Looking for information about a german map, 'Stabskarte'

[Levi]

Hello,

Recently I found a german ww1 map (See picture). It is a trench map I believe. It is from the region Étaín in France.

I was wondering if anyone knows more about this particular type of map. I have been searching on the internet for information about the map maker and if there are any other maps that look the same. I only found a few examples that had the same layout as this one in the picture.

Here are a few questions:

• Is this type of (trench) map rare?
• Has it any value?
• For what purpose was this map used for?

I would like to learn more about this map. Any information is welcome!

Kind regards,

Levi

(Feel free to take a look at my cards and photo collection!) > https://www.van-til.nl/veldpost)

 

[WhiteStarLine]

Levi, that is a great find and trench maps of the Verdun area are certainly not common.  It is in remarkable condition apart from some tears showing it has been folded and unfolded many times.  Regardless of whether you want to keep it or sell it, look after it as it has obviously been folded and stored without a lot of care prior to you getting hold of it.

The modern location of the map is shown below and Verdun is around 12 kilometres to the west.  It shows defensive positions with all the major positions, trenches and lines (series of trenches with wire obstacles and subsidiary trenches at the rear of the main one, for communication, switching positions, safe navigation from the rear to the front etc).  It also has a number of administrative areas.  It would have been used by commanders to move troops from one position to the next and to plan operations, such as one unit relieving another in the line,

The date of 11 September 1918 was within the last 100 days of the war.  Maps at this scale, 1:25,000, were the mainstay of the German Army and this map would once have been prolific - carried by most officers in the field and probably by senior non-commissioned officers.  With the passage of time, the maps have all gone and while I've seen many of these online for the main British sector further north, original paper maps of the Verdun area are relatively rare.

There are a few members on this forum with a very good knowledge of German maps so I've tagged one of them, @Howard, in case he wants to add anything or correct any errors I've made.

 

[Levi]

3 hours ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Levi, that is a great find and trench maps of the Verdun area are certainly not common.  It is in remarkable condition apart from some tears showing it has been folded and unfolded many times.  Regardless of whether you want to keep it or sell it, look after it as it has obviously been folded and stored without a lot of care prior to you getting hold of it.

The modern location of the map is shown below and Verdun is around 12 kilometres to the west.  It shows defensive positions with all the major positions, trenches and lines (series of trenches with wire obstacles and subsidiary trenches at the rear of the main one, for communication, switching positions, safe navigation from the rear to the front etc).  It also has a number of administrative areas.  It would have been used by commanders to move troops from one position to the next and to plan operations, such as one unit relieving another in the line,

The date of 11 September 1918 was within the last 100 days of the war.  Maps at this scale, 1:25,000, were the mainstay of the German Army and this map would once have been prolific - carried by most officers in the field and probably by senior non-commissioned officers.  With the passage of time, the maps have all gone and while I've seen many of these online for the main British sector further north, original paper maps of the Verdun area are relatively rare.

There are a few members on this forum with a very good knowledge of German maps so I've tagged one of them, @Howard, in case he wants to add anything or correct any errors I've made.

 

Thank you very much for the information! I would love to hear more from the other members! I have framed the map behind glass for extra protection.

[AOK4]

Hello,

German maps as such are not that rare. There's an incredible amount of them available in German military archives, unfortunately difficult to find unless you know what to look for and where. The Germans made an enormous amount of maps of all kind of different things. There's not that many out there on the market though, most of them are in collections.

Of course, plenty was lost during WW2 (bombing raids which destroyed most of the Prussian military archives) and afterwards (as families often threw away these in their eyes "militaristic nostalgia").

Jan

[Howard]

For more information about these and other Great War maps, have a look at Artillery's Astrologers: A History of British Survey and Mapping on the Western Front, 1914-18.

This is by Peter Chasseaud, the best source of such information. You could look for other works by him.

He also wrote a more readable Mapping the First World War: The Great War Through Maps from 1914 to 1918

You can get free downlands of similar maps from the digital State Library of Upper Austria although good luck with finding them!

The Bundesarchiv Freiburg has a lot of freely downloadable maps, instructions below.

Howard

 

It looks complex but is not, it just takes a few clicks. It does not work in Firefox but does in Microsoft Edge.
No login required.

•    Open https://www.bundesarchiv.de/DE/Content/Artikel-Textsammlungen/Textsammlung-Oeffnung-Kontakt/oeffnungszeiten-und-kontakt-freiburg.html
•    Do not translate
•    Copy Großer Generalstab und Kommandobehörden des Deutschen Heeres into the search box
•    In the search results, select PH 3-KART Oberste Heeresleitung / Großer Generalstab und Kommandobehörden des Deutschen Heeres.- Karten
•    Dismiss the welcome screen
•    In Klassifikation in lower left panel, under nicht klassifiziert, expand PH 3 - KART Bestandsverzeichnis
•    Expand 1 PH 3 - KART Oberste Heeresleitung / Großer Generalstab und Kommandobehörden des Deutschen Heeres.- Karten
•    Select front
•    Select country
•    Select area (Sonstige means other or miscellaneous)
•    When downloading a lot of maps, in the main panel, click Nur mit Digitalisat anzeigen (i.e. Show only digitised items)
o    To keep track of progress, in the main panel, tick the Archivsignatur box by a map then click Digitalisat anzeigen (opens in new window). Ticking the Archivsignatur box does nothing useful except keeps track of which maps have been downloaded because on return to this screen after a download, the system returns to the top.
•    Click Download
•    Select Gesampte AE (JPG) or Seite 1 (JPG) then Download Starten
•    Close new window on completion. Trying to go too fast causes a Too Many Requests error. Pause a few seconds.