Cockade for Heer Schirmütze ?

[johnschou]

Could this be a Cockade for an Army Visor ? Can anyone telle more about it ?
Regards
John

[spandau]

Hi

It is indeed a cockade for a military cap and was used on the Army visor.

It is called the national cockade and was introduced by The Kaiser in 1897 in order (among other things) to help provide a sense of national identity to the armed forces.

Before this the only cockade worn on Army caps was a state cockade in the centre of the cap band. The national cockade was worn in the middle top of the cap crown.

This practice was stopped in 1919 when the reichsadler of the weimar republic was introduced and the state cockade was put in place of the national one. Hindenburg re-instated the national cockade in 1933 and it was worn in the centre of the cap band in the middle of the stamped metal wreath.

The example here is the lower profile one which was replaced in 1936 when the second pattern wreath was introduced. This example was too small and did not protrude enough over the thicker wreath.

The 1956 bundeswehr took the cockade on and it is still found on the german military cap of today !


Hope this paints a bit of background to an small but historically significant piece of militaria.

cheers

tony

[johnschou]

Hi Tony
Nice explanation, it is very elaborate and gives me a lot of info.
Thanks a lot
Regards
John

[Andymelvin06]

That's one in good nick, here's one I dug up from a WW2 POW camp in the south of England two days ago. Thanks for posting yours as it helped me identify mine! Best wishes, Andy.

[spandau]

did you find the pound as well ?

[Andymelvin06]

Always finding the damn things, just not that one! Bottle tops are common on this site so just as well I had my wits about me the other day.
Regards, Andy.

[spandau]

Andy,

A good find indeed and good luck in your future searches !

cheers

tony