I wanted to respond again sooner and I might have already stated most of this somewhere before, caught a nasty flu virus, but will give it my best again.
As we know with the annexation of Austria on 12 March 1938, and afterwards known as Ostmark, all powers were transferred to Germany and Austria ceased to exist as a fully independent nation until late 1945. With that said, in regards to Gamsraude and Jagers. By July 1938 Germany or lets say with authority from the Reich's Master of the Hunt and always hunting for more titles, Reichsjagermeister (RJM) Hermann Goring imposed his own regulation that superceded Austria's, which was the arrangement of the RJM to fight Gamsraude "in Austria". Under this regulation to fight this disease, with the Landesjagermeister, a Landeskommissar was appointed, directly subordinate to the Landesjagermeister and authorized by him to provide the subordinate hunting authorities with instructions.
I won't get into all involved, or who was subordinate to who unless asked, but it was ultimately the responsibility of the Landeskommissar in agreement with the Landesjagermeister to setup a uniform criteria and general guide lines for everyone to adhere to and agree upon to fight the epidemics caused by this disease. And it was the Landeskommissar who made the "assigned hunters" available for the infected areas in all districts. Their were procedures and rules that had to be followed, as well as procedures and coordination with the veterinarian authorities and forest authorities which were crucial, and included state lands. "I wonder if any of them wore an ID badge if not the same one?" Their were do's and don'ts for owners of hunting licenses to follow and a 1000 rm fine imposed if they failed to observe them. There were methods and procedures used to take down these contaminated animals and for disposing of them. Such as firing plans, firing lists and zones were established for example. At this time I believe the title of Landesjagermeister was changed to Reichsjagermeister.
Hunter's couldn't just shoot one of these animals thought to be contaminated just because it was having a bad hair day. For example, a hunter sees what he perceives to be a contaminated animal within a herd, shoots it and soon finds that it's not diseased after all or wounds one that is and it gets away and dies contaminating animals that feed off or comes in contact with it's carcass! Better yet, the hunter shoots a diseased one and kills it, but frightens and scatters the contaminated herd into otherwise healthy herds! A few bad scenarios, but you can imagine the consequences of these actions and understand some of the difficulties they were faced with and containment was a major concern. "Access" to these infected areas was as well a major concern and access by anyone not involved in fighting this disease was not allowed in them period, no-one and for obvious reasons that meant, poachers, hikers and skiers as well.
As stated above, the Landeskommissar assigned hunters to these affected areas and to control access of people assigned in the prevention of epidemics had the right, to accomplish and perform their service in these hunting grounds, and had to wear their uniforms during this service, but only after a previous notification for permission to enter had been given. They had to present an Ausweis, (which as most of us know, is a card or badge showing the official identity of the wearer). And this Ausweis was obtained from the Landeskommissar, which had to be shown on demand.
I'll stop there and if you have any question I'll try to answer them and hope this makes sense and you can understand the reason these badges were made in Austria, and not so strange at all especially during this time, right! And as we know sometimes an Ausweis is both an ID card and a badge together. Maybe the Raude Jager badge is this Ausweis or used in relation with an ID card or hunting license or all the above. Anyway, like Houston states "it's real" and nothing more to be said after that really, but thought you might enjoy this little bit of info again! Now I'm off to bed! Thanks.
