Robin Lumsden

One more...................

.....have you the name of the other book

The book below is worth getting if you don't have it. Pix only but still good.

http://www.helion.co.uk/product.asp?strPar...1&P_ID=2759

Paul.

PS................you are right about the eBay staff. 99.9% fake. Make that 100% fake if it comes from the Hannover source.

Well, the link seems to have died. Here's a bit of what it was on about.....................

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Only scant information survives about the origins of the Den Danske Malteserorden. The founder was Colonel Paul Mikhailovitch Bermondt, a White Russian adventurer who sought under the German/Polish General R?diger von der Goltz to create a German controlled Latvia and to restore a Russia Czar in the Baltic Provinces, in 1919. Defeated he fled to Denmark. He adopted his maternal uncle?s name and rank, to become Prince, or Count, Colonel Paul Mikhailovitch Avaloff #1.

In Denmark circa 1920, Bermondt set up the "Sovereign Imperial Russian Chivalric Order of Malta" (Souveraner kaiserliche-russischer Malteser-ritter-orden).

It is alleged that Bermondt acquired the patronage of King Alexander of Yugoslavia #2. By name, Bermondt's Order lay claim in part to the Russian tradition. However, neither Bermondt, nor his maternal uncle (Avaloff), were Hereditary Commanders of, or had been previously connected to, the Russian Grand Priory #3. Bermondt?s creation was simply of analogous nature. Also there is no evidence of contact between Bermondt?s group in 1928 or afterwards, with the Russian Grand Priory following the resumption of its activities in exile in Paris. Sometime in the mid 1930s, Bermondt had sought to gain the support of Grand Duke Cyril, but this was refused #4. There is no evidence that thereafter any support or patronage was given by members of the Romanov family to Bermondt?s Order. At some stage in the inter-war period, Bermondt and his Order, moved to Germany, where it was suppressed by the Nazis #5.

In 1950 a refutation to the claims of Bermondt's Order was given jointly by the successor to the Russian Throne, and by a legal expert in Russian Law. Grand Duke Andrew and Baron Michel de Tauble repudiated any claim of the Bermondt Order via the patronage of King Alexander of Yugoslavia to be a "so-called" restoration of the Russian Grand Priory as being "null and void in the legal context" #6.

On the 31 August 1934, in Copenhagen a private non-political Christian organisation was created called the "Sovereign Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem of Denmark". For a brief period the "Grand Chancellor" of this group was H.R.H. Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark. From this venture, on the 24th June 1946, one of the members - Mr. Grundall Sjallung founded the Grand Priory of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem in Denmark. In 1976, the membership of this group was eventually reconciled with the original group founded in 1934.

In 1948 a Danish Architect - Charles P Christensen formed his own Order of St. John. In 1951 Christensen obtained a decree issued in Leipzig, Germany from "The Sovereign Russian Imperial Order of Knights of Malta", which was signed by Max Schiffel von Frauenstein who had been a member of the Schismatic Order created in 1946. In that year the Grand Master of the Sovereign Russian Imperial Order of Knights of Malta was given as Prince Paul Avalov-Bermondt #7. Thus Christensen?s group inherited the mantle of the original group founded by Bermondt.

Den Danske Malteserorden ? The Danish Order of Malta, the name by which the group is now known, in 1967 joined forces with Cassagnac?s French group (The Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem). After Christensen?s death in 1963 Carl Wilhelm Lehman became Prior until 1969, followed by Poul Hall Jensen to 1990, then Ove Petersen until 1994, Johan A. Johansen until 1996. The present Prior is David K Svarre. Claimed by the group, as the first Prior in 1934 was Poul von Reitzel, followed by Charles P Christensen in 1939.

In the early 1950s a break-away group was formed by Jens Ole Rostock, alias ?Count of Hermosa?, known as the "Sovereign Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in Denmark". The group today is known as Den Danske Johanniterorden. A further schism occurred in Den Danske Maltesorden in 1984, when about half the membership seceded and reconciled with the 1934 ?Order?#8.

With such a complex and interwoven history, both a Russian foundation of post 1917 (via the Bermondt foundation of 1920), and the 1934 foundation are taken as the origins of Den Danske Maltesorden. The Bulletin of the Russian Grand Priory of Malta (claiming the 1964 King Peter Constitution and independent since 1990), in such manner confuses the two foundations. It states that the group "is a descendant of the old Souverain Kaiserlischer Russicher Malteseorden, under Pavel Michallaiwitsch Awaloff, which was forbidden by the Nazis in Germany but was recreated in Denmark in 1934, where it has continued ever since as an autonomous Priory." #9. The Order?s own Web Site, argues for the twin foundation #10.

