waldo

I think there should be a medal. Or maybe a LandwehrDA 1st or 2nd class. 
All of which is speculative.

is the front medallion made of gold? 

If it is not made of gold but is only gold-plated, the outer edge of 
the lower cross arm on the backside must be wider. Since the cross 
you are showing does not have a wider border, it can only be an 
original if the medallion is made of gold.

The cross you are showing comes from the manufacturer Leser. The 
enamel seems good. In the appendix an MVK 1st class with swords for 
comparison. 

The last picture shows the widened edge of a reader's cross, which has 
a gold-plated front medallion. Such crosses were made from 1917, as 
real gold awards were no longer allowed.

Anyone who deals with the Bavarian Military Merit Medal 1870/71, of 
course, knows the daring story of Franz Dettenhofer from the 3rd 
Chevaulegers Regiment:

It was about 5 o'clock now; the darkness that had already set in, 
intensified by a thick fog, made it difficult to see beyond 100 
steps.

Around 5:30 a.m., Chevauleger corporal Franz Dettenhofer from 
Vötting, Freising District Office, the 4th squadron of the 3rd 
Chevauleger Regiment, was ordered to investigate whether the 
last-mentioned battery was still in its previous position or not. 
He immediately rode with 11 men and went ahead in the swarm. The 
little group was still less than a quarter of an hour from where 
they left when the left-most Chevaulegers got fires. The corporal 
was now pulling his team together and trotting in the direction 
where the shots had come from. In the vicinity of about 70-80 paces 
from the enemy, Dettenhofer noticed about 25-30 men of French 
infantry escorting Bavarian prisoners, including some officers.

One of the prisoners called Dettenhofer benevolently: "Chevaulegers,
we are caught, ride back, otherwise you will be the same", while at 
the same time the French soldiers started shooting at the Bavarian 
riders. "Nothing is caught with us," replied the corporal, said to 
his people "strike what you can" and fell on the enemy with them 
from all sides. He killed 8 men, made 14 prisoners and freed the 
Bavarian 3 officers and 14 men. Favored by the darkness, none of 
the Chevaulegers was killed or wounded. So the cheeky attack, 
carried out with real cavalry determination, happily knocked 
everyone out again. The officers also included a badly wounded man 
who four Chevaulegers had to carry. First Dettenhofer went to the 
place where the Bavarians had to leave their weapons and their
luggage, then with his liberated and prisoners to the Chevaulegers 
bivouac in La Banery.

The following day, December 8, the division of the 3rd Chevaulegers 
Regiment was just in reserve when one of its officers took the 
opportunity to introduce Dettenhofer and his subordinates from 
yesterday to the men of the Infantry Division Staff, on what 
occasion he did so Congratulations on the Prussian Iron Cross from 
several sides in advance. And he also received its 2nd class, 
because the brave Dettenhofer had already earned the two Bavarian 
military merit medals, the silver one at Sedan on September 1, 
where he showed great determination in transporting dispatches on a 
very threatening relay line the golden one, because he volunteered 
on September 25 to fill the relay post in Bourcay, which was very 
endangered by franchireurs, fearlessly claimed this post and on 
September 26 several important letters from the 4th Prussian Cavalry
Division in Pithiviers were under threat Relay routes brought to 
Arpajon. Here, as on other important ordnance steps, he repeatedly 
demonstrates unusual courage and prudence.

No, the list does not include matrikelnumbers. The number at the 
end is the number under which the member of the MMJO is listed 
in this booklet. See above.

The only published matriculation numbers known to me so far are 
in the Schrettinger.

Unfortunately my English is not good and I have to rely on Google. 
I'll try it again:

This booklet was published by the order in 1927 and distributed to 
the members. This includes all officers awarded the MMJO in 
alphabetical order with their deeds. Furthermore you can see the 
ranking within the individual classes. I attach the table of 
contents as an attachment.

Kaufmann had the RK with the number 24, that's correct.

Maybe a few comments on the subject. Ritter von Hopffer had the RK 
with the matriculation number 20. The references in Kramer do not 
refer to the matriculation number. Epp had the RK with the number 268 
and not 286. The RK with the number 286 was awarded only once in 1814
to a Russian (Schrettinger S. 68, Rapatel, Nr. 10 at the RK). 
Order decorations of current members (i.e., status 1882) of the MMJO
and their previous owners can be found in the Schrettinger on pages 
74 - 77.
 
The purpose of the matriculation numbers was for a member of the 
MMJO to find out who was allowed to wear this medal before him. The 
order of the awards was important for the "Ordenspension" (Monthly 
payment). These only existed for a certain number of members.
An overview of this ranking can be found in 

"Der Bayerische Militär-Max-Joseph-Orden im Weltkrieg 1914/1918, 
Teil III, Anlage 1". 

To my knowledge, this is the only publication of a ranking.

Attached is a scan of this list. Sorry for my bad english.

Sorry, I did not read the title correctly.

I deleted the post again