Imperial German WWI 1914 Patriotic Porcelain Plate Die Deutschen Heerfuhrer Kaiser

Original World War I-period German patriotic porcelain wall plate titled Die Deutschen Heerführer ("The German Army Commanders"), dated 1914 and centered on Kaiser Wilhelm II, surrounded by transfer-printed portrait vignettes of the senior commanders of the Imperial German Army at the outbreak of the war. The plate measures 10 inches (approximately 25.4 cm) in diameter and belongs to the family of commemorative porcelain produced in large quantities across Germany in 1914 and 1915, of which this multi-portrait commanders' version is among the more elaborate and sought designs.

The plate is white-glazed porcelain with a molded rim and gilt line trim. The central field carries fourteen photographic portraits reproduced in monochrome transfer print, arranged in a symmetrical composition within a naturalistically painted wreath of green oak leaves and acorns, the German emblem of steadfastness and military virtue. At the top center is the Imperial crown in gold and crimson; at the exact center of the plate, in an upright rectangular frame bordered with a gilt laurel band, is Kaiser Wilhelm II in general's uniform wearing the star and sash of a senior order. Directly below the central group is the Eiserne Kreuz (Iron Cross) of 1914 with its crowned "W" cypher and the date, above a scrolled banner lettered Gott mit uns ("God with us"), the motto borne on the Prussian and Imperial belt buckle. The plate's title, Die Deutschen Heerführer, runs in block capitals across the lower rim, and the date 1914 across the top.

Each portrait is captioned in a small banner or beneath the oval with the commander's name, and together they form a portrait gallery of the men who led the German armies in the opening campaigns of the war. Reading the plate, the figures include, in the upper arc, von Heeringen (Josias von Heeringen, commander of the Seventh Army in the West), Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern (Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, commander of the Sixth Army and the most senior South German royal soldier), and Herzog von Württemberg (Duke Albrecht of Württemberg, commander of the Fourth Army). Flanking the Kaiser in the central row are von Bülow (Karl von Bülow, commander of the Second Army in the advance through Belgium and northern France) and von Hausen (Max von Hausen, the Saxon general who led the Third Army), together with two general officers shown in rectangular frames to either side of the Emperor, one of whom is the German Crown Prince as an army commander. Across the lower group are von Emmich (Otto von Emmich, who led the assault on the fortresses of Liège in August 1914), von Kluck (Alexander von Kluck, commander of the First Army on the extreme right wing of the march on Paris), von Hindenburg (Paul von Hindenburg, victor of Tannenberg on the Eastern Front and later Chief of the General Staff), von Beseler (Hans von Beseler, who directed the siege and capture of Antwerp), and von Falkenhayn (Erich von Falkenhayn, who succeeded Moltke the Younger as Chief of the General Staff in late 1914). The assembly captures the high command precisely as it stood in the first months of the conflict, before the deaths, dismissals, and promotions of the middle war years reshaped it, which is what fixes the plate so firmly to 1914.

Historically, these commemorative plates occupy a specific place in the German home front of the Great War. In the patriotic fervor of 1914 an enormous variety of porcelain wall plates, cups, and steins bearing the Kaiser, Hindenburg, the Iron Cross, and martial mottoes were produced for a civilian public eager to display allegiance, and they were hung in parlors and kitchens across the Empire. The commanders' plate is a particularly informative example of the genre, functioning as a printed roll of the army's leadership and a piece of visual propaganda that placed the dynastic crown, the Iron Cross, and the professional generalcy within a single unifying wreath. As a survival, it documents both the material culture of the wartime household and the cult of military personality that surrounded these figures, several of whom, Hindenburg above all, would remain central to German public life long after 1918.

The reverse is plain white glaze with concentric foot rings and a painted pattern or decorator's number, 2233, at the center; no printed factory mark is present, which is not unusual for the decorated blanks used in this class of patriotic ware.

Condition is very good for a decorated porcelain plate of this age. The plate is structurally sound with no chips or cracks. There is light surface wear and some fine scratching to the printed and gilt decoration, most visible across the central portraits and the gilt frame, consistent with age and handling; the portraits, captions, and lettering remain clear and fully legible, and the oak-wreath coloring and gilding are bright. The glaze retains good gloss.

For the collector, the plate offers strong appeal on several counts: it is an original 1914-dated example of the most content-rich variant of the WWI patriotic plate, naming and portraying the entire opening-campaign high command rather than a single figure; it combines the Kaiser, the Iron Cross, the Imperial crown, and the army's leadership in one well-composed design; and at 10 inches it is a substantial display piece. Multi-portrait commanders' plates of this pattern are less commonly encountered than the single-subject Hindenburg and Kaiser plates and are correspondingly desirable to collectors of Imperial German home-front material and WWI patriotic porcelain.