Prussian chaplain uniforms 1880-1910

[theBaron]

Hi, all!
Does anyone have any references or illustrations of what the Prussian chaplains, the Feldprediger, wore prior to 1910 and the implementation of the field gray uniform. I've got or can find enough images of chaplains in field gray, especially in the Great War. And I've get references for what they wore in Frederick the Great's army (eg, Bleckwenn, Knötel, Menzel). But I can't find anything for the period from the debacle in 1806 up through 1910.

I'm particularly interested in the uniforms in the Imperial army, from the unification up to 1910.

I have Paul Pietsch's 2-volume set, and it doesn't cover Feldprediger. Neither does my cigarette card album, "Uniformen der Alten Armee".

Did they continue to wear a version of civilian pastors' dress, for example, in black, in all that time?
By the 1880s, had they been given the frock coat but in black, or in Prussian blue?

If anyone has any images, please post them. Maybe we can add a post in the Uniform subforum then, too.

Thanks in advance, prosit!
Brad

 

[Nap]

Hi Brad

https://thechaplainkit.com/chaplains/foreign-chaplains/germany/

Might be of some help

Nap

 

[theBaron]

Thanks, Nap, I'll take a look. When I ran some web searches, they returned that site. I visited it, and searched on "prussian" which returned no results, so I didn't go deeper. It looked like it focused on the American army.

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

A post-script...for German chaplains, apart from an illustration from 1902 depicting a chaplain conducting a service aboard ship, Chaplain's Kit starts with WWI and field grey.

The illustration shows the chaplain (Lutheran) in pastor's robe, but it's still unclear whether that was just to preside over a service, or if that was his duty uniform.

Still looking...

 

[Dr Bison]

Hi Brad,

I've searched around a bit in my library, but couldn't find anything on the Prussian chaplains - until today.
The first one is from a 1896 book, and the important part is the "military chaplains in their robes are to be saluted by the other ranks" - which seems to mean that they wore their usual black clothes...


...and then I stumbled over Jürgen Kraus' "Die feldgraue Uniformierung des deutschen Heeres 1908-1918" (again from Verlag Militaria):

(images from volume 2, pp. 941-943)

So, in other words, until 1908 the chaplains wore their ordinary church clothes, from 1908 - 1913 they wore a black "uniform" with different hat styles plus a violet brassard with it (on it the red cross on a white background plus 2 white stripes at the top and the bottom) and only in 1913 they started to wear a real proper military uniform in field grey.

Maybe you can get hold of the source mentioned on p. 941: Arnold Vogt, Die Dienst-"Bekleidung" und Uniformen der Feldgeistlichen bis zum Ende der alten Armee, which appeared in the "Zeitschrift für Heereskunde" ...

Good luck with your hunt.

Cheers
Karl

 

[theBaron]

Danke dir, Karl!

That's similar to, and more detailed than, what I've found so far about the Feldseelensorge. From a the article, "Feldprobst" in German Wikipedia, for example, I learned more about the organization of military religious care, which suggested that the field bishops (evangelical and Catholic) and the chaplains were more quasi-commissioned, than their counterparts in the British or American armies, for example. They had close relationships to the civilian church organizations. Images suggested the same thing, that they were in a position half-military, half-civilian (or maybe better, clerical).

I found it interesting, too, that Cardinal Faulhaber was a veteran of the Great War, where he served as the Bavarian Feldprobst.

I'll see if I can find the Vogt article; thanks for that tip! I also have 2 boxes of "Zinnfigur" and a box of the journal of the Swiss "Gesellschaft der Freunde der Zinnfiguren" that I need to go through (I've inherited the task of storing those for the MFCA).

This chase is whetting my appetite for coming up with a figure or two, too.

Nochmal, vielen Dank, mein Alter!
Prost!
Brad

 

[Nap]

Hi Guys

This is a fascinating thread bringing up lots of very interesting information

I for one certainly look forward to seeing a figure or two from Brad

Keep researching folks

Nap