The soldiers of the Monarchy knew the names of only a few of the German generals, therefore it was rarely worth making a badge with their portrait. The name Hermann von Staabs didn’t mean anything to me, but since his badge exists, I just googled it. As you might have guessed, von Staabs, who was promoted to general of infantry in 1917, then served as corps commander. But of course, during an important period of his service, he fought in cooperation with Austro-Hungarian troops.
This took place in the second half of 1916, after the Romanian declaration of war. The newly appointed commander of the XXXIX. reserve corps, Staabs soon found himself on the Transylvanian front, attached to Falkenhayn’s 9th Army. Here, he first distinguished himself during the recapture of Brassó, and then in November in the mountains of Fogaras, where his task was to stop the Romanian counterattack. Later, his troops took part in the occupation of Ploesti and Bucharest. He received the Order of Honor for his activities in Transylvania. There were also Austro-Hungarian troops under Falkenhayn’s command, which is where von Staabs’s name became known in the Monarchy.