Paul.

The link below might be of interest.....................

http://www.orderstjohn.org/selfstyle/ddm.htm

.....and Loritz, with the earlier version............

That one's a fake, but this type of badge was worn on the sleeve by SS-TV camp officers who did not have the skull on the collar (i.e. Standartenfuehrer and above). Here's Koch...................

Robin, I am not aware of documents for the Iron Division. Is there such animals...........

Dante.

Here is a citation for the Iron Division Medal........................

Robin: Seeing reference to the Dodkins Collection sale in 1987--

this "Finnish" group (of approximately same "kaching") probably came from there as well-- if you'd flip through and see if it's in, for the lot number, would appreciate it for the attribution, since it came to live at my house in the early 90s.

It's got his horrid glued down stickers all over the back from 1964. I know that it's from his collection, but not when it left it. Came to me from Major Floyd-- and here we two are, still around after all these years.

Rick.

I'm sorry. I can't find any reference to that group in my copy of the catalogue. However, some of the pages are missing.

My (very poor) relation..........................

Dante.

Did you know that the bar you have bought was once in the late Col. C.M. Dodkins Collection?

It's shown as item no. 362 in the Wallis & Wallis sales catalogue from 1987.

With the Dodkins provenance, you can probably double the estimate again.

You must be looking at ?1,500 GBP at least, in my opinion.

Well done.

You're right, Chris.

Old age it is.

I seem to recall the group pictured below getting an astronomical amount on eBay a couple of years back. It was 2,500 Euros or something like that.

FANTASTIC GROUP!

How in God's name did I miss that ??????

Value? Individually, the awards probably tally to about ?450 GBP. But as a group? You can double that, at least.

I agree with Erich.

What a great pick up John.

I saw that one on eBay, but the poor pix put me off.

My loss is your gain!

O.K. Hear we go folks,i was wandering around a car boot sale in west wales,where i sometimes visit.There was a man there selling mostly cap badges and british army bits and pieces.I went to his stall to take a look and lo and behold i see 2 german awards.One was a iron cross 2nd class and the other was the cased blood order.Not knowing much about blood orders,i casually enquired what it was and asked for a look at it.He explained the history to me and then i remembered i had seen one in angolia,s book.To cut a long story short it felt good in the hand,and i liked the feeling of it.He wanted 85 pound for it,not being too sure i walked away and came back 5 mins. later.I got it down to 65pounds,and although reluctant to sell decided to let me have it.I sent it to an old ass.of mine Colin Brown who declared it was a good one.I was really delighted to find out about it.It is the lucky find in my life.Glad you were interested what a dream.

best regards Mike.

What a great buy.

Colin Brown............there's a blast from the past. I well remember the good old 'Military Endeavours' catalogues!

..................

http://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/flags/lv).html

You can see it all here.................in 6 parts. German officers and all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmsbWehzyUs

Their parent unit.

It is worth bearing this in mind.

Shortly after the invasion of Russia, Himmler classified all Jews there as 'bandits'.

Any action against Jewish/Russian civilians...............armed or otherwise..........was regarded as an anti-bandit operation.

So while many German troops undoubtedly fought hard against real partisans to win this badge, many others qualified for it by killing unarmed civilians.

Nice picture, Chris.

Thanks for posting!

I have been working on a book (provisionally titled For Long & Efficient Service) for the past few years. It will hopefully see the light of day in the coming months. As the title suggests, it concentrates on LSMs, though several meritorious issues are also included. With well over one hundred colour plates covering over eighty issues, all long service awards are covered - both British and Imperial, though the nationalised and provincial awards of Australia and Canada are omitted.

I'll look forward to buying a copy of that book when it comes out, Tony.

Well done for covering a much-ignored subject.

Jock.

Any relation to Warrant Officer Hamish Taggart McBagpipe?

MasterBo.

There were several other plaques.................see the link below for a few of them.

http://www.allachporcelain.com/

The Sudost one is not uncommon. The Weitze site sometimes has them for sale.

The Sudost Region of the Allgemeine-SS covered Auschwitz, incidentally.

It's probably more accurate to relate an Oberabschnitt to a Region of Germany and an Abschnitt to a District.