landsknechte

Has anyone considered voodoo?

Tis true... Perhaps I was trying too hard to bring order out of the chaos, even if it was a warped and twisted sense of order. ...any clue what the decoration in first place is?

The Hessian Red Cross decoration is the only other thing that comes to mind, but perhaps someone else out there is seeing something that I've missed. --Chris

It's odd, but I can almost see the logic in this bar. (Perhaps I shouldn't admit that in public.) Finding out what #1 is might blow my idea to smithereens, but there does seem to be a reasonable precedence if the nationalities of the awards are completely ignored. 1. ???? 2. Finland Cross of Liberty 2nd Class 3. DSWA 4. Dutch Order of Oranje-Nassau 5. Finland War of Independence Commemorative 6. Prussian War Merit Cross 7. Lippe-Detmold KVK2 for combatants

Item by item, I am slowly working on taking over Stogierick's collection. Anyhow, this odd duck is soon to be taking it's place in my collection. I know it had been discussed on another forum, in a galaxy far far away. That thread has since vanished, along with the attempts to make sense of the Weimar-era chaos of it. Anyhow, I'd like to repost this bar in the greener pastures of this forum for another go around. --Chris

Perhaps I would feel differently if I actually had a chance to fondle a ZL firsthand, but for the time being, this is my favorite design. (Pic borrowed from Dave's website.) There's something so delightfully heraldric about it.

Thanks again!

Nothing glows on a blacklight, and this one certainly has what appears to be a very natural "patina" to it. Nevertheless, this is enough out of my area of specialization that I thought I'd float it past the collective wisdom of the group. --Chris

Any thoughts on this one?

I never meant to imply that that historians should be part of some reclusive monastic order. I wasn't talking about the intellectual "products" of historians, not by any stretch of the imagination. I'm all for historians being able to make money from their intellectual products. Heck, I wish I could. What I was referring to was the objects... A historian is going to look at one of these objects, and the historial significance will be where he or she places the greatest value. An investor looks at one of these objects and views the item as a ingot of gold, a savings bond, or a beanie baby. To the investor, the historical significance matters most as a sort of marketing tool that will someday leverage them a better return. --Chris

Rick - spoken like a true historian.

The clinical term is obsessive compulsive disorder.

Unfortunately, that's the only picture that I have. The bar isn't actually mine, just one that I stumbled across on sale somewhere. Trying to keep track of the oddball Bavarian stuff as it surfaces for reference. --Chris

Do we know whether or not Rittmeister von Ehrenkrook was present for the liberation of Helsinki in 1918? --Chris

Finally got the bar in hand... The swords on the White Falcon are silver. Granted they're a little bit on the yellowish side of silver, but compared to how downright yellow the swords on the Albrechtorden and the Hindenburg Cross are - I'm convinced that it's supposed to be a Knight 2nd Class. (How many of the SWF-R2 were there? I only retained the number of the SWF-R1 in my head.) The bar with the Helsinki ribbon might indeed be a close relative. :-) Edit: Attached a better pic.

Real as is "genuine historical object", or real as in "tangible object / not hallucination"?

As always Christophe, your ribbon bars leave me drooling. Perhaps I ought to drop the second "r" from my name. I think that's the source of my bad luck. --Chris

I've been spending my spare time recently lighting incense and chanting incoherently to the ranklist gods in hope that the White Falcon rolls will be published in my lifetime. That would probably lead to two easy IDs right there.

This is precisely the sort of resource I love to keep on tap. However, without any ranklists at my disposal, I don't really have a brush to comb with.

Definately not WW2 then? Does the SHAEF patch seem like a later add-on, or does it appear to be original to the shirt? Thanks, --Chris

Huh... You learn something every day. Cool. --Chris

Right now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something comes out of Rick looking through the names of the Naval personnel that you posted in that other thread. --Chris

The St. Stanislaus would have likely been one of the easier ones to come by in Germany, and the ribbon on this lapel bow certainly looks like a regular St. Stanislaus ribbon. I suspect that the two that look like the St. Anne ribbon are "make do" ribbons as well, probably Baden Long Service ribbons (although there are a few that are close enough in appearance). Notice how much wider the stripes are on those ribbons than the normal St. Anne ribbons.

Take a close look at the ribbon for the St. Vladimir - it looks rather homemade being cobbled together out of two pieces of ribbon. I suspect that there are a few of the ribbons on here that were called in to service as "close enogh" expediencies. That blue and white ribbon could be leftover Bavarian Landwehr miniature ribbon (as below) used to represent something else. --Chris

There were only a few combinations that would have been possible for buttonhole wear, but I seem to think that I have seen them used that way. A 1939 EK / Ostfront combination comes to mind. These combo ribbons were also used for the "roll" type lapel bows as well. --Chris