Just tidying up some blasts from the past (including some very ancient ones), largely for the benefit of anyone searching the site for information.
That’s a very cool item and it is indeed a gift to a soldier in recognition of service in the German army.
One panel reads “Brüder stoßt die Gläser an Hoch leber der Reserveman” which seems to be a call for a toast as “Brother, clink glasses, long live the reserve man”. So, it would seem he was an army reservist.
Another panel gives his name and rank. It looks like “Ret. Gefr.” as a rank. The second abbreviation will for sure be for “Gefreiter”, which was the highest rank to which an enlisted man could be promoted. I pondered whether “Ret.” Could be an indication of retirement but the German for “retired” would be “iR” for “im Ruhestand”. Possibly it’s an abbreviation for “retiniert” (“retained”), given his reservist status. The guy’s surname looks to be “Melcher”.
Another panel also has some abbreviated words that I can’t translate but the words given in full: “zum andenken dienstzeit” translate as “to commemorate time of service”.
The panel recording his service says “Train Batl. No.16 in Forbach 1897/99”, which makes complete sense. “Train” in the German Army meant horse-drawn supply troops and Train Bataillon No. 19 had a long-standing garrison in Forbach. Until 1871, Forbach had been in Lorraine, France but the territory was ceded to Germany in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War and France didn’t get it back until the end of WWI.
The panel with the horseman has some smudged and obscured words but from the words that can be seen, the gist of the message seems to be a popularity boast, something along the lines of “Wherever the Train [Batallion] goes, everyone waves his hat”.
If it weren’t for the two holes, I would have thought it was an inkwell… but the orientation of the holes isn’t clear from the pictures and maybe it can still function as that with the second hole as the pen holder.
