A multitude of propaganda badges were created in the Monarchy to maintain war enthusiasm. Some of these have been issued by official bodies such as the Office of Military Assistance (KFA-Kriegsfürsorgeamt). A lot of badges were made by jewelers, private badge makers, on a business basis. Thus, an almost opaque amount and variety of badge masses were distributed to the great delight of collectors.
The message of badges is simple. Most of the time, they symbolized perseverance, faith in the success of the war effort, loyalty to the ruler, homeland, and arms friendship. In addition to badges, many postcards with similar content were made. In this post, I present a postcard and badge promoting arms friendship, ally cohesion.
The specialty of the card is a kind of “strangeness”. On the postcard we see four soldiers: a German, a Turkish and two warriors of the Monarchy. The question, of course, is why is the Monarchy crew outnumbering? A small variation in the uniforms provides the answer to the question. The trousers of the right-wing soldier show an ornate sleigh on the thighs, while the trousers of the other monarchical goat are unadorned. This faithfully reflects the difference in contemporary uniforms. The soldiers of the regiments from the Austrian provinces wore unadorned trousers, and the personnel recruited in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary wore the so-called “Hungarian trousers”.
The separate presentation of Hungary, in essence, appeared in more and more areas after the 1867 Compromise between Austria and Hungary. It is not only that after a long tug, Emperor Franz Joseph was forced to crown himself king of Hungary. The inclusion of the Hungarians in the top political leadership and the autonomy of the Kingdom of Hungary in many areas also brought about a change in the organization of the armed forces. The Hungarian Armed Forces was organized on the basis of territorial protection, and its bodies were under the control of the Hungarian government. The uniforms of the Hungarian troops also showed minor differences, not only in the Honvéd units, but also in the common regiments. Thus, the Hungarian trousers were also introduced in the common infantry regiments recruited in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary.
The beautiful and rare propaganda badge attached to the post, like many other badges, also contains the Hungarian national colors. Thus, the flag ornaments of four countries can be seen on it under the wings of a two-headed eagle symbolizing the supremacy of the Habsburg Monarchy. The script on the card states: “We want to overcome, we must overcome!”