South West African Schutztruppe Reiter

 
     
 

 
 

Photo © JW Collection

This photograph shows an unknown South West African Schutztruppe Reiter wearing the grey home uniform with blue collar and piping down the front. Note the white Litzen (with a red centre stripe) and the shoulder straps of twisted cords in the imperial colours. On his left breast he wears the 1904-08 South West Africa Campaign Medal for service in the Herero Rebellion.

His headdress is the Schutztruppe Südwester hat in grey felt again with blue edging and hatband.

This photograph was taken by F Heinhuber who worked out of Sonthofen, Immenstadt and Oberstorf in Bavaria c1907-14. It is most likely that the photograph was taken in or near the soldier's hometown and that he himself was therefore Bavarian.

 
     
 
Please contact me here if you have other photographs of the German colonies or the soldiers and sailors that served there. I am especially keen to hear from people with family photograph collections and am always happy to try to assist in identifying uniforms, units, places and dates for family history research.

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