Ulsterman

good stuff-

now, do we get to see the picture?

very cool stuff-

gentleman:

What is the status of the Hungarian military archives? open or closed? Also, what about Communist era Party records?

I understand they are thinking of knocking down the old party building.

ooops-forgot the von

general oberarzt dr. med Schlacht?

GREAT photos!! I love 'em.

Isn't Grandads' medal there the 'Excellent/Distinguished worker" medal from 1975?

Hmmmm-Rommel? Schlagter? Richtofen?

I can't wait!

In a 36th Div. tunic from 1918-letters from the mans' sister and a pocket bible-heavily worn and paged to funerals. Also a german pocket calender from 1917 with a death notice inside. the pocket calender was marked with names in blue pencil on dates-heavily marked in March, 1918-crosses next to most names-the days men in the german's unit died i suppose.

OMG!

Heiko-I am so sorry.

Gentlemen, I would guess that this may have been a'targeted" theft. People read these forums and watch and wait for opportunities to steal our collections.

Can we recreate some of these bars so as to know what we are looking for? Odds are if it was just kids these things will be on ebay.de within a month. If not-eventually they will surface.

really good thread this....

what else did people do to get a 'hero of the people" award?

Ditto everything Hauptman said above. Hungary seems a fertile and interesting collecting field. That "yawner" is dead brilliant.

drat!

NCO or valet?

...and the Ordensalmanach says...?

looks like it is his bar as other possibilities seem unlikely . Nice one.

ooops-

I forgot to add that there are several others of these at the mo-

one, from "Bazzmag" is for sale for 10e. I doubt it's a fake, because it was:

1. dirt cheap

2. the sellers' story (obtained in 1998) seems to check out (lots of hungarian stuff, but mostly sells odds and ends, USAF extras, Pokeomon cards and kids clothing etc.

3. Rather well made compared to other crap out there-not exceptional quality-the back is brass and reminds me of Vietnamese medals, but the front enamelwork is rather decent and may even be hot applied. The back flag looks precision made too-no odd paint/enamel spalshes anywhere.

It's a sagging tightrope here too.....still, at least it's not beer or flashy cars or dangerous mid-life crisis hobbies.

That militia badge is brilliant!

I got this (below) off ebay 2 months ago.

It appears to be some sort of distinguished workers badge-varient. It has almost the same sort of box interior as the militia badge, but the box is plastic.

Any ideas?

It's rather well made and of 2 piece construction. Any ideas?

NIICE STUFF cd!

what are the militia badges?

Great Weimar photos!

the 2nd guy has:

BMVK1/2

EK2

Kyfserbund

Luitpold "wedding medal"

Ehrenlegion members' medal

probably a LS medal

Austrian veterans assn. medal.

Very nice Robert-Bavarians all. i wonder if they are the men who put down Adolf's putsch in 23?

Stunning! Well done.

Alas, I find nothing on him in the FAR 14 book.

Very cool-

but what does it say? Who got this medal?

@Ulsterman, Why?

The are known winners of the GTM (Goldene Tapferkeitsmedaille) who got ONLY the GTM but no other Bravery Medals (Bronze, Silver). So it is possible to wear an GTM, a Karl-Truppen-Kreuz and a Laeso-Militi-Medal on a bar without lower Bravery Medals.

Technical branch seems to be improbable, there should be a merit cross (likely silver or maybe gold), as mentioned before.

Often highly-decorated NCO's could get get an iron merit cross aswell. Though it was institued 1916 for longservice NCO's in the hinterland or at the front but with no normally combat-assignment, it was given to young deserved NCO's aswell.

BTW whatever the OMSA says. in 1916 a lot of the iron merit crosses were issued with red ribbon for military personal in the hinterland.

regards

haynau

Because there were what, maybe 12-20 men who only got the golden medal and nothing else?

The lower the probability-well, the lower the probability. I tend to think in terms of odds. At some pont it becomes so improbable that it's more probablt to say "fake". A single golden medal, in conjunction with all of these hat point for me.

Also-the slight chance (if it is real) of a "technical background" is because of the Wurtemberg medal and the state service medal. Who got state service medals? Lots of people, but a good many were those in state industries. Who was more liekly to get a low end state bravery medal from another country? I have seen docs and photos of a few combat soldiers, but many more seem to be worn by rear eschelon types.

Would not the top one -well, go on top? Two rows of medals? I thought that was verboten, but maybe on civvy evening dress?

Or a memorial pillow bar perhaps?

I assumed the "golden" large bravery medal was merely a silver one with a photographic lambent sheen on it.

Dave is dead on-as always.

If it's a golden one then no way.

Unusual-

and my first impulse is to say "fake". There are lots of these style Austrian wunder-bars out there and they have been flowing into medal fairs since the mid 1990s (that I am aware of-probably even earlier).

The Wurtemberg medal is what does it for me. Also -what about the placement of the HKx?

The bar says " Austrian: brave, war volunteer, enlisted man"- with MAYBE some sort of technical capability (trains, motor transport, engineering, telephones, etc.). But there is no merit cross either. Did Wurtemberg give lower medals to foreigners?

The rest of the medals could easily have been earned by say, an Oberlehrer (who taught French?) who was also a local functionary-or even, say a Sonderfuhrer recalled in 1938.

If it's that old, my guess is 5:3 odds it's ok, but the stitching also sounds faint alarm bells. Stitching is more Stogiemans' area than mine.

Nice ! Well done.

HK = Hindenburg-cross = "Frontkaempfer-Ehrenkreuz" ?

The Kriegsehrenmedaille Lippe-Detmold was a award for civilians...it is indirect fixed in the award statutes.

Greetings

Solomon

Yes, I know. However, there exist photos or red cross men wearing EKs (in 1917/18) AND Hks (yes frontkampfer crosses) in the 1930s. I assume they were wrongly awarded, but such things happened-rarely- and indeed- still happen today. However, I have never seen HK docs to railroad men , postmen, other bureaucrtas (beamten) or female nurses-although I have seen KVK docs to such civillian types.