Service in the Bavarian Army
May 5, 2008 by djpoint
This military man in this photograph is my great-grandfather, Joseph Bergmeister (1873-1927). It is the only known photo of him, but we knew little about the uniform he wore or his military service, only that he was from Bavaria. Fortunately, I worked with someone who knew everything about the German military. Just from the photograph he was able to determine exactly which uniform it was, and I was later able to confirm his guess after more research.
What you can not tell from the photo is that the uniform is light blue in color! It is from the Bavarian Leib Regiment, or the Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie Leib Regiment. This roughly translates to the Royal Bavarian Infantry Life Guard Regiment. The regiment began in 1814 to protect the royal family, and it was headquartered in Munich at the royal palace.
According to my co-worker, “Such troops would have been elitist by definition, and patriotic to the core. Entrance requirements and training would have more rigorous than for normal line regiments. Peacetime service would have also been markedly different from the line troops. The Leib unit would have been called upon to serve every public protocol attended by the sovereign, much like a Presidential Honor Guard today. Everything would have been ‘spit and polish’ with a high degree of military etiquette.”
I am not sure how my great-grandfather came to be in such a unit, but I know he served for only two years: 1893-95 when he was 20-22 years old. Other than this photo, a wonderful large composite photo of his entire company, and his regimental beer stein, he left no other remnants of his service. What exactly did he do? Where did he serve? Did he like it? I’m sure he’d be proud to know that he had many grandchildren and great-grandchildren who served in all four branches of the U.S. military, including an Army Brigadier General and a Marine security guard.
If he did serve at the royal palace in Munich, he may have witnessed some interesting events. I found this article in the New York Times archive, dated November 16, 1893:
Was my great-grandfather was there? I don’t know, but I don’t think that the older sister got to marry her true love either…it looks like she married Count Otto von Seefried about two weeks later. I doubt he was a lieutenant in the Bavarian Army!
Donna:
What a wonderful photograph and analysis! How fortunate you were to have a co-worker with so much knowledge.
Thanks for the history lesson by way of your family; I enjoyed your very well written post.
fM
P.S. BTW Is there any information on the photographer and the period of time he was in business? The photograph may have been taken to commenorate Joseph’s enlistment or to memorialize his departure from the service.
I really enjoyed this post - a terrific photo and loads of interesting information, thank you so much!
Thanks!
fM, I did try to do a little research on the photographer - trying to learn by your fine example. Much of it is in German, however. I did learn today that his son became a rather famous film director! I think the photo was taken as he went in…if I can get it off of my cousin, there is a wonderful group photo with all of their individual portraits. It is quite large, and very nice. I hope to post more on that one day.
I also have another photo by the same photographer of a man I believe to be Joseph’s first cousin…still doing a little more research on that. The uniform looks similar, except the other guy has a sword!
I also have a photo of 2 men in uniform photographed
by F.H. Ostermayr - Munchen. One has the golden band
on his collar the other looks like he has a tassel or
sheath on his left side. I don’t know who they are but
are some one on either side of my Bavarian grandparents.
I will post it so you can see the photo. Jewelgirl
The photograph is a small size cabinet card.
Maybe aprox 4 X 3 on hard cardboard.
It has a number on back No. (written in
pencil - 89764). It could be of a simular
time period as your photo, I have no clue
as to who it is but definitely was in my
family if it was in my grandmothers attic.