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    Amazing Nassau Inf Rgt 88 group


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    mob69.jpg

    A picture of the 69th during mobilization.

    This is really fantastic and it tracks entirely with my understanding of one-year volunteer use and promotion early in the war so I wasn't that far off!

    I recommend you read when you get a chance the first several chapters of Jeffrey Verhey's book entitled The Spirit of 1914. The subtitle is militarism, myth and mobilization in Germany. The social historians and specifically this book have done an admirable job in the last several years really bashing the spirit of 1914. This book ties it all together quite well I think. Clearly this soldier was a young man of some privilege and much education who embrace the idea of mobilization. The crux of the theorem is that this was a bourgeois phenomena. He also goes on to explain how most of those parading for mobilization were located in Berlin and only small numbers in outlying cities such as Trier. He does a masterful job in footnoting the newspapers and the political leanings both of those educated enough to write memoirs and diaries and those members of the proletariat who could not. This seems to be a sterling example! Simply sterling! Thanks for the work you have done on this.

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    Chris,

    I had started writing another article when my mind went back to Mr. Weber. Do you have documentation that shows this guys education before mobilization? He clearly was a one-year volunteer in the 88th. As such he had free agency and did not have to live near the regiment. Do you know where he lived in 1912? However, he did have certain tests to pass and it seems as though based on his student hat, that he actually attended a University. How far did this guy go? Upon mobilization when he was handing out uniforms, does the diary give out any more information about where those uniforms were stored? Was it from the company Kammer? In the mix of issue items and private purchase items he seems to have both and it is not clear why. One -year volunteers were supposed to provide their own stuff or at least pay for it. However there exist examples of issued helmets with one-year volunteer identification tags in them. Why? There seem to be several possibilities and perhaps Weber's documentation can help explain this. Could they rent equipment and clothing from the government? Could they buy it from government stores? Were they just issued a bunch of stuff upon mobilization regardless of one year volunteer status? I'm always searching and this is a real treasure trove!

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    • 2 weeks later...

    Indeed... in his diary he mentions capturing a Frenchman and taking his pistol and bayonet.

    I think French infantry did not have pistols, it was either an officer... or someone who did not have a rifle but had a pistol and probably NOT a bayonet as he had no rifle...

    As this was with the group, I am taking a loooong jump of the imagination and assuming it is the "Bayonet" he took off the French soldier.

    Best

    Chris

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