German Forestry Knives

[Diz]

Axel,

Many thanks for your answer to my question. We have the forest service here but I don't believe they have the same duties as their German counterparts. I also didn't realize that you were a Forester and so speaking from experience. I think knowing about the related subjects is as important as the guns.

Thanks again and Happy New Year to you and your family.

Diz

[Axel E]

Mike, this will be a lengthy answer to two apparently simple questions!
First, for general understanding: German forester uniforms and the related objects, like Hirschfänger and hats, were never "government issue" like military ones. Foresters got extra "clothing money" and had to buy their own stuff. The outfits were mostly made by local taylors, hatters and cutlers to a general pattern, but open to the fashion trends of the time. The dress uniforms were seldom worn, so one set most often lasted for the service life of a forester. 40 years ago a formal assembly of foresters, when the "A-Frack" or "Sarasani – Anzug" (nicknamed such after a famous European circus) was to be worn, you had a comprehensive overview of the changing trouser fashions since WW2, wide and baggy to very slim cut tubes.
So it was with Hirschfänger also. they were made and bought to personal preferences, either elaborate to gaudy just for show, or as relatively unadorned, usable tools. Of course, the survival rate of the rarely used decorative examples is higher, in part as these looked more attractive to GIs in 1945.
Remember, the Hanoverian regulations still distinguished a decorative"Hirschfänger" as worn by high ranks and the businesslike "Kuto" worn by the lower ranking real professionals. Even during the first half of the 19th century both types were commonly lumped together under the monicker "Hirschfänger", as the "Kuto" was described then as "a short, wide bladed Hirschfänger".
The Hirschfänger developed from the hunting sword about 1650 to 1750, the heyday of "Parforce" hunting of stags. Red deer, boar and other species, but not roe deer, are still classified as Hochwild = noble game in Germany. Hunting them was reserved to the heads of the many German states. Parforce was a very formal affair, involving the prince, his noble courtiers, guests, many professional hunters, horses and hounds. It is still practised in some locations of France and England. The whole entourage would move out to a splendit "hunting lodge" and have a magnificent breakfast. Meanwhile the professional hunters and foresters would have located some worthy stags. The prince decided which one was to be hunted. Then the stag was stirred up and a large pack of hound set on the track. The nobles (and some professionals) followed the pack on horseback until the stag gave up and stood, fending off the hounds. Now the lord of the hunt could apply the coup de grace or he could give the honor to one of his guests. Of course all the noble courtiers carried an elaborate Hirschfänger, just in case the sovereign would eventually grace them with the honorable task. There was no danger to the dignitary, as the professionals had most often immobilized the stag by cutting the tendons and holding the antlers. The select nobleman now stabbed the stag, accompanied by horn signals. Just as professional hunters now do sometimes: No matter where the noble had stabbed the stag, they would quickly finish the job with their Couteau de Chasse, if possible unnoticable by the applauding noble crowd.
As all the dignitaries sat on horseback, the length of a Hirschfaenger did not matter much, but it must be ornate and impressive. I have seen obviously pretty unusable examples, with grips made from coral or porcelain and etched, thin blades that could not be resharpened. But the middle class hunters and foresters who did most of their work on foot needed more practical, shorter knifes that weren't too cumbersome when crawling through the bushes.
After Parforce hunting went out of fashion about 1800, practical Hirschfaenger blades shrank to more manageable length, about 14 to 18". You may say, it degenerated to either shorter, more practicable forms or to mere ornaments. Two exceptions: The dress Schuetzenhirschfaenger of target shooters associations that were never meant for any serious use and the Hirschfaenger of the military Jaeger. In German use, "Jaeger" is not only "hunter", but also the name for light infantry which the British call "Rifles" and the Americans "Rangers". Miltary Jaeger, other than the drafted Line Infantry, were all volunteers, most often wannabe foresters, professional hunters or other people of rural origin with Shooting and bushcraft skills. These Jaeger had long Hirschfaenger that could be attached to their short Jaegerbuechsen to give them reasonable reach as a bayonet. Several thousand of these dreaded "Greencoats" from Hesse, Brunswick, Anhalt and Ansbach fought on the British side in the American Revolution. Many of them and their Jaegerbuechsen stayed in the USA after that war.
I don't know much of the forest uniform regulations of other German states. Hesse – Kassel at least became a Prussian province in 1866, just as Hanover. The 1908 Akah catalog shows only ones similar to the Prussian types, except a "Bavarian model". This resembles the Prussian for the lower ranks, stag handle and crossguard, but a head of the "Bavarian Lion" as a pommel. At the time of WW1 the Prussian types became universal, made by the Solingen companies. In the 1930s Hermann Goering prescribed "new" models: For higher ranking foresters with handguard and ivory grips, Handguard and staghorn scales for other foresters. The Former Prussian lower rank type, crossguard and staghorn grip, became the "Hirschfaenger der Deutschen Jaegerschaft", sometimes decorated as "Ehrenhirschfaenger" when given to hunters who had survived a fight with poachers. All the times Foresters were allowed to wear older, maybe inherited types also.

[mike ford]

Axel,
Thanks for your reply, you obviously spent a lot of time and effort on it.
Mike

[Hook]

I agree, Mike. It is amazing what you can learn when you hang around knowledgeable people.

[sharps4590]

Again, fascinating!!!

[Axel E]

you obviously spent a lot of time and effort on it.

Not on research, as I knew everything already, and some bits more. But as a German, it took me some time to write it down short enough for a forum.

[Steve Whitley]

Here are a few, as listed in the 1936 Gebr�der Gatterman catalog.
Steve

Hirschfänger.jpg

[Axel E]

Here are a few, as listed in the 1936 Gebr�der Gatterman catalog.
Steve

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2463[/ATTACH]

These are the last, most degenarated types of Hirschfänger, as prescribed by Hermann Goering in the 1930s. Pure uniform ornaments, worse than useless if you are confronted with an angry boar or stag.
Sort of a translation, for convenience sorted left to right:
Nr.1549: Hirschfänger for representatives of the German hunters organisation, real staghorn grip, mountings in nickel silver, badge of the hunters (swastika inside stag antlers) on grip.
Nr.1541: Hirschfänger for common foresters, staghorn scales, luxury edition, vastly decorated, gilding metal mounts or gilded at extra cost.
Nr.1544 and 1544a: several grades of decoration (to the whims of the owner's purse) of a Hirschfänger for administration, higher rank, foresters. Ivory scales, more or less embellishments, mountings either gilding metal or gilded brass.
Nr. 1539: Basic grade of forester Hirschfänger, like 1541, but less embellished.