Bavarian Industrial Award

[Mark M]

I stumbled upon this Bavarian Other Ranks medal bar and I am curious about the Industrial Award on it. From the swaz I gather it is TR and not Imperial era. The award is stamped 990 for silver content. Any ideas of what this civil award would have been given for?

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[Mark M]

Here is a close up of the award.

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[Guest Rick Research]

I think I've only ever seen ONE award document and don't recall either any recipient details nor when, exactly, it was bestowed.

These certainly are lovely awards, top quality materials, and they were indeed worn in groups like this, though most often they show up as singles-- so presumably the "average" recipient HAD no other medals.

Can anybody come up with the paperwork for this medal?

[Scowen]

Nope, I've never seen any paperwork either. Mark, I believe these are literally long service awards for the Bavarian Chamber of commerce. People who had worked for the State of Bavaria for the requisit number of years recieved one. There was also a gold coloured one for 50 years.

What interests me about this is that you find them with various marks, silver content marked like yours, with "fine silber", & sometimes with nothing at all. I'm not sure why, whether some are fakes or period copies, or just a different production I don't know.....

I do love 'em though.

Cheers

Don

[Mark M]

Rick/Don

Thank you for the information. Would this be basically the same as the Faithful Service cross issued during the TR? I assume from the swaz at the bottom that this would have been a post 34 award. Were these issued both before and during the TR?

Regards,

Mark

[Scowen]

I'd never really thought about it but I guess (without looking up the dates) that the Faithful Service Cross may well be the National replacement for the regional awards. This happened with the Fire Service awards, individual states issued their own until 1936 when the Reich version came in & replaced them.

From what I understand with the Bavarian one, the pre TR version had an acorn where the Swastika is, but I've never seen one of these.

Cheers

Don

[Guest Rick Research]

These might have slid by as private semi-public awards, the same as that of regional fire depsrtment long service awards under the Weimar Republic still being worn in the Third Reich.

The "Treudienst" crosses were for civil servants-- government employees on the public payroll. Chamber of Commerce & Industry types would not have been eligible for those 25 and 40 years "Beamten" crosses.

The only private sector equivalent was the special and specific 50 years Treudienst cross which was NOT for civil servants.

[Scowen]

Thanks for clearing that up Rick, as I said, I never really given it much thought before

I do think that these state long service awards are an undervalued & under researched area.

Cheers

Don

[Rosenberg]

Rick,

are you sure the recipient was a government-servant?As far as I understand this award was given by the Industriellen Verband which translates roughly to manufacturer?s association-I would have thought this was NGO?

[Guest Rick Research]

That is EXACTLY what I said in post #7: Chamber of Commerce types were not eligible for the Treudienst crosses given to civil servants. This MUCH nicer medal was for parallel semi-public service.

[Rosenberg]

Sorry must have been too late when I read the post,so I had read it wrong.

[landsknechte]

From what I understand with the Bavarian one, the pre TR version had an acorn where the Swastika is, but I've never seen one of these.

Cheers

Don

[Scowen]

Excellent!! Thanks for that, I'd never seen one before.

Cheers

Don

[Mark M]

landsknechte

Thank you for posting the photo of the Imperial version. Any chance you might be able to post a photo of the gold award?

Thanks to all for your help on this,

Mark

[landsknechte]

landsknechte

Thank you for posting the photo of the Imperial version. Any chance you might be able to post a photo of the gold award?

Thanks to all for your help on this,

Mark

I've only been able to find a photo of the gold version in the Third Reich incarnation, I'm afraid.

[Mark M]

Landsknechte

Many thanks for posting this photo! Do you have any idea of the years of service required to earn each level of award? Do you believe that the Imperial or TR version is more commonly found? Any idea of the total numbers of these issued?

Regards,

Mark

[landsknechte]

Landsknechte

Many thanks for posting this photo! Do you have any idea of the years of service required to earn each level of award? Do you believe that the Imperial or TR version is more commonly found? Any idea of the total numbers of these issued?

Regards,

Mark

Honestly, I don't know much more about this decoration than that it came in two different grades and seldom appears on bars other than singles. I have a tendency to save pictures of whatever random decorations I chance upon while surfing, as a reference for the ribbons.

--Chris