filfoster

Thank you for that. I wish there were some more photos of him wearing this uniform.

Graham: That is a nice, post-war photo, one I'd not seen. It's not the infantry uniform, however. You can see the frogging for his Hussar atilla and he's wearing his pelzmutze also.

arb: Thank you! Does anyone else have another photo of Mackensen wearing this uniform?

Does anyone know what uniform v. Mackensen is wearing in this photo? In 98% of photos of him, he's wearing his 'Death's Head' Hussars uniform. In the other 2%, he's wearing his adjutant's uniform. The white underlay to the shoulder cords hints that it's an honorary regimental 'chef' or ala suite appointment. THIS IS THE ONLY PHOTO OF HIM WEARING THIS UNIFORM THAT I'VE EVER FOUND. It appears in the book 'The World War One Sourcebook'.

BUMP. Many more months now trolling ebay and the internet to no avail. We know there are some out there. I'd gladly pay a 'bounty' if you can locate one for sale.

For fun, here are some of my other replica FM batons. L-R: French WW1; Russian, pre-WW1(no Russian WW1 field marshals); Imperial German (Prussian) and British.

No, and I didn't abbreviate "KonIg' on my copy (see attached photo. Yes, the bands are silver not white enamel and the eagles are slightly wrong form, but it's a decent copy, I think). We agreed above to drop the usual 'DEM'.

I know someone has one of these....

Even less likely then, that the alleged Hindenburg baton pictured in the Thies catalog is an original. Too many strikes against it, although other than the wrong form (too many crowns and eagles, reflecting the pre 1912 form), it looks real.

Does anyone know what happened to Hindenburg's marshal baton? Easy to imagine it's long gone, looted by the Russians or worse, destroyed. I hope it survived, perhaps with the family, still?

Thank you. I had only thought of Oblt. Franz Kern who had a higher Iron Crown decoration and wondered.

Most summaries of this medal say this decoration, the 1st Class, only went to Army and Corps commanders but I wondered if there were some lower ranking exceptions. Does anyone know?

Any more input on this? Either question: Exact wording of the Schriftbands Whether this photos show an original Hindenburg baton or a reproduction, wrong form (earlier type with 7 instead of 5 alternating crowns and eagles in column)?

BUMP. Any help? Smaller King's Crown field marshal buttons?

Yes. I can imagine, although I've never seen one, everything else 'high-end' Imperial German has been copied. What bothers me about the Thies catalog/ad baton is the earlier form, of 7 alternating crowns and eagles, versus the 5 alternating crowns and eagles on all the other batons awarded during WW1. AND, NONE of the photos of Hindenburg holding the formal baton show anything but the FIVE alternating crowns and eagles, even the bronze statue one. That's telling. Unless someone can provide a photo of him holding this more elaborate baton, it seems unlikely to me to be an original. I am copying it (NOT good enough for a 'deceptive copy'-the eagles are of a different form- but only for my uniform displays) so I need to at least have it made in the proper form and the correct Schriftband. I think we have solved the wording of the Schriftband. The copy will be of the FIVE alternating crowns and eagles.