Semper talis
Semper talis ( Latin : always the same ) is the motto of the guard battalion at the Federal Ministry of Defense and the associated traditional association of the 1st Guards Regiment on Foot and its successor associations (Semper talis Bund eV).
The motto Semper Talis was already embroidered on the grenadier caps of the giant guard of the soldier king , Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, and was retained by the successor associations. The 1st Battalion of the 1st Guards Regiment on foot wore a tape over the helmet eagle of the spiked hood until 1918 , the so-called Semper Talis tape. On the grenadier caps of the Russian pattern, which had been given to this regiment by the Russian tsar and which were only worn on special occasions, the 1st Battalion had a similar metal label.
After the regiment had received new grenadier caps of the Frederician pattern from the Prussian king (1st battalion again with Semper Talis ribbon), the earlier grenadier caps were given to the Kaiser Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 and the tapes were removed. For this reason, there are still two holes in the cap shield above the guard star of surviving pieces from the 1st Battalion, in which the fastening eyelets of the Semper Talis tape used to be.
After the First World War and the dissolution of the Old Army units, the Semper Talis Bund e. V. as an association for the former members of the 1st Guards Regiment on foot. The tradition was in the Reichswehr initially the 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment and the Army transferred renamed Infantry Regiment 9 in Potsdam and maintained until the 1945th
After the guard battalion was set up at the Federal Ministry of Defense in 1957, contacts with the Semper Talis Bund were immediately established and the tradition was subsequently taken on.
In connection with the discovery of the Möllendorff badge , the tradition was also recognized by the Federal President . Since the middle of the 19th century, this sword was carried on foot in the 1st Guard Regiment and then into the 9th Infantry Regiment. In 1945 it was buried in Potsdam by the last porter to protect it from the advancing Red Army and only dug up again in 1991 by his sons. The question to the Federal President's Office as to who this sword now belongs to or who is the legal successor of the regiments mentioned was answered by the then Federal President, Richard von Weizsäcker , who was himself a captain in the 9th Infantry Regiment, to the effect that the sword was to be given to the guard battalion, there it continues the tradition of the regiments.
According to No. 22, Paragraph 2 of the Traditional Decree of 1982, however, “traditions of units of former German armed forces” are not awarded to units of the Bundeswehr.