Units such as the
Imperial Navy (including the Marine Infantry), the Schutztruppe (and
colonial police) and the East Asian Occupation Brigade from 1901,
were under direct Imperial command and therefore only wore the
single Imperial cockade.
The Imperial German army
back home was made up of units from the different German kingdoms
and duchies (Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony etc). In addition to the
imperial cockade they wore their state cockade in different national
colours on their headdress.
Overseas units that did
wear both imperial and state cockades included the East Asian
Expeditionary Corps (until 1901), the Georgian Mission (most of whom
were Bavarian), the Pascha Expeditions and other German army units
posted to the Ottoman Empire. In addition individual army officers
seconded from their home units to the Schutztruppe or other overseas
service retained their home unit's state cockade.
These state
cockades were worn below the imperial cockade on the field cap,
Südwester and East Asian Expeditionary Corps straw hat. On the
Pickelhaube and Jäger-style shako they were worn under the left hand
side chinstrap boss. On Jäger-style shakos they also replaced the
oval cockade worn on the front where applicable. The different
colours for state cockades are illustrated below.
The photograph
above left shows an imperial cockade above a Hamburg cockade worn on a
the tropical helmet of an officer of the 76th Hamburg Infantry
Regiment seconded to the colonies.
Photo © Mark Schellenberg at
the Internationales Maritimes Museum,
Hamburg
Photo ©
The photograph
above centre shows an imperial cockade above a Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen
cockade on a 1900 straw hat from the East Asian
Expeditionary Corps. The tiny
Principality of Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen (white/blue/white cockade,
confusingly similar to the white/pale blue/white of Bavaria)
only contributed one battalion of infantry to the imperial army, namely
the
III. Battalion of the 71st Thuringian Infantry Regiment. And only one
officer from that battalion served in the East Asian Expeditionary
Corps, thus enabling us to identify this unique hat as belonging to
Leutnant von Stockhausen.
Photo © Mark Schellenberg at
the Internationales Maritimes Museum,
Hamburg
The photograph
above right left shows an imperial cockade above a Prussian reserve
cockade worn on a Südwester of a pharmacist of the Schutztruppe. The owner of this hat was a seconded Prussian reserve officer, hence the addition of the Prussian
officers cockade with a reserve cross on it.
Photo © Mark Schellenberg at
the Internationales Maritimes Museum,
Hamburg |