An Undated Group Photo of Young Men (Trainees? New Recruits?)
Inspired by the provocative period images that Tony often posts on his excellent blog, Tin Soldiering On, I thought that I would share an image that I found particularly arresting. I ran across the above while noodling around on ebay (where you can find many old military portraits and photos). This one caught my eye so much so that I went ahead and bought the physical artifact. It is undated, but depicts a group of German hussars, certainly in the era before the Great War. And very young troopers they are.
Then again, it may just be that they seem young to my eyes now--when I was in my early years of service, I (and my contemporaries) probably looked just as young to our seniors, even if we didn't think of ourselves as such. Above, portrait of the Meanderer shortly after arriving at his first posting as a 2nd Lt (also in the cavalry).
Speaking of which, perhaps it is just me, but unlike many of the rather formulaic soldier portraits of the time, this one jumps out as very contemporary and relatable: it could be any group of comrades at any time. As a product, it seems to be a photo not unlike the ones that they still take and provide today (the photo of the Meanderer, above, was such a one, taken by a contract photographer in 1982: yes, they had color photography then). Getting back to the old(er) photo, the writing on the picture says "Stube 74": which translates (literally) to "Room 74." So my surmise is that these are barracks-mates. Most likely, each group was photographed and the pictures reproduced and made available for purchase (I'm sure that they were bought and sent home to relatives, as were those in my day--in the pre-digital age). Perhaps other similar groups had more stiff and generic "stand to attention" looks, but this crew seems very lively--you can just imaging them getting ready for the shot, deciding on all having a smoke in their hands and then striking their poses for the photo. Anyway, enough blather. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX. Below, I've divided the photo into 3 expanded studies for easier viewing.
If every picture tells a story, there are many that can be told here.
Excelsior!
Very nice and very interesting photograph, a real study in time.
ReplyDeleteYes. This one does capture the imagination.
DeleteThose German troopers look very young, indeed, and so do you!
ReplyDeleteIndeed: portraits taken about one century apart, but the young faces seem virtually interchangeable.
DeleteI find old photographs endlessly intriguing,.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree!
DeleteThere are loads of « just off to the war » studio photos available here in France that can be picked up at our equivalent of car boot sales for pennies. They all look so young and so earnest.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed sobering to conceive of what became of the confident, cocky young men in these sorts of photographs.
DeleteYes, they all look way too young. But we’re also old now, and the young can’t conceive that we were once them.
ReplyDelete(I’m almost 50. That counts as getting old. At the very least I am no longer young. 😀)
At least at our age (old or pushing old...) we can look at historical pictures from before our time and not feel like we are "history" too (at least not quite yet).
DeleteA great photo and I do love looking at these, but I always wonder what happened to them in their careers?
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of "Seven Men of Gascony" by Delderfield. A novel, but the conceit is the same.
DeleteA cracking photo Ed…
ReplyDeleteThese days everyone looks young to me 😁
When is see pictures of my young self there is definitely a touch of ‘The past is a foreign country’ about them…
All the best. Aly
All the best. Aly
I had forgotten that aphorism about the past being a foreign country--like so many things, the older one gets (particularly in this instance), the more sayings like that signify.
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