15.... but no unit.

Some barely visable 2`s on the shoulder made him think there was an off chance it was MY unit, the 2nd bavarian J?gers....

On the back it says Luitpold Straub killed on the 13th VII 1916....

[Chris Boonzaier]

In the history of the J?gers Straub is on the KIA list for that date... born in new York 1896.

Travel in those days WAS a big deal, most people never left the village they lived in... unless to go to war.....

Now my dilema.... the threads hide quite a bit of the phot and prevent yiu from seeing if there is any text on the back ... :-(

Which is more important? Preserving the piece as is.... or trying for research and getting to the back of the picture? maybe the names are on it? Maybe not?

Once the threads are off... there is no way to get em back on......

[dante]

In the history of the J?gers Straub is on the KIA list for that date... born in new York 1896.

Travel in those days WAS a big deal, most people never left the village they lived in... unless to go to war.....

Now my dilema.... the threads hide quite a bit of the phot and prevent yiu from seeing if there is any text on the back ... :-(

Which is more important? Preserving the piece as is.... or trying for research and getting to the back of the picture? maybe the names are on it? Maybe not?

Once the threads are off... there is no way to get em back on......

Chris, IMHO the threads should stay, Paul

[joerookery]

most people never left the village they lived in... unless to go to war.....

Chris this has nothing to do with your photograph but I thought you would enjoy this paragraph on internal movement-- from the never-ending tome.

Internal population movement was rapid. This was one of the many advantages of constitutional guarantees of unity everybody became a citizen of the state that they inhabited. However, it would seldom be a one-way journey or a once and for all solution. Between 1850 and 1870 population doubled in Berlin, tripled in Hanover, and quadrupled in Dortmund and Essen. By 1910, Berlin had gained another 250%. Urbanization did not mean the immediate disruption of a rural population. There was even internal migration that provided seasonal agricultural laborers. There was also seasonal migration seeking urban employment. Many rural workers found jobs in the industrial belt returning to their villages just twice a year. Workers attracted to urban sites left the Prussian State mines, which in turn were forced to recruit workers from the surrounding rural areas. In 1875, a full third of the Saar miners commuted on a weekly basis. The normal routine was to walk to work on Monday morning and return home on a Saturday evening. In these scenarios, workers had their feet in both the village and country. This was far from an ideal existence. Heavy burdens fell upon women, children and the elderly. Men were strangers in their hometown and were scorned and poorly housed, where they worked.