Claudio

I have seen also non-bavarian officer using the Bavarian style ribbon bars. Maybe it was also a "fashion statement", since Bavarian type of ribbon bars with their nicely folded ribbons looks nicer (like the big brother ones) than just plain strait ribbons. Here below you can see one non-Bavarian officer who wore the typical Bavarian style ribbon bar. This ribbon doesn't belong in my collection, it was sold by Niemann a couple of years ago. Btw, great group Paul! Congrats! It seems like in this very interesting forum there are always the same guys to post... maybe it's just my opinion... or maybe it's summer time and everybody is in vacation! Good for all the people at the beach... Ciao, Claudio

To me is a Italian Navy merit medal given for rescue merits. Ciao, Claudio

Very nice indeed! Simple but just beautiful and with an name!!! The ribbon of the medaglia al valore (bronzo) is for Navy. Still today it's still the same ribbon used for that medal (http://www.medals.lava.pl/it/it_chkmain.htm). Marina is in Italian the word for Navy. Ciao, Claudio

Just a side not the Schwarzburg Honor Cross 3rd Class X shows the obverse on the medal bar (worn upsidedown). Wonderful bar with a name (that's the most important!). It looks like there are more Kriegsmarine medal bars that survived the wars and the post-war times, if compared to LW or Army bars... in my collection I have several senior officer KM-medal bars, comperatevely less army bars. Maybe they were kept ashore... Could be that the reason?! Ciao, Claudio

Hi Chip, In German the term Abt. (Abteilung) is to indicate a unit of a size of Battalion. This term is especially used for artillery units or special units attached to a Division. Ciao, Claudio

I remember that table. Thank you for posting it. Here's another bar (Frackspange) with a quite uncommon unit bar... Ciao, Claudio

Here a post 34-35 medal bar (but still naughty with that Flandernkreuz with bars) with a Weimar-Era ribbon bar of the same recipient with a ribbon for a Regimentskreuz on the last position... (blue red blue).

Sascha, Since these medals were purchased privately I think that the veterans did chose the ribbon they liked most, although I am pretty sure that the Ordensh?ndler had a ribbon system per type of unit to go with their "Treu dem Regiment/Battalion" crosses. Ciao, Claudio

This bar has a lot of clasps but unfortunately the clasp for the Infanterie Regt. 91 fell off... Interesting is the last medal (WWI commemorative medal for the members of the 91th Infantry Regiment, Oldenburg). Sometimes you can see infantry also with a blue red white ribbon, like in this case. Ciao, Claudio

Blue black and red for ARTILLERY... here's a bar.

Here a medal bar with blue red yellow ribbon for GARDE!

Infantry had usually this ribbon...

Garde was usually blue with red and yellow stripes in the middle. This one is very particular, with double bar, indicating that the recipient served in two different units. Ciao, Claudio

Hi everybody, These Units WWI commemorative medals had different ribbons. I don't know all the variants but the colours of the ribbons depended for which unit and Waffengattung (Infanterie, Artillerie, Kavallerie, Kriegsmarine). Here's an example, this is the ribbon used for J?ger troops. Ciao, Claudio

I like it, too. I don't think that the fakers are already so ahead and are faking Godet ribbon or medal bars, because you have to find the right parts in order to do it. Sometimes these parts are available on the market. Hopefully it didn't happen, yet! Ciao, Claudio

side by side... do you see any differences??? Please note that that the difference of the enamel's colors is due to the fact that these are different quality of scans, not taken at the same time...

@ Komtur: In your opinion is this ?lberg-Kreuz am Einzelbandspange is real or fake?

It should heal not hurt!!!

Unfortunately I couldn't get maybe the most important document of the decorations on the Frackspange: the Olberg-Kreuz Verleihungsurkunde signed by Prince Eitel Friedrich Prinz von Preussen!!!! ARRRGGGGHHHH..... It went for too much money for my taste... At least I made a copy of the online-catalogue's scan of the afore mentioned document! What a consolation... I hope you enjoyed this travel through the time of a well decorated Hannoverian top Bank manager... Ciao, Claudio

Of course there is also the letter from Reichsbank-Direktorium which informed Hr. Klaproth about bestowal of the "Verdienstkreuz f. Kriegshilfe", dated 31st July 1917 (date of issue of the document was 19th July 1917).

I almost forgot... There's also the "?bersendungsschreiben" of the Oberpr?sident der Provinz Hannover to Hr. Klaproth, dated 26th August 1907 (the document was issued on August 22, four days earlier only!).

Finally on July 5, 1917 Herr Klaproth received his medal! Herr Klaproth had good manners... he wrote back to Herr Generalkonsul von Koch to thank him for the nice letter and medal he got from him! Talking about German Grundlichkeit... Herr Klaproth - fortunately for us collectors - made the effort to file all his documents so neately!

Letter of the German Consul General von Koch (very likely working for the Ottoman Embassy as Honorary) informing Herr Klaproth informing about the shipment of the medal to him. From the date of bestowal (20th October 1916) until the shipment of the medal to Herr Klaproth took at least more than 8 months (27th June 1917)!!! wow...

Letter of the Ottoman Embassy in Berlin informing Herr Klaproth about the bestowal of the red cross medal in 1916...

@ Scott: Thanks! Herr Klaproth, as a perfect bureaucrat and bank manager extremely careful in keeping his documentation "clean", had filed every single document in a subfolder with all the correspondance and paper work. Documents and correspondance for the Turkish Red Cross medal...