Introduction to
the Mystery
The German made 'Dragon' swords and belt
buckles have caused much confusion in modern museums and
collections as to their origins. The Wehrgeschichtliches Museum in Rastatt, Germany has
two such swords its collection, one for officers and one
for other ranks. Even this prestigious, academic museum
captions the items with, "Der genaue Verwendungszweck ist
bis heute unbekannt", which roughly translates as
"Their exact purpose is to this day unknown".They have appeared in
modern collections as far flung as America, Germany,
China, Great Britain and Thailand but have
never been seen worn by soldiers in period photographs, thus it is
unsure as to for whom they were originally intended for
manufacture and issue.
I first saw a Dragon belt buckle at the
Imperial War Museum in London as a teenager. This was
one of the mysteries that enticed me into my later lifelong
study of the uniforms and equipment of the German
Colonies. Since
starting this website many people have emailed me with
more photos of German made swords and belt buckles
featuring the Chinese Dragon instead of the Prussian
Eagle.
In this article I intend
to show several variations of the swords and belt
buckles photographed from great museums or shared with
me by private collectors and look at the various
theories surrounding their possible origins.
This article and its
conclusions would not have been possible were it not for
the generous contributions of readers' photographs from
their private collections and the research already done
in Arne Schöfert's
original article on "China-Waffen"
at
Traditionsverband
What We Know for Certain
What we do know for
certain is that both the swords and the belt buckles
were made in different factories to varying designs in
Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Types of Sword
Two standard types of German army sword are seen with
the Chinese dragon emblem on the hilt basket instead of the usual Prussian
eagle or state emblem. These are the 1889 Infantry
Officers Sword (M98 Infantrerie Offizierdegen or IOD) and the 1889 Cavalry Other
Ranks sword (M98 Kavallerie Degen).
M98 Infantry
Officer's Dragon Sword
Photo ©
Swords Antique Weapons
M98 Cavalry Other Ranks Dragon
Sword
Photo © David Chessmasterdee
Sword Markings
While the swords have no unit markings or monogrammed
inspection date stamps, they do have manufacturers
markings from various German armaments factories
including E&F Hörster and Weyerburg, Kirschbaum & Cie
both
of Solingen.
The lack of unit or date stamps would infer that they
were not standard issue to any German units. It does not
however mean that they could not have been used by
individuals in the German overseas armies.
Belt Buckles
Similarly, several Prussian 1895
brass belt buckles (M95
Koppelschloss)
have been seen in
modern museums and private collections made with a dragon emblem on a white metal
badge instead of the usual Prussian eagle or state
device. As was standard on German belt buckles they have no
unit, manufacturer or date stamps. They seem to have
been made by different manufacturers as details vary in
the design of the dragon. As yet no examples of
officers' dragon belt buckles have been seen.
Theories about the
Origins of the Dragon Swords
There are several
theories put forward as to which units or individuals
wore these
swords and belt buckles. We shall look at the ideas one by
one, the likeliness and surviving evidence of each of
them and from that try to assess which are the more
likely to be accurate.
Private Purchase Option for the
German East Asian Expeditionary Corps?
One postulated theory is that they were a private
purchase option for the German East Asian Expeditionary Corps of 1900
or their veterans. However, as mentioned no period photographs
that I have seen prove their
use by the East Asian Expeditionary Corps or veterans of
the unit. Likewise no mention has yet been found in
uniform regulations, veterans diaries or other German
sources of their being available for private purchase.
Private purchase items such as medal clasps or tropical
helmets were illustrated as such in journals of the
time, none of these have yet been seen with Dragon
swords on offer.
Of course the fact that
we have not come across reference to one yet does not in
itself deny their existence. It does however indicate
that if some were made available for the East Asian
Expeditionary Corps as a private purchase option, the
option was not advertised or taken up very commonly. Yet a fair few of
these items have turned up in museums, auctions and
private collections, more than one would expect for a
rarely used weapon.
This theory also does not explain the
numerous other ranks swords and belt buckles that are found. Private
soldiers did not usually buy their own belt buckles, weapons or
uniforms and again no period photographs have yet
surfaced showing their use by other ranks of the German
armed forces.
Chinese Company of the German
East Asian Expeditionary Corps?
The Imperial War Museum in London, England has an other
ranks Dragon belt in its collection, which was formerly
on display with the caption:
"Belt buckle of the
type worn by members of the Chinese company of the
German East Asian Expeditionary Corps in 1900. In 1908
this unit was reformed as a police force in Kiaochow."
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Period photographs of the
Chinese Company and Chinese Polizeitruppe are often difficult
to make out in detail. Those that can clearly be seen
usually show them them with plain brass buckles. Period
photographs show that Chinese mounted troopers in German
service wore open Prussian cavalry style buckles and in
one case a Prussian (rather than Imperial) belt buckle
is seen. I have seen no period photographs to prove that
they ever wore the Dragon belt buckle.
The Chinese Company and
later Polizeitruppe also cannot solve the mystery of the
Dragon swords. There were only ever twenty
or so mounted Chinese troopers to be issued with other
ranks swords and no locally recruited officers. Only one
period photograph that I have seen shows a dismounted Chinese senior NCO carrying a
German sword (in the photograph, his hilt cannot be
seen clearly enough to identify it). The Chinese unit was commanded by a single
German officer from the III.
Seebataillon. Even if both these senior ranks of the
Chinese company carried Dragon sword, for which
there is no proof, it still gives us many more officers
Dagon swords in modern private collections, that are
unaccounted for.
In short, there appears so
far to be no proven evidence at all that the Chinese
Company or Chinese Polizeitruppe ever used these belt
buckles or swords and a reasonable amount of evidence to
show that they did not.
