A WWI Saxon soldier

A WWI Saxon soldier


Karl Agotz was a 37 year's old shopkeeper in Leipzig when in the fall of 1914, he was called up by his king, Frederick Augustus III, to fight for his country. At the time he was married with two young children.

We often wonder if the person in the photo survived the war. In this case I’m pleased to say that Karl did survive the war and returned to Leipzig and his family.

Unfortunately we do not know his unit.

Some remarks on Karl’s uniform and gear:

Leipzig is in Saxony (Sachsen), so as expected, the tunic is a M07/10 feldrock with Saxon cuffs. The helmet is a Pickelhaube with Saxon ‘wappen’ (coat of arms). The rifle is a standard Gew98 with the long blade M1898 bayonet attached. Boots seem to be brown leather with black polish added later. Soldiers did these because from 1915 onward the orders were to wear black leather but supplies never met the quota so they improvised. As the black polish wore off the brown reappeared.

I measured his height and he was around 5’6’’ (1,68 m).

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