Description
Artist Unknown The Eastern Empire Is in Immediate Danger Protect the Border 1919 features two freikorps cavalrymen scouts on the bank of a broad river. The locale is possibly what is today Poland where East Prussia was contested between Polish nationalists and the defeated Germans. The freikorps consisted of disbanded German troops who, at the end of World War I, banded together again, usually around an officer, to fight Germany’s new enemies: the Poles and the Communists. The skull and crossbones emblem seen in the lower righthand corner is the symbol of Germany’s mounted troops, the death’s head hussars. In this particular case the two mounted soldiers seen above are part of a unit devoted to border patrol. Unlike the constricted Western Front, the continued conflict in post war eastern europe gave the freikorps cavalry room to manoeuvre over immense areas. Very very scarce. 38×24 near mint, conservation backed $2500.
