IR 69

The 69th Infantry Regiment issued field postcards decorated with particularly many motifs. Some of these show a portrait of the regiment’s owner Paul von Hindenburg, as I presented earlier in the post about the German Marshal. Other cards show battle scenes, heroically fighting 69 bucks, and there are also cap badge cards. Here I now present a postcard with a portrait of Hindenburg and a corresponding letter seal, together with a cap badge depicting the general.

The plate badge is one of the pieces of the Arkanzas company series presenting generals and politicians. In fact a good dozen of Kappenabzeichen feature Hindenburg, this company has also produced several versions. Interestingly, the badge with the regiment number does not match the one not numbered. For other badges, no different device was made for the production of portrait series and the regiment badge showing the same person. Here, the two badges are interestingly different, although the two are similar in shape.

The 69th Regiment was a house regiment in Szkesfehérvár, which was mostly deployed on the Russian front. A lot of memories and relics have survived. The posture of the portrait of the postcard is more like the badge of the general’s portrait, not so much of that of the regiment.