Frederick I

The Baden Army (German: Badische Armee) was the military organisation of the German state of Baden until 1871. The origins of the army were a combination of units that the Badenese margraviates of Baden-Durlach and Baden-Baden had set up in the Baroque era, and the standing army of the Swabian Circle, to which both territories had to contribute troops. The reunification of the two small states to form the Margraviate of Baden in 1771 and its subsequent enlargement and elevation by Napoleon to become the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1806 created both the opportunity and obligation to maintain a larger army, which Napoleon used in his campaigns against Austria, Prussia and Spain and, above all, Russia. After the end of Napoleon's rule, the Grand Duchy of Baden contributed a division to the German Federal Army. In 1848, Badenese troops helped to suppress the Hecker uprising, but a year later a large number sided with the Baden revolutionaries. After the violent suppression of the revolution by Prussian and Württemberg troops, the army was re-established and fought in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 on the side of Austria and the southern German states, as well as in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 on the side of the Germans. Following the victorious Battle of Sedan, the Badenese government proposed Baden's accession to the North German Confederation in a memorandum

The House of Zähringen (German: Zähringer) was a dynasty of Swabian nobility. The family's name derived from Zähringen Castle near Freiburg im Breisgau. The Zähringer in the 12th century used the title of Duke of Zähringen, in compensation for having conceded the title of Duke of Swabia to the Staufer in 1098. The Zähringer were granted the special title of Rector of Burgundy in 1127, and they continued to use both titles until the extinction of the ducal line in 1218. The territories and fiefs held by the Zähringer were known as the 'Duchy of Zähringen' (Herzogtum Zähringen), but it was not seen as a duchy in equal standing with the old stem duchies. The Zähringer attempted to expand their territories in Swabia and Burgundy into a fully recognized duchy, but their expansion was halted in the 1130s due to their feud with the Welfs. Pursuing their territorial ambitions, the Zähringer founded numerous cities and monasteries on either side of the Black Forest, as well as in the western Swiss Plateau. After the extinction of the ducal line in 1218, parts of the family's territories reverted to the crown (attained imperial immediacy), while other parts were divided between the houses of Kyburg, Urach and Fürstenberg. The earliest-known ancestor of the family was one Berthold, Count in the Breisgau (d. 982), who was first mentioned in  

962. In view of his name, he may have been related to the Alemannic Ahalolfing dynasty. After the extinction of the ducal line in 1218, much of its extensive territory in the Breisgau and modern-day Switzerland returned to the crown, except for the allodial titles, which were divided between the counts of Urach (who subsequently called themselves the counts of Freiburg) and the counts of Kyburg, both descended from the sisters of Berthold V. Less than fifty years later, the Kyburgs died out, and large portions of their domains were inherited by the House of Habsburg. Bern achieved the status of a free imperial city, whereas other cities (such as Fribourg-Freiburg) only obtained the same status later in history. In 1098, Berthold II, founder of the House of Zähringen proper, received Zähringen Castle and the jurisdiction over Zürich (alongside the Counts of Lenzburg until 1173). Ownership of the county of Rheinfelden and of Burgdorf also dates to c. 1198. The 'rectorate' of the county of Burgundy was granted in 1127 (inheritance of Otto-William, Count of Burgundy). Ownership of Burgundy was contested, and Zähringer de facto rule was limited to the parts of Upper Burgundy east of the Jura and north of Lake Geneva. The territories south of Lake Geneva were conceded to Savoy and Provence in 1156. In compensation, Berthold IV received the investiture right for the bishops of Geneva, Sion and Lausanne, de facto realised only in the case of Lausanne. The extinction of the counts of Lenzburg in 1173 strengthened the Zähringer position south of the Rhine, but their territorial expansion was halted following their support of the Welfs in the unsuccessful feud against Conrad III of Germany during 1138–1152. This frustrated their ambitions to carve out a contiguous territorial duchy wedged between Swabia and Burgundy, in spite of late attempts on the part of Berthold V to increase his territorial sway (who as late as 1210 aimed at receiving the jurisdiction over St. Gallen). Instead of territorial expansion, the dukes of Zähringen from the 1150s focused on attaining more immediate feudal control over the territories they already had. This included their policy of expanding settlements into fortified towns or cities and the construction of new castles, mostly in their territories north of the Rhine. Their encroachment on the rights of the comital nobility south of the Rhine seems to have been resisted, mostly passively, but in the case of the lords of Glâne and Thun in an open revolt in 1191. The fragmentation of the Zähringer possessions after 1218 was an important factor in the communal movements of the late medieval period in the region, including the imperial immediacy of Bern and Zürich, and the growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century. The Veronese margravial title was used by Herman I of Baden, the eldest son of Berthold I of Zähringen. Herman's son, Herman II, was the first to use the title of Margrave of Baden in 1112. Now more commonly known as the House of Baden, Herman's descendants ruled successively as margraves until the Final Recess of 1803, as electors of the Electorate of Baden until 1806, then as Grand Dukes of Baden until the end of the German monarchy in 1918.

The grand duke is dressed in the uniform of a general of the Swiss Army. He wears the collar and sash of the House Order of Fidelity. On the duke's chest there are stars of the four Baden ducal orders: the Order of Fidelity, Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order, Order of the Zähringer Lion and Order of Berthold the First and also the star of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.