Backyard snapshot member of Freiwilliges Jäger-Bataillon Schill.

[Eiserne Wehr]

The following photograph shows a member of Freiwilliges Jäger-Bataillon Schill with the distinctive eagle head collar insignia, one of the best and most impressive looking Freikorps insignia made if you ask me. On his belt he wears a Grabendolch with a officer troddel and a rarely seen pistole holster made from cloth. This snapshot could be made on military grounds but i like to picture it being just in the backyard from where he lives. Not sure what the black marking denotes on his right shoulder, most likely it is just an attempt to colour in a damaged spot of the photograph. Sadly, like quite a few of the photographs that i own, there is nothing on the back of this photograph other than the mentioning of the photograph developing company.

[bolewts58]

Here's mine.

 

 

An example of the collar badge (sorry for the quality).

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2024 by bolewts58

[Eiserne Wehr]

Fantastic photograph, thank you for showing it. Like these eagle heads of Schill i wonder why Freikorps units chose that specific design they ended up using, who proposed the design? Where were these insignia produced, locally or by a factory who made Pickelhaube insignia for example? Sometimes you can observe a few individuals with their Freikorps unit insignia and a few that lack it(like your photograph), are they still waiting for the insignia to be made and arrive or do they lack the funds? Could it be that they still needed to earn their "stripes" before obtaining the unit insignia?

[bolewts58]

Some early Freikorps insignia was off the shelf from existing stocks. A good example of this is the oakleaf collar badge worn by Freiwilliges Landjägerkorps, a readily available insignia worn by many hunt clubs in Germany. I don't think there is any currently available information about who manufactured most of the specialized Freikorps insignia. I assume that information originally existed in the Freikorps archives which were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1944. I would guess that manufacturers that supplied Imperial uniform insignia made some of it. Some well-known manufacturers like Deschler, Godet, Wagner, Fleck, AWS, Timm, St&L and Beco made Freikorps insignia. Deschler, for example made most of the Bavarian Freikorps insignia. Heinrich Timm was a major manufacturer of both Freikorps insignia and awards. But generally it's hard to know who made a lot of it.

 

Here is a generic insignia catalogue from the period showing hunting and gun club insignia adopted by Freikorps units.

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:26 by bolewts58

[Eiserne Wehr]

Those oak leaves and acorn type, including variation versions, are very commonly seen in all sorts of Freikorps units, so going by your information i assume they adopted it because it was readily available and the easiest and quickest way to distinguish themselves from same field gray wearing reds? Many wear in addition to the oak leaves and acorn collar insignia a dedicated Freikorps unit insignia, so even though they have by then insignia of their own many kept the oak leaves and acorn type insignia on their collar. Going alone by that page you showed there a quite a few symbols used by Freikorps as their insignia except the Roe deer. The second row also shows:

Einwohnerwehr Bayern - Fichtelgebirgsgau

Freikorps Eulenburg

[Bernd_W]

3 hours ago, Eiserne Wehr said:

The second row also shows:

Einwohnerwehr Bayern - Fichtelgebirgsgau

Freikorps Eulenburg

These are just buttons, IMO never used by Freikorps, even if the design resembles somehow the Freikorps insignia you mentioned. But, its not the same. The stag is far more elaborate and the Eagle is holding nothing in his hands.

 

I doubt a small insignia like the oak leave collar tabs would have served the purpose to distinct the own men in combat. Whats for sure was used for this purpose it the swastika worn by Marinebrigade Loewenfeld onto the left side of the helmet during the Red Ruhr Uprising. But it was cast-off very quick, because it did not succeed for the purpose of distinction. 

 

So, from this, its to assume the arrow worn by Jäger-Battalion 37 (Roßbach) at front and side of the helmet, served the same purpose. Klietmann suggests this in his work on Roßbach.

And also the white armbands worn in late 1918 and early 1919 in Berlin an Munich, might have served this purpose. The "Reds" wore red armbands at this time. During the Munich soviet Republic and the Uprising in Wilhelmshaven.

Out of:

https://www.armeemuseum.de/images/publikationen/2018_Katalog_Friedensbeginn_online.pdf

 

Perhaps also the SSOS armband served the distinct purpose. It was widely worn by the Selbstschutz, but seems to have been not mandatory, because Klietmann mentioned for the Schwarze-Schar Bergerhoff they did not wore it.

 

The small insignia, like the oak leaves collar were IMO mostly worn because of pride, see this period ad for the Landesjägerkorps. Its mentioning the oak leaves collar and that they are troops under the command of Noske.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 18:49 by Bernd_W