kuk bodyguard infantry company

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The kuk Leibgardeinfanteriekompanie was one of a total of five guard formations of the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary .

The bodyguard infantry company poses in the Roman ruins in the Schönbrunn palace gardens, 1908

Position and duties

The guard of the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary consisted of:

In contrast to the Arcièren Life Guard and the ku Life Guard, the kuk Life Guard Infantry Company was not a pure officer guard , but consisted of non-commissioned officers of the Common Army in the lower ranks . Another difference lay in the fact that, among other things, in addition to the kuk bodyguard rider squadron and the satellite bodyguard, only the kuk bodyguard infantry company was a real guard in terms of its purpose, since the Arcièren bodyguard as well as the Hungarian bodyguard consisted only of established older men, who were the Membership of the Guard had been granted on an honorary basis. The Austro-Hungarian Guard cannot be compared with that of other monarchies, as it only reached very modest dimensions. The kuk Leibgardeinfanteriekompanie corresponded roughly to the personal company of the 1st Guard Regiment on foot in Prussia .

The Leibgard Infantry Company consisted of no more than 300 officers and NCOs who were seconded from their main troops for two to three years. The task was to maintain "security, order and morality" in the Vienna Hofburg , as well as in the gardens of the Schönbrunn and Laxenburg palaces .

Founded as the Hofburgwache by resolution of March 17, 1802, the company originally consisted of only 87 men. The workforce was then continuously expanded until it had reached 280 in 1839. With a strength of 278 men, it was renamed the Leibgardeinfanteriekompanie on September 1, 1884 and placed under the guards.

composition

The captain of the satellite bodyguard was at the same time the captain of the bodyguard infantry company. In addition to officers, there were the guard company commanders, the guard captain, the guard lieutenants and the guard lieutenants. The guard team consisted of the guard sergeants, the guard platoon leaders, the guard corporals (all of the sergeant-major rank of the army troops) and the guard infantrymen in the platoon leader rank of the army troops.

Adjustment

Parade adjustment

For the guards it consisted of a spiked hat with a horsehair bush, a skirt with epaulettes and an armpit cord, pantaloons, a coat or raincoat, gloves, ankle boots, waist belt, a guard saber with a portepee and dome and a rifle with a stabbed bayonet. In this equipment the company went out for daily guard duty in the Imperial and Royal Hofburg (in the presence of the Emperor), and also for all celebrations.

Guard captain

Officers wore spiked bonnets with horsehair bushes, skirts with epaulettes and bouillons, dark green pantaloons, cycling cloaks or winter cloaks, sabers with saber dome, portepee, with a field bandage, gloves, patent leather ankle boots, depending on orders. This adjustment was mainly worn at court festivals and other official, solemn events.

Service adjustment

  • Teams, first variant:
Spiked bonnet with horsehair bush, skirt without epaulettes, pantaloons, coat, gloves, guard saber with portepee and dome, as well as cartridge pouch but without rifle. This adjustment was prescribed for solemn church attendance and for all those cases in which the officers appeared with parade headgear.
  • Teams, second variant:
Adjustment of duty as before, but without horsehair bush, with epaulettes, depending on the order with rifle. This second variant was carried by the posts of the Hofburg in Vienna when the emperor was not present, also for patrol duty in the Hofburg , as posts in the court theaters, in the court museums and in the treasury.
  • Officers
Spiked bonnet without horsehair bush, skirt, blue-gray pantaloons, cloak, saber with dome, poertepee, field bandage, gloves and ankle boots. This adjustment was to be worn on all business occasions for which the parade adjustment was not required.

