Death's-Head Totenkopf
Death's-heads - the skull and cross-bones - have been used as military devices in Germany, France, and England. At the outset of the Thirty-years War there were Bavarian troopers called Invincibles, with black horses, black clothing, and on their black helmets a white death's head ; their leader was Kronberger, and fortune favored them till Swedish Baner met them in Mecklenburg, March 1631. In more recent times there were Lutzow's Volunteers and the Black Jaegers.
Frederick the Great had a regiment of Death's-head Hussars. The device was adopted by the Prussian "Black Hussars" ("Death's-Head Hussars"), who were brought into existence by Frederick the Great in 1741. They wore a black uniform and a Death's-head instead of a cockade. The "Black Brunswickers," raised in 1809 by Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Oels (killed at Quatre-Bras, 1815), were likewise given a black uniform with a Death's-head as their badge, partly, it is said, as a token of mourning for the previous duke, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Auerstadt (October 14, 1806), in the war against Napoleon.
At the time of the Great War, three Prussian regiments, the Black Brunswickers and the Black Hussars, continued to wear a Death's head device. Besides these the 21st Battalion of Chasseurs of the Reserve in the German Army received permission in 1915 to place skulls on its nags and on the headgear of the soldiers, on account of their work "in breaking through the Russian lines near Lodz" during the Great European War of 1914.
The famous Italian condottiere, Giovanni de' Medici (1498-1526), called "Giovanni delle Bande Nere," was popularly given this title on account of the sombre mourning dress worn by his terrible bands of mercenaries after the death of his kinsman, Pope Leo X (1521). According to another account, the "Bande Nere," which Giovanni founded, were so called only after the death of their founder, when they changed their uniform from white to black, in token of grief.
In France a skull and crossed bones constituted the badge of the 9th Regiment of Hussars, which was formed in March, 1793, out of the second corps of "hussards noirs du nord." The device was apparently copied from that of the Prussian Black Hussars. The English 17th Lancers wqar as a badge on their head-dress and collar a skull and crossed bones, with the words "or glory " below, suggesting that the wearers of the badge are the "brave, who rush to glory or the grave" (Thomas Campbell, Hohenlinden). The object of this device (" Death or Glory "), which was introduced at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Colonel John Hale in 1759 (who was Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the newly formed corps), was to create emulation, and to commemorate the glorious death of General Wolfe at Quebec (1759). The 17th Lancers wear a similar device, cross-bones and a skull, on their appointments. To them it meant "Death or Glory," the death of the wearer, not the death of helpless women and children standing in the path of Hohenzollern ambition, nor their mutilation and torture.
The feeling was that of the Spartan band under their King Leonidas had who fell at Thermopylae (480 B.C.), and was well illustrated by the epigram of Simonides in the Greek Anthology (vii. 249) on the fallen heroes (English version by Bowles):-
" Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie."
Lord Neaves writes: " This Spartan obedience, which Simonides long ago celebrated, is that virtue which will in all times gain the ascendant both in war and in peace." With such epigrams may be compared others in the Greek Anthology, on the extreme patriotism of Spartan mothers. Amongst those quoted on this subject by H. P. Dodd,224 one by Dioscorides (Anth. Grace. Palat., vii. 434, English version by Goldwin Smith) may specially be noted:-
"Eight sons Demaenaeta at Sparta's call
Sent forth to fight; one tomb received them all.
No tear she shed, but shouted, ' Victory !
Sparta, I bore them but to die for thee.'"
"We are strong," said Napoleon, "when we have made up our minds to die "; but yet, victorious fighting and life are more valuable in a war than martyr-like death, and so it is not really surprising that words such as, "Pro patria mori, vivere est," "Dulce est pro patria mori".
The Kaiser's favorite regiment, stationed in Potsdam, was the Hussars of the Life-Guard. The Brigade of Life-Guard, or Death's Head, Hussars, were famous Prussian troopers who wore the emblem of the skull and crossbones (Totenkopf) on their black caps.
In Greek mythology Nemesis personified the moral law which chastises arrogance and wanton excess by the inexorable consequences of their own wrong-doing. So none who had offended could escape her. The Death's-Head Hussars were a perfect example of that boastful pride and transgression of the bounds of due proportion which it was the function of Nemesis to punish. By their name and their device they make a mock of the most solemn tragedy - of Death itself. Whether their emblem threatened death to others or signifies their own contempt for death it is a wanton and arrogant jest. The skull and cross-bones were the traditional device of pirates, and it well became those grim outlaws who declared a ruthless war against all mankind. There was no jest about it, but a dreadful seriousness, and their proper end was the yard-arm. But the Death's-Head Hussars were what is called a "crack" regiment, one officered by rich, aristocratic, and elegant young men, who have not set themselves against the world, but were very much of it. Nor were they any braver or more formidable than other regiments. To some the Death's-Head business was a silly and boastful affectation.
His Imperial and Royal Highness Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst Hohenzollern, the Crown Prince of Prussia was best known to most people outside Germany as Little Willie, a slender youth with a long nose and no chin. He was seen in most of his photographs dressed as a Death's Head Hussar, and caricaturists generally drew him in that uniform, which suited his long and lanky fignre. At eighteen he "came of age" and assumed the Royal and Imperial dignities and precedence, and in the same year (1900) was made a Lieutenant in the 1st Foot Guards, served three years in that rank, became a Cavalry Captain for four years, and a Major for six. His name appeared on the lists of eleven or twelve different German regiments, and he also belonged to the llth Spanish Dragoons. Up to the outbreak of the Great War he could be described as a keen regimental soldier up to a certain point. He was advanced to the command of the Death's Head Hussars at Danzig. Without any real knowledge of war he was quickly jumped up in rank from commander of a cavalry regiment to lieutenantgeneral, and given command of the largest group of army-corps.
The Kaiser's mother, the Empress Frederick, was once Colonel of the Death's Head Hussars. Princess Victoria Louise, the Crown Prince's sister, became Colonel of the regiment at the age of seventeen, a few days after her confirmation, and on that occasion the Kaiser, with his usual conception of tactless humor, distinguished himself by remarking to her English governess that, as Colonel, the Princess would ride at the head of the regiment with the army that invaded England.
The Bryce Commission Evidence reported (p. 127) "In August 1914 a Belgian peasant was living peacefully in his home with his wife and a tiny baby she was nursing at her breast. A patrol, led by a German officer who spoke Flemish, knocked at the door. The peasant did not not open it quickly enough in the officer's opinion, so it was smashed down. When the helpless and unoffending man came to ask what they were doing, he was told that he had not come quickly enough. His hands were tied behind his back and he was immediately shot. His wife put down her baby, and in her desperation threw herself, unarmed, upon her husband's butchers. She was killed by a blow on the head. One of the soldiers then deliberately transfixed the little baby and held it up in the air with its little arms still moving once or twice. The patrol belonged to "the regiment of Hussars with crossbones and ft death's head on their cap."
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