Reichsleiter Karl Fiehler Lord Mayor of Munich

[Paul C]

My first purchase for 2010! Karl Fiehler stood with Hitler at the 1923 Putsch and served 15 months in prison with Hitler. His party number is 37. Fiehler was later made Reichsleiter and Oberbürgermeister Mayor of Munich in May 1933. He also was a SS-Obergruppenführer. I was able to obtain a copy of his SS Service Record at the US Archive. His record details his awards, decorations and many details. Fiehler survived the war and died in 1969.

The medal bar and rare Red Cross decoration first class were obtained by a US Army soldier in Munich in 1945 and was in the hands of only one other person before me. The group was originally identified by a fellow forum member, Rick. The medal bar consists of:

1. 1914 EK2

2. Brunswick KVK2

3. Hamburg Hanseatic Cross

4. Hindenburg Cross with swords.

5. 15 year NSDAP long service cross

6. 10 year NSDAP long service cross

7. Austrain campaign medal

8. Czech campaign medal

Unfortunate the bronze has disappeared from the 10 year LSC. I can't explain why. Fiehler also had the gold party badge and the Blood Order #16. His SS awards included the SS Totenkopfring and SS Ehrendegen.

PLEASE WAIT UNTIL I POST "FINISHED" TO POST ANY REPLIES - THANK YOU.

Edited January 21, 2010 by Paul C

[Paul C]

Reverse

[Paul C]

Also with the medal bar came Fiehler's Red Cross decoration first class.

Edited January 21, 2010 by Paul C

[Paul C]

It is a plain back. Below is a few close ups.

[Paul C]

eagle close up

[Paul C]

The below pic is a Hoffmann portrait of Fiehler circa 1941 as can be seen is NSDAP LSC ribbons which were awarded in 1941. On the bar is his ribbon bar for Olympic decoration, which is a brest order and not on the medal bar, also his ribbon for the Red Cross decoration 1st class. The 2 campaign medals are cut off from the pic.

[Paul C]

The below pic of Fiehler is from his SS service record which had a wealth of information.

[Paul C]

Additional information from his SS record details his awards and dates also that he was a Lt dR in WWI with IR 215. He was wounded in the leg and had the black wound badge.

[Paul C]

Most important from his SS record is his awards page. They allow for dateing of the medal bar to about mid 1941. He never bothered to update his bar with the 25 year NSDAP long service or his 25 civilian long service.

[Paul C]

Of note is Fiehler's entry from the 1935 Wer Ist which again details his decorations.

[Paul C]

I have been told that there is a collectors books with the below portrait of Fiehler on the cover. I would like to know which book it is. I also think that there should be a formal picture if Fiehler wearing the above medal bar. Does anyone live near the Munich archive?

FINISHED

[Claudio]

Hi Paul!

Nice bar.... congrats!!!

The book "Cloth Insignia of the NSDAP & SA (Hardcover)" was published in 1985 by John R. Angolia (Author), see also amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cloth-Insignia-NSDAP-John-Angolia/dp/0912138335

I still have a copy of it...

ciao,

Claudio

[Paul C]

Thanks Claudio. Does anyone have the 2 volume set by Bender titled "Leaders and Personalities of the Third Reich"? If so would you see if there is any information on Fiehler?

[M Hunter]

Paul,

I too would like to add my congratulations on your new purchase! Well done!

I see that he never had the NSDAP Long Service Devices on his NSDAP ribbons on the ribbon bar!

Kind regards

Matt

Edited January 21, 2010 by M Hunter

[Deruelle]

Hi Paul,

Very nice found you have made there. Congrats

Do you have, by chance, the ribbon bar ?

Lucky man

Christophe

[Naxos]

Paul, there is a series of pictures in the Bundesarchiv from 1938 showing Fiehler wearing a medal-bar.

You can request to download better quality images from the Bundesarchiv site.

