Late 1918 Wound Badge Bestowals

[Guest Rick Research]

Sometimes, VERY late.

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In 1936 regulations were changed to make the SEVERITY of wounds more important than the 1918 NUMBER of times wounded. There were very clear distinctions as to what level of injury could be considered for a one wound silver or gold, on a scale from amputation, blindness, emasculation and so on.

The only "explanation" I have for this one, in a group of this Beamter's documents which I have (Amtsrat Drews has and will appear in various Forums as relevant subjects come up, from 1936 Olympics Medal document to WW2 civilian Mention In Dispatches) is that he either

1) was a slowpoke and took four years to get around to ASKING for an upgrade (in which case, he may have been a WW1 amputee) or

2) he had gradually grown deaf-- which was a "silver" upgrade and the only thing that could have changed in his status between 1936 and 1940. He certainly did not go blind, since he was cited for fire fighting valor in 1944, and was a civil servant into the 1950s, living to be over 90.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Could it be that he had an entry in his Militaerpass, and just wanted a doc so applied for it?

I am still chasing down docs 15 years after leaving the army and I dont live in the post WW1 chaos in Germany....

[Ulsterman]

According to the Frankfurter Zeitung of Sept. 10, 1937, the regulations for the reissued wound badges allowed for those who had missed out on a badge in WW1 or "needed an upgrade"; @450,000 new badges were issued.