joemiller

Mr. Danner, is there now a list that is available for the Schwarzburg awards.  I tried searching the entire site and maybe I missed it.  The posts just seem to end but don't point to where we might find the lists. Thanks for all you do.

I just went to your link on the German medals website and saw the medal bar owned by Vtwin Vince. That is such a great and rare medal bar. Congratulations on that piece.

I'd like to see the China bar too. I think these colonial awards are just so interesting. Rarely awarded many times for actions not really documented anywhere.

Thierry, sorry I am really late to this discussion. I was wondering how you know that the Afrika bar is from Saxe-Meiningen. I am not disputing you, just wondering how you can tell which of the Saxon duchies the bar came from. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Thank you gentlemens !

Yes, an unique design, quite modern I think !

Does someone have reference book specifying number of award (even approximate) of this nice cross ? Or are the records defenitively lost ?

And what about initials : more I watch them, more I'm convinced of it's MA... and not MF (as Alec A. Purves is saying in his book The Medals Decorations & Order of the Great War)

The best book I have found on this award is "Die Orden und Ehrenzeichen der Anhaltischen Staaten" by Gerd Scharfenberg. This is an excellent book about all of the awards of Anhalt. It includes 8 pages on the creation of the Marie Cross with excellent photographs and extensive excerpts from original documents. In regard to the two questions you raised, Scharfenberg says the obverse initials are F for Friedrich and M for Marie.(page 304). He also writes that as with most Anhalt awards, the records of awards were lost after the archives in Dessau were lost in a bombing during World War II. He does postulate that the cross was only awarded between April and September 1918.

I forgot to mention that the 139 1870/1 sword bars were from Altenburg only.

Closeup. I have no idea what the numbers awarded were for the 3 Duchies' 1870/71 Medals

Rick, there may be a partial answer to your question. The book, "Ehrenzeichen des Herzogtums Sachsen - Altenburg" does have award numbers listed in it for 1870/1. It states 139 awards of the silver medal with the 1870/1 sword bar.

Just last week a small treasure from Schwarzburg appeared on Ebay. I was not fortunate enough to win it. This is a medal bar with a Schwarzburg Silver Merit Medal with the elusive 1917 bar. This was the best the picture would come out.

Thanks Rick, now that's what I call real knowledge. This is really helpful, although I'll probably never see one first hand, let alone getting one for $30 on Ebay.

Saschaw, I have never seen one of those colonial crosses except for the one at the beginning of this thread. Is the key to these the information about the center medallion? You say that the center medallions are three separate pieces? Are there any figures on how many of these were awarded. Since there was one at the beginning of this thread, was that given for the Southwest Africa colonial war? Thanks for all of this information.

I'll take one of each volume

To amplify a little on this topic, here is a picture of a sister and a brother both with the same obverse that started this thread. On the left is the reverse of the Ehrenzeichen fur Kriegsfursorge, (raised letters) awarded beginning in September 1915 to men and women for acts which didn't merit a Military Sanitary Cross. Then, on the right, beginning in June of 1916, the Kriegsehrenzeichen (engraved letters) was created to reward merit by men only for acts which didn't merit a Military Sanitary Cross or a General Honor Decoration for Bravery. The Ehrenzeichen fur Kriegsfursorge reverted to a decoration for women only. I have always found the Ehrenzeichen fur Kriegsfursorge to be much more difficult to find.

In my haste, I spelled the name of the Cross wrong. It is properly the Marien Kreuz.

This is the reverse.

I have a single medal that I hope you like. The Marian Cross was awarded in 1918 to women and young women for nursing services and war aid efforts. Gerd Scharfenberg's book, Die Orden und Ehrenzeichen der Anhaltischen Staaten, does not have any estimate of numbers awarded but does say that the Cross was probable only awarded in August and early September 1918. I was fortunate to find one with an original ribbon but it is not in a bow as most awards were.

I have a Silver Merit Cross on its way to me from Germany. It is mounted on a bow ribbon. Is this a legitimate award to a woman or is this something that someone would have just used an extra long ribbon to put together sometime in the past. I have seen these before and often wondered about them. I wanted the Merit Cross so I'll keep it no matter what but I was just curious if any of you could shed light on this?

Rick, If one assumes that all of these medals were on a bar together, is the identity of the holder possible?

This is a great thread. But could one of you explain the significance of the bezirksfeldwebel rank? How is it different from a feldwebel. I learn something new everytime I read a thread on the site.

Rick, under what circumstances would a women earn an Iron Cross on a combattants ribbon. Would it be closeness to the front. It just seems like a noncombattant ribbon would be the natural for someone who probably wouldn't be carrying a gun.

You're right.

That IS the only one I've ever seen!

But aside from that... let's see who knows WHY this is Most Particularly Special?

I always thought these were special because this type of bar was only given to women who earned the Friedrich August Medal from Saxony. A very very small percentage of the medals with bars were given to women. Sachsens-Ordens reports only 450 in silver and 160 in bronze.

I was interested in starting a thread on the Saxon Friedrich August Medal. I think this is an underappreciated medal that we see a lot but was highly valued by those who received it. This one is on the peace ribbon and was given to men. Before I looked at the website, Sachsens-Orden, I didn't know how rare this medal was. That site reports that only 838 bronze Friedrich August Medals were awarded with the men's ribbon spange. The women's is even rarer with only 162 awarded. Does anyone have more pictures of this medal or of it being worn, especially with the ribbon spanges.

When I was searching the internet for information on the Silver Merit Cross of the Merit Order of Saxony, I came across this excellent website on the orders and medals of the Kingdom of Saxony. This has information, including pictures of the medals, their cases and award documents on all of the orders, their associated medals and the decorations awarded by that state.

http://www.sachsens-orden.de.vu/ I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention.

However, even through this is an excellent site, I was unable to find definitive information. My question is, was it possible for a Saxon Silver Merit Cross to be awarded on a bow ribbon and was that something that happened a lot or was it rare. Does anyone know the answers or where I could find it out?

Both of these are from the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. The middle medal is the War Honor Decoration to be given for merit that did not warrant a General Honor Decoration for Bravery or a Military Sanitary Cross (if the recipient was a man). The cross is the Silver Merit Cross with swords of the Order of Phillip the Magnanimous. A very nice bar in excellent condition. Congratulations.

Here is an odd little medal bar that I got several years ago. The arrangement is very odd and the only order I can see is that it goes from large to small. Other than that it is entirely illogical. Was this guy from Saxe-Meiningen and just put the Baden medals on as he received them (because the Small Gold is misplaced)? All in all an odd duck.

Rick, based on your experience with the Saxe-Meiningen War Merit Cross rolls, do you think it will be possible to determine the breakout between the numbers of chocolate bronze and the zinc crosses. I guess there is no firm date for the changeover to zinc but is it reasonable to think it would be sometime in 1918? The zinc crosses seem to appear less often on Ebay or other auctions.