Outfit

  • The pimple hood consisted of a tin-plated tin hood with a sun and neck umbrella, which was covered with black enamel paint. The decorations were made of gold-plated metal. On the front of the hood was a chased, imperial double-headed eagle. The lower edge had a band-shaped gold-plated edging, on the upper side was a point to accommodate the black horsehair bush. There was a scale strap on the helmet, which usually remained on the screen and was only closed under the chin when an alarm was raised. The scale band consisted of two parts, each of which consisted of a rosette, the band, ten scales and a clasp. The metal parts of the helmet were made of tombac , in which the officers were gilded the fittings. The rosettes were decorated with a lion's head emblem, the scales of the ribbon formed matt-embossed bay leaf tips with berries.
  • The team's field cap was made of dark green cloth in the shape of an infantry chako. In the front center there was a loop made of black and yellow silk cord with a small, smooth, gold-plated button and above it a yellow silk rose with gold-embroidered "very high name" (FJI) on a black silk background.
  • The tunic was made of dark green cloth with a ponceau-red collar, lapels and passe-pile . The buttons in two rows of eight were smoothly gold-plated. The tunic of the guards officers resembled those of the men, but with patterned, gilded buttons, distinctions corresponding to the infantry officers. On each armpits there was a crimson-red padded crossbar made of gold web (so-called passers-by) which were used to attach the epaulettes. Officers' crossbars had a black stripe in the middle. The epaulettes and scaled tongues were made of tombac sheet metal with a double-headed eagle made of gray oxidized metal in the crescent moon. The officers' epaulettes had an embroidered double-headed eagle, the bulges of the crescents were made of gold cord. Golden bouillons were attached to the crescent moons. The armpit cord was only put on for parade purposes. It consisted of two braided plaits of unequal length, each with two accompanying cords and at each end with a gold-plated cord tip pressed from brass. For the men, the armpit cord was made of imperial yellow silk, for the officers of gold web. It was fastened on both armpits and carried across the chest.
  • The pantaloons were made of dark green cloth in the style of officers and fitted with ponceau-red passepoils
  • The coats were made of dark green cloth with ponceau-red passepoilation and parolis . Only at the bodyguard infantry there was the raincoat made of blue-gray loden, which had the shape of a cape.

Armament

The crew were armed with the guards saber, the officers with the infantry officer's saber. The guard saber had a smoothly ground and moderately curved blade of 77 centimeters. At the handle it was 2.7 centimeters wide. The blade was equipped with a double hollow grind. The notched handle made of wood was covered with fish skin, the saber hilt was made of brass. The scabbard was made of sheet steel and covered with blackened leather. Here, too, the fittings were made of brass.

The M 1888/90 repeating rifle from the Mannlicher system was used as a firearm. Unlike the normal army rifle, its fittings (fittings) were made of brass . The lower sling swivel was attached to the top of the magazine box instead of the piston. The rifle included a stab bayonet with a length of 44.5 centimeters. It was in a wooden sheath with a black leather cover. At the upper end there was a hook for hanging in the double pocket for saber and bayonet . The bag was carried on a black patent leather waist strap with an openwork, gold-plated clasp, always buckled. In the event of an alarm, two cartridge pouches were also deployed, each of which consisted of a leather box with a lid. The lid was closed by means of a strap and a brass button on the bottom of the box. On the cartridge pouch there was an emblem made of gold-plated tombac sheet, which represented the name FJI with a crown placed over it. The cartridge pouch was divided into four compartments and held six cartridge frames.

Distinctions

All teams wore three silk stars on their collars -

the guard infantry is also a 1.5 centimeter wide patterned bracelets made of imperial yellow silk, like the sergeant of the army.
the guard corporal also has a 1.8 centimeter wide ribbon made of imperial yellow silk with a one millimeter wide strip on each side.
The guardsman also had a two-centimeter-wide, double-patterned braid made of imperial yellow silk, each with a one-millimeter-wide stripe woven in the middle.
the guard sergeant had an additional 2.2 centimeter wide, patterned braid made of imperial yellow silk with a two millimeter wide stripe woven into the middle

Officers wore the badges of rank according to the regulations for infantry officers.

literature

  • Seidel's little army scheme. Dislocation and division of the Imperial and Royal Army, the Imperial and Royal Navy, the Imperial and Royal Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Landwehr. Seidel & Sohn, Vienna (verified: 8.1881 - 61.1907, OBV , as well as 72.1912 (November) - 6.1913 (December),  ZDB -ID 2361602-7 and 76.1914 (August)).
  • Ludwig Bittner (Ed.): Complete inventory of the Vienna House, Court and State Archives. Volume 2: History and inventories of the archives of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen, the court staff and the cabinet archive. Holzhausen, Vienna 1937, ZDB -ID 290912-1 , p. 347 ff., OBV .
  • Oskar Brüch (Ill.), Günter Dirrheimer (comment): The Austro-Hungarian Army. A series of images. (= Writings of the Army History Museum in Vienna. Volume 10). Stocker, Graz 1997, ISBN 3-7020-0783-0 .
  • Rolf M. Urrisk-Obertyński: The kuk bodyguards at the Austro-Hungarian court, 1518-1918. Weishaupt, Gnas 2004, ISBN 3-7059-0203-2 .
  • Austrian State Archives / War Archives (Vienna)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Military news. (...) The Life Guard Infantry Company (...). In:  Wiener Sonntags-Zeitung / Wiener Sonn- und Mondags -Zeitung , No. 31/1894, July 30, 1894, p. 2, center right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wsz.
  2. ↑ Seidl's army scheme.jpg

Web links

Commons : Austro-Hungarian military uniforms  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Austro-Hungarian military uniforms in details  - collection of images, videos and audio files