bolewts58

I don't know if it refers to the same units. But Freikorps Reinhard/Regiment Reinhard/Freiwilligen-Brigade Reinhard (no "t") had two artillery units: Freiwilligen-Garde-Artillerie-Regiment Winterfeld and Minenwerfer Abteilung Reinhard.

For a member of MG Abtlg. Nr.12 fighting in "Sudwest Afrika". So, yes African colonial.

I get Bruno as the first name.

Nice collection. I strongly suspect that the Freikorps helmet is not legit. There are tons of these being flogged especially on eBay, most of which are painted on helmet shells. In 54 years of collecting Freikorps, I've only ever seen one skull painted on a helmet that had solid provenance from the period.

Agree. This isn't a restoration project at this point (if it ever was one) with ribbons having now been removed from the bar. This is simply a reconstruction. My concern is that if it's done convincingly enough, somewhere down the line this bar will end up transitioning to an "authentic" bar in some unsuspecting collector's collection and could end being sold repeatedly over time for a lot of money. The bar should have been disassembled and left that way.

I just received the very sad news that Konstantin Nikolayev, recognized as the world's leading Freikorps expert and author of the comprehensive 2-volume study of Freikorps awards passed away earlier this Fall after a serious illness. To those of us who knew Konstantin, he was a major source of information on the Freikorps period and always gracious and generous in helping further our knowledge of this very interesting area of German militaria collecting. This is a great loss to the Freikorps collecting community. He will be sorely missed. Given that his excellent books were self-published, they will become collectible in their own right and I consider myself fortunate to have a signed set of these wonderful books. Konstantin is also noted for writing the first comprehensive book on the TWM (Eiserner Halbmond/Gallipoli Star), a quite lengthy reference at 470 pages.

Also a little bit of interesting info...on October 12, 1918 he transferred to Minenwerfer Kompanie 343. Although a bit late in the war, he presumably would have had shoulder boards with MW and 343 below it in red.

EkII and Black Wound Badge.

The Honor Badge of Freikorps Würzburg instituted in 1934 on the 15th anniversary of the Freikorps.

Absolutely mind-numbing stupidity paying these kinds of prices for photos especially since they weren't bought by the buyer of the medal bar. So the photo of the recipient of the medal bar is owned by one buyer and the medal bar by a different buyer. Truly tragic and sad. Whoever these buyers are, they are not collectors, but insanely greedy acquisitors.

Photo of Hans Jürgen (right) wearing the above medal bar but with an added medal after the EK which I think is the Deutsche Ehrenlegion medal.

Hans Jürgen's membership card for the Association of Former Members of the Iron Division.

Hi Andreas Thanks for the information. That makes all the difference regarding the price. Did his Militärpaß sell on eBay as well? I see that his membership card in the Eiserne Division veterans group is now being sold by the same seller. I hate when sellers split things up.

This Iron Division trio just sold on eBay for 623 € which is pretty close to its retail value. Admittedly, Freikorps bars of any kind are hard to come by. But, I was a little surprised at the final price for this as it's a broken group. I'm not totally convinced that the EKII ribbon belongs on there. I suspect it may have originally been some other related medal such as the Baltic Cross, Russian George Cross or George Medal or perhaps an Avalov Cross 3rd class.

Here is a nice quality early Third Reich period Baltic Cross variation in brass finished in an oxidized matte-gilt with a polished trefoil cross. This type is shown in Ingo Haarcke's book on Freikorps awards on the bottom of page 94 and listed as Type 6.

Those ribbons are perfectly good and from the period.

The hand writing is called "Kurrentschrift". If you want to take a stab at deciphering it in the future, you can use the link below for reference. It may not totally help as in any handwriting, there's personal interpretation. But, all Germans learned this in school. So, especially on documents the quality and accuracy of the handwriting usually follows the rules. http://www.kurrentschrift.net/index.php?s=alphabet

Oh, ya. i see "Becker" now. The signature is a bit faded. When I darkened it in Photoshop, I could see it more clearly. Do you have a link for Generalmajor Karl Becker? I was looking, but couldn't find any.

The document is also signed in ink by a Generalmajor und Kommandeur. I think his name was Richter. I assume he was the commander of Landwehr Division 20.

I agree with you that this is him. If the bottom document hand-written in ink was written by Müller, it's possible that the narrow ö is actually a sloppy ü and was copied wrong on the type-written doc. There's a little blip at the top of it as if the pen slipped. if you compare to the 2 "o"s inTheodor, you'll notice they're open at the top as was typical of the way Germans would write them in cursive. So, I think that his name was actually Müller not Möller.

He was a "Gefreiten" , effectively a Lance Corporal. Yes, it's likely that he went by Albert as his first name. You might be able to find out about the Landwehr Inf. Regt. 387 in this period reference in the Cornell U. Library now converted to an online pdf. HISTORIES OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY- ONE DIVISIONS OF THE GERMAN ARMY WHICH PARTICIPATED IN THE WAR (1914-1918) compiled from records of Intelligence section of the General Staff, American Expeditionary Forces, at General Headquarters, Chaumont, France 1919 (1920) https://ia800205.us.archive.org/3/items/cu31924027835317/cu31924027835317.pdf

As he only served in the Freikorps actions against the Spartacists and the (red) People's Naval Division in Germany in 1919 as Battalion-Commander in the Volunteer Regiment Kiel, there is no Freikorps award that he would have been eligible for as Volunteer Regiment Kiel didn't have any sort of unit award and there was no general award created for Freikorps actions within Germany in 1919. So, I agree it is likely the Prussian Verdienstkreuz für Kriegshilfe.

A genuine example of a very rare Avalov Cross 2nd Class awarded to Baltischer Kämpfer, Karl Zoller. This is part of a grouping recently acquired by a fellow collector. The fact that both sides are enameled and the swords are detailed on both sides and gilded shows the difference between the thread starter and a real high-quality 2nd class.

Easy enough to get. But, true that there are a lot of copies now. I have actually sold all of mine and don't have any now. I only have a few miniature Baltic Crosses left.

There are no reliable dealers of which I'm aware. Helmut Weitze is the most obvious and high-profile. But, even he has fakes being sold as genuine from time to time. Unless you know your stuff, it's risky to buy anything from any dealer, unless the dealer can be 100% vouched for. What are you actually looking for?