2106
Winterauktionen 24.–25.11.2023
Baden army shako
Baden 1840s. Felt, leather, cardboard, fabric and brass. The shako of a Baden infantryman is decorated with a crowned Baden griffin and the letter «L» as front decoration for Grand Duke Leopold, a chain of scales above the front visor and a cockade.
H 23, W 26,5 cm.
The shako is a military cap of Hungarian origin, which was also introduced in Baden by order of 26 March 1823. This example was worn by a soldier in the battle for Staufen against Gustav Struve's Freischaren (i.e. irregular volunteer military) on 24 September 1848.
Gustav Struve had proclaimed the German Republic in Lörrach on 21 September. This revolutionary event in the Grand Duchy of Baden, known as the Struve Putsch or the Second Baden Uprising, was put down by the Baden troops under General Friedrich Hoffmann in the battle of Staufen.
«General Hoffmann, the Baden Minister of War, commanded the two infantry battalions and one cavalry squadron, a total of approximately 800 men, who had marched towards Struve coming from Freiburg. Hoffmann attacked the insurgents, who had entrenched themselves in the town with makeshift barricades, from the west. They could not withstand the artillery fire for long and soon the military stormed the town. After two hours, the battle for the last houses was over. Eleven irregulars as well as five Staufen citizens and one soldier were killed.» from: Catalogue Badisches Landesmuseum p. 226. The shako was found after the battle in Staufen.
Provenance: private collection Markgräflerland.
Restoration report: Badisches Landesmuseum, 01.10.1997.
Exhibition: 1848/49, Revolution der deutschen Demokraten in Baden, Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe 27.02. - 02.08.1997.
Literature: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Ed.), 1848/49, Revolution der deutschen Demokraten in Baden, Baden-Baden 1998, No. 336, pp. 225 - 226.

Condition report