Austrian Red Cross
Lenght cm 16
Spread cm 30
Sticks 16 plus 2
1916
Fan in pressed cardboard with the portraits and the signatures of the commanders of the Austro-Hungarian Army on the left, at the center the Emperor Francesco Giuseppe, the grand dukes. Produced in great quantity and in two different measures, the
/en/austrian_red_cross_1916 (*) is bigger and with two characters less, they were amongst the most bought objects by the Red Cross for the fund-raising, necessary to the organization of the service; I’ve been told that the most expensive was the bronze model on scale of the howitzer “Grande Bertha”. Differently from the
/en/austrian_red_cross_1916, here there’s no distinction of the signature of the designer August Patek. The guard is made of balsa wood without the logos of the Red Cross.
Commanders
I - Svetozar Boroević von Bojna Feldmaresciallo
II - Victor Karl Danko von Krasnik Generale
III - Franz Conrad Hötzendorf
IV - Paul von Hindenburg
V - Arciduca Giuseppe Ferdinando d'Asburgo Lorena, Granduca di Toscana
VI - Arciduca Friedrich Albrecht Wilhelm d'Asburgo-Teschen
VII - Imperatore Guglielmo II di Germania
FRANCESCO GIUSEPPE Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary
X - Friedrich Wilhelm Victor of Prussia
XI - Arciduca Karl d'Austria (later Carlo I d'Austria)
XII - Arciduca Eugenio Ferdinando Pio d'Asburgo-Teschen
XIII - Arciduca Jozsef Szalvator of Asburgo-Toscana
XIV - Arciduca Jozsef Foherceg Giuseppe Augusto Maria d’ Austria
XV- Admiral Anton Haus
XVI - Feldmaresciallo Eduard von Bohm-Ermolli
XVI -Colonnello generale Karl Freiherr von Pflanzer-Baltin
*The presence of the head of the General Staff Paul von Hindenburg puts the printing data at the end of 1916, when Hindeburg replaced Erich von Falchenhayn after the catastrophic result of the “battle of Verdun”.
I thank heartily Walter Landi for help to identify all portraits.