Here is a low quality scan of one of the images

[Paul C]

Thanks for the pic. If anyone has other good pics of Fiehler please post them. I wish I had the ribbon bar. I did a Google search on his blood order number and gold party badge number to see if anyone had it and no luck.

[Robin Lumsden]

If anyone has other good pics of Fiehler please post them.

Four Putsch veterans, all holders of civic office..............

Graf, Fiehler, Weber & Maurice.

[Robin Lumsden]

I had this illustration done many years ago for one of my SS books.

The central character depicts Fiehler as he would have appeared at the Putsch, in his SAH uniform.

It was actually Himmler who carried the flag, of course, but I used a little poetic licence! :whistle:

[Paul C]

Robin, thanks for the pic.

[Robin Lumsden]

Robin, thanks for the pic.

You're welcome, Paul.

I don't have any showing the medal bar. Nice piece!

[Guest Rick Research]

Glad to have been the "Seventh Element Of Collecting" in bringing this to a good home after many many (many) years of watching the herd up here pass it by at the former local show.

Came from my former high school French teacher-- the terror of my teens-- which should be a good lesson

Always Be Nice To Everybody Because You Never Know....

(Might have improved my GPA had we known each other's odd interests at that time.... )

Anyway, what STAGGERED me is seeing the personnel file DATES for Reichsleiter/Lord Mayor Fiehler's NSDAP long service awards--

he was PARTY MEMBER 37 and should, we would have expected, gotten his 15 and 10 in the original initial distribition of 30 January 1940...

but both only came to him on 18 April (18 April ??????) 1941!!!!

We then see, as expected, his 25 Years NSDAP on 30 January 1942. THAT, at least, gives us a documented date when those Crosses WERE being awarded-- something which has been causing my Maine couisn and I sleepless nights many years trying to determine:

when did awards of these start AND stop?

We had SURMISED that 30 January 1942 had to have been the earliest possible NSDAP 25 award date, and so it would now appear.

Since the NSDAP 15 and 10 were awarded 18 April 1941 and his civil service Treudienst 25 came along on 26 July 1941, we can date the Lord Mayor's medal bar to April-July 1941. Obviously as ribboned awards started falling from the sky he must have figured why bother remounting constantly for every new one? It was fairly common to not bother, as we've seen from military medal bars.

In his portrait photo above as Reichsleiter, he is wearing a ribbon bar from PRECISELY that April-July 1941 period-- NSDAP 15 and 10 without devices (fashion choice) and Olympics 2nd (erroneously) without eagle device. Having held all these in my sweaty paws, the last ribbon cropped in the photo is the March 1938 Anschluss with outermost white stripe pushed under his Red Cross Kleindekoration ribbon.

Wish I had ANY explanaion for his late NSDAP 15 and 10--

a) had to be APPLIED for-- and he just didn't care?

b) Himmler bossed him into appearing in "correct" all-included uniform... for what may have been a single fancy dress occasion?

[Stogieman]

Hi Paul, there were a few other decorations with this bar when it used to make the rounds at the show... (??) I seem to have stuck in my head some kind of neck chain, or perhaps a gorget-type thingie... Did you get other awards or just the bar & cross?

[Guest Rick Research]

This was all the GI got as his buddies divvied up the rest. Some of you local Yankees may remember me many years ago standing on the table taking pix with a floppy disk camera:

Somewhere Out There MAY be Blood Order #16 and Gold Party Badge #37.....

[Ulsterman]

YAY!!!!!!!!!

You have no idea how many hours I have poured through all sorts of stuff looking for 25 NSDAP award dates!! Confirmation at last!

It appears as if there was one and only one award date for the NSDAP 25 year medal and hence, we can assess the statistical number of awards.

There seems to have been a Furherbefehl for the party in 1942 (I can only find a snippet summary-the book is at U. Michigan) that stopped the award of party decorations for the duration 'to save bronze'.

Joe L. if you are out there LOOK HERE!!!!

:jumping: :jumping: