-Big- bar...and the price was right (free)

[Les]

A friend of mine gave this bar to me. It's worn, faded, doesn't have the 1934 Honor Cross on it, and best of all, it was free. The front:

Edited September 17, 2005 by Les

[Les]

The reverse side...with a weird brown/olive colored backing. The backing material doesn't look like any material I've seen before so it's possible the bar might be fake, or...the backing might have been replaced at one time. I'm not certain if this one is good or someone has dinked with it.

Les

[Deruelle]

Nice ribbon bar It isn't Christmas !!! Lucky guy.

Christophe

[Guest Rick Research]

That is a slightly strange cloth backing... but no problem. This bar was made by Godet in Berlin-- their freaky Austrian war wreath and metal backing are distinctive.

A peacetime Baden OZL, SWA etc MAY be traceable. Back when the thunder and lightning now overhead passes me by.

[Biro]

A friend of mine gave this bar to me.

←

That is some friend you've got there Les!

Wonderful stuff!

Marshall

[Guest Rick Research]

Les: be strong...

I know you will be able to take the crushing disappointment!

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[attachmentid=11076]

[Guest Rick Research]

OK, I lied. But it was to build the suspense

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[attachmentid=11077]

MERRY CHRISTMAS IN SEPTEMBER!!!!

[Guest Rick Research]

Benno Pflugradt

Sekonde-Lieutenant 14.2.1895 B32

Oberleutnant 18.10.1904 Tt

Hauptmann 16.6.10 C

Major 15.10.16 J

Oberstleutnant 1.6.21 #1

Oberst 1.2.26 #2

Afraid I lose him after 1928--

In Infantry Regiment 25 until between 1907-12, having been Regimental Adjutant. He never served in Southwest Africa-- that is a STEEL medal: he was Regimental Adjutant and presumably got it for merit in sending the expedition off. In 1912 he was Adjutant of the 30th Infantry Brigade, 15th Division, and had picked up that peacetime BZ3b in third from last place. Switched to Infantry Regiment 29 in 1913, commanding 3rd Company IR 29 in 1914.

Ended the war as commander of Hessian Infantry Regiment 116. Perhaps Glenn or Bernhard can tell you more.

Here he is in 1924, Chief Adjutant of the Reichswehr Minister, page 1:

[attachmentid=11078]

He-- and this ribbon bar-- may be "spottable" in period Staff Entourages

[Guest Rick Research]

Oh yeah... those awards.

[attachmentid=11083]

PERFECT illustrative example, since in 1924 his Rank List entry FAILS to show his XXV Years service cross, held since 1920... but by 1928 has corrected that. The ribbon bar dates 1920+ from that XXV being on there because Prussian long service awards were suspended during the war.

Bavarian Military Merit Order 4X in sixth place awarded 28 May 1915. Hohenzollern House Order 3X gazetted 15.12.17

and oh, yeah, that funny little emblem in front of all his stuff?

1924 =

[attachmentid=11079]

1928=

[attachmentid=11080]

That would be the POUR LE MERITE, awarded on 3 November 1918.

Festivation may now commence.

[Les]

Oh yeah... those awards.

<snip>

and oh, yeah, that funny little emblem in front of all his stuff?

<snip>

That would be the POUR LE MERITE, awarded on 3 November 1918.

Festivation may now commence. 

←

Rick....I never expected a PLM recipient, or someone who held a high ranking position in the post war military bureaucracy! Wow....this goes to show me I'd better start paying more attention to ribbon bars. I "owe" you one, or two....

javascript:emoticon('')

smilie

My buddy doesn't collect Imperial German items, and this was part of a miscellaneous bunch of items in a box of unrelated items he bought (to get a set of wings). There's no way to determine where it came from at this time.

Pflugradt received his PlM for defensive operations againt French and US forces in the first half of September 1918 (St Mihiel salient ?). If he fell off your radar after 1928, there's a chance his military records might have survived. If nothing else, his position as Chief Adjutant to a government minister should have left a postwar paper trail that can might be traced. Perhaps the Bundesarchiv might have something on him. He may have died before WWII if his name doesn't appear in the TR army lists.

Rick, again thanks for putting a name to the ribbon bar, and doing the hard part. Now tracking down some of the other details of his life are up to me! What you did find out, was impressive!

Vielen Dankbar!

Les

[Paul R]

Very impressive and pretty much priceless piece of history! They do not get much better than that!!

[Guest Rick Research]

Stay tuned to This Bat Channel. There may be more from the Guild Of Arcane Knowledge, Department Of Research s.

[Blitz]

Wow, imagine that one as a full sized bar..

Congratulations for wonderfull and free ribbonbar mate!

Ricky did it again..

[Bob Hunter]

You've done well, Grasshopper. Enjoy your new bar.

[Glenn J]

Rick, Les,

some additional information on Herr Pflugradt:

Benno Wilhlem Waldemar Pflugradt, born 24 July 1877 at Greifswald in Pomerania, died 10 Nov 1940.

Son of Generalmajor z.D. Emil Pflugradt and Hildegard Pflugradt (von Lilienthal)

Educated in his parents' house and at the Gymnasium Greifswald and Marburg. Attended the Cadet Schools at Oranienstein and Gro?-Lichterfelde. As an Abiturient he graduated from Gro?-Lichterfelde as a Portep?e F?hnrich on 14 February 1895 and was commissioned into I.R. 25 as a Sekonde-Lieutenant on the 27 January 1896 with seniority backdated to his original graduation date (14.2.95)

4 Jun - 1 Jul 99: Attached to Pionier-Bataillon 14

1 Oct 99 - 31 May 03: Adjutant III./I.R. 25

1 Jun 03 - 31 Oct 07: Regimental Adjutant I.R. 25

22 Apr - 26 May 08: Attached to Infantry School of Musketry

16 Jun 10: Adjutant of the 30. Infanterie-Brigade

27 Jan 13: Assigned to I.R. 29 as a company commander

Commanded I.R. 116 from 3 Nov 18 - 22 Jan 19

Commanded J?ger-Bataillon Nr. 10 from 1 Mar 1919 to dissolution

Commanded 17. Infanterie-Regiment from 1 Feb 27 -28 Feb 28

Regards

Glenn

Edited September 18, 2005 by Glenn J

[notned]

I just love it when a bar speaks!

Thanks guys for more treasures...

Cheers,

Paul.

[Guest Rick Research]

In the wonderful musical "It's A Small, Small World," this minty gem came to me from Germany in October 1995, but I foolishly sold it in August 1998 (aka The Time Before Internet):

It did not return to my paws until October 2011, while I was offline.

And here I've been, since being back for two months, convincing myself it has to have been Pflugradt's circa ? 1916/17 "fashion statement" War Awards Only bar.

Pretty much so, I'd say, since nobody else had the wartime German combination.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Rick Research

[Paul R]

named?

[Guest Rick Research]

Known awards dates:

PLM 3 November 1918

HOH3X: gazetted 15 December 1917

BMV4X 28.05.15

WF3aX: 01.11.14 as Hauptann on Staff of Armee-Oberkommando 5

BrK: ? Dave

[Dave Danner]

Name doesn't ring any bells, but I would say I've only seen about 10% of the Braunschweig KVK records (and about 70% are completely lost).

[Guest Rick Research]

Ahhhh, it's only been 18 years.

[M Hunter]

I love it when things come together on here!

Matt

[Guest Rick Research]

It's actually kind of spooky, isn't it? Once, all these little bits and pieces of one person's life were all together... then war and time and disinterest scattered those fragments across the globe... and yet how many times DO they end up back "together" here?

Kind of like Chronic Historesis, or something.

So... if the center of the universe is HERE... the center of here is.... my Epson scanner. All things return to Gaea-Epson.