WW1 Bavarian Death Card

[Witt]

Decided to show one of the first pieces I ever bought, with the help of my new 13 Pro camera. I found this at an antique store in the middle of nowhere plains of South Dakota years ago. It is the death card to an older Bavarian rifleman killed during fighting in one of the final months of the Great War.

Alois Bauer was an old man to be fighting in the trenches probably a career soldier in Bavaria well before the onset of WW1. Killed in 1918 at 36 years old, he was born in 1882/83. A Gefreiter in 10. Kompanie of the Königlich Bavarian 16th Infanterie-Regiment “Großherzog Ferdinand von Toskana”. A veteran fighter since the beginning in 1914 as noted by the card, Alois would have spent ‘14, ‘15, and much of ‘16 in France fighting notably in the battles of Lorraine (1914), the hell at the Somme (1916), and Arras (1917). There was the stint they did in the Carpathians fighting the Russians after leaving the Somme. On 18 July 1918, the regiment escaped fighting in Dammard and fought while falling back to Oulchy-le-Chateau by the 22nd of July. The four days of fighting saw considerable losses to the Bavarian rifles. Alois Bauer fell on 21 July 1918 to a grenade shot.

Awarded the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse, Bayern Militär-Verdienst-Kreuz 3.Klasse mit eisernen Schwertern 1917, and the Dienstauszeichnung 1913 für 9 Jahre. These seem to be right although the card uses different names.








Best, Ben

[AndyM35]

How sad that he was so close to outliving the war. He does appear to have that haunted look that so many soldiers of the Great War have in later studio portrait such as this.

It’s a great things that through forums such as this one, his memory is not forgotten.

[MAP]

I always find these cards amazing but sad. Nice find!