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Chinese Polizei-Soldat,
Tsingtao Polizeitruppe
Photo from Bundesarchiv /
WikiCommons
He wears the standard blue/grey
Winter uniform with turban, curiously he is armed an Austrian
Mannlicher rifle, his belt buckle is
plain brass. |
Imperial Chinese Army?
The German arms industry was world renown and exported
weapons all over the globe, to countries as far spread
as Spain, Sweden, Ottoman Turkey, the Orange Free State,
most of Central and South America
and even China.
In his researches, Arne
Schöfert at
Traditionsverband has found at least three
descriptions of German Dragon swords being captured from
the Imperial Chinese Army during the Boxer Rebellion.
The first is a report from the storming of the Taku
Forts in June 1900.
"In the South Fort
at Taku an officer's sword was found of Prussian
construction with a dragon instead of the eagle on the
basket. On the blade was a Solingen factory logo."
(Quotation from 'Der Krieg in China' by J. Scheibert,
Berlin 1901)
Tying in with this report
is an other ranks Dragon sword in an Australian
collection, which was reputedly captured by the
Australian Victorian Naval Contingent also at Taku in
1900.
Another report is of the
capture of the village of Yang-Kot-Schwang (German
spelling) in December 1900, where Oberstleutnant Erich
von Gündell, Chief of General Staff of the East Asian
Expeditionary Corps came across:
"Some captured swords
were made in Solingen and carried on the basket the
Chinese Dragon instead of the Prussian Eagle. I
presented one to General von Lessel".
(Quotation from 'Als China erwachte: der Boxeraufstand'
by
Egbert Kieser,
Bechtle Verlag 1984)
The last is a report of
the contents of a captured Chinese arms depot as well as
many firearms from various sources and ammunition cases
(including 50,000 German Gew88 rounds packed in
Karlsruhe) they found:
"...also belt buckles,
cavalry sabres and officers swords of the same model as
used by the German army. Each item had instead of the
eagle, the Chinese dragon ".
(Quotation from 'Die Wirren in China' by A. von Müller, Berlin 1902)
These reports would seem
to prove that both types of sword and the
belt buckles were indeed used in quantities by the
Imperial Chinese Army and that they were therefore most
likely to have been made especially for export in bulk to China.
Note also that in all of the
witness descriptions, they seem to describe the weapon
as if it had not been seen before, rather than something
was commonly worn as a private purchase item by several
of their fellow officers.
Were any Dragon Swords ever
worn by German
East Asian Officers?
We seem to have
proven that rather than being intended for
the German East Asian Expeditionary Corps or their
Chinese Auxiliaries, these swords and belt buckles were
manufactured in Germany for export to the Imperial Chinese Army. That is not to say
however that they were never ever carried by individual
German officers.
In his memoirs (later published as 'Denkwurdigkeiten
Des General-Feldmarschalls Alfred Grafen Von Waldersee',
1922) the commander of the allied forces in China
describes the new uniform he was given by other officers
after most of his belongings were lost in a fire in
Peking in 1901. Along with a helmet from his bodyguard (Stabswache),
a tunic from the cavalry and boots from a judge (Oberkriegsgerichtsrat
Gelpcke) he records that he was given "a
sabre; it was a Chinese
officer's sabre manufactured in Germany, (donated) by a
Saxon Infantry Officer".
Also, have a look at the
last sword pictured on the left. It is a Weyerburg Kirschbaum & Cie,
Solingen officer's M89 IOD Dragon sword as seen in other
examples above. However this one shows the Imperial WII monogram
of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany on the grip.
These monograms were not
seen on the other swords shown on this page although
they are standard on similar swords of the Prussian army
and the East Asian Expeditionary Corps. It also has a
Prussian officers Portepee sword knot attached.
This then would appear to
show that it was carried by a Prussian officer, probably
either a serving or former member of the East Asian
Expeditionary Corps in China. Whether the owner
captured this sword in China and brought it back to have
the monogram added later or bought it complete as a
private purchase option, cannot be conclusively proven.
Conclusion
On the balance of
evidence, it appears that The Dragon Swords and Belt
Buckles were made in German largely or entirely
for export to the Imperial Chinese Army.
There is as
yet no
evidence to support theories that they were issued to the
German Chinese Company of 1900 or the later Tsingtao
Polizeitruppe. There is likewise no evidence to show that they
were commonly worn by German soldiers in China or that they we made
widely available in Germany as private purchase
options, though that is not to say that
none entered the private market. There is some evidence to
show that they were worn by at least some German
officers
in China or after returning from China, but these may
well have all been swords recaptured from the Chinese
during Boxer Rebellion rather than purchased by the
officers in Germany. The small number of Germans that
may have used these swords in no way accounts for the
large number of such items in modern collections.
Highly Recommended External
Link
Arne Schöfert's article on "China-Waffen"
at
Traditionsverband
Much of the evidence presented on this page is
originally from Arne's article.
Printed Sources
'Ergänzung zur Bewaffnung und Uniformierung der Chinesenpolizei in
Kiautschou" by Rolf Selzer
in
Zeitschrift für Heereskunde
'Denkwurdigkeiten
Des General-Feldmarschalls Alfred Grafen Von Waldersee',
1922
'Der Krieg in China' by J. Scheibert, Berlin 1901
'Als China erwachte: der Boxeraufstand'
by
Egbert Kieser,
Bechtle Verlag 1984
'Die Wirren in China' by A. von Müller, Berlin 1902
Other Recent Sightings of Dragon
Swords and Belt Buckles
Dragon Belt Buckle at
War Relics Forum
Dragon Belt Buckle at
Militaria Fund Forum
Hörster made Dragon
Cavalry Sword at
The Saleroom
Officers Dragon Sword at
here
Swords Antique Weapons
Officers Dragon Sword at
Swords Antique Weapons
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