Utgardloki

There's a fantastic interview with him on YouTube. You're right, It took I think till around 1900 that these embroiderys were used. I don't know the exact circumstances, maybe someone else knows more. Would be interesting if this was Wilhelms personal idea or from one of his staffs. Could be that he had the idea at one of those fancy costume-balls. Later on others of those Frederick the Great - embroiderys were used too for specific regiments(think of the famous picture of General von Kluck) Alexander von Kluck August Wilhelm Adalbert Oskar:

I recently went through hundreds of pictures of Wilhelm II and tried to find pictures of him in already in his times "old" uniforms/costumes and I thought some of You are maybe interested in them too And at last: what is he doing there? And watching some acrobats:

I would definitely go for copy, even if the money would be no problem, cause this is not the right place to store such a rare and delicate piece. The changing temperature and maybe humidity and sunlight would for sure have an impact on it over the years.

Some more: The problem is the low resolution, they higher ones of these stock photos have to be bought

Small ribbon bar: Big one:

Is that him wearing the chain? Another one: If You want to buy the high resolution version, it's just ridiculous 475€...

Ja, sieht aus wie eine Knopflochschleife, wenn man mehr als eine Halsdekoration trägt. Yes, looks like a buttonholeribbon, if you weare more than one neck-decoration

I am going to look it up as soon as I have time. There is something about grey uniforms for civilians I think, but I am not sure about special ones for the governors...

I finally found an reference book where this uniform is mentioned: "Die zivile Uniform als symbolische Kommunikation" ("Civilian Uniforms as Symbolic Communictation") You can find it on Google books There are a lot of informations, i am going to roughly translate (not word by word) here what I think is most interesting (sorry for the bad english!): .........These clearly military shaped uniforms of civil colonial governors were took under revision by Wilhelm II in the year 1910. On the 23rd of September that year the monarch issued an order with which the uniforms of the governors of the three African colonies and Neuguinea and Samoa were unified. The dark blue gala uniform retained the shape of the infantry tunic, but now not only the cuffs were embroidered but also the collar in gold in the shape of the civil uniform of the Räte 1.Klasse. The Schulterstücke (sholder boards) and Fangschnüre stayed in the shape of its military role models, but the Fangschnüre were not in the shape of the ones of generals anymore but like the ones of the uniforms of the Schutztruppe, so they went from the right side to the left side. The biggest "new thing" was the colored underlay of the collars, cuffs and sholder boards. White for East Africa, Kornblumen-Blue for Southwestafrica, ponceau -red for Kamerun, yellow for Togo, green for Neuguinea and bright pink for Samoa. (.......) (....) A portrait of the last governor of East Africa Dr. Heinrich Schnee, allows to view guess the most important change, the white underlay of the collar . In another photograph with (...) Lettow-Vorbeck the cuffs can be seen better. In his memoirs Gov. Schnee wrote down something about this new not absolutely necessary uniforms. He mentions they were a spontaneous idea of Wilhelm II. Schnees colleague Freiherr von Schmuckmann, gov. of Southwestafrica, told him that a short time after his appointment he introduced himself to the Kaiser in his new 1880ies style gov. uniform. The Kaiser looked at him from all sides and said: "Absolutly awful". Than he discussed in detail, how the gov. uniform should be changed. Only after this they started talking about Southwestafrica. Later the Kaiser viewed the drafts of the new gov. uniform and corrected them with his own hand. Because of this changes the new uniforms of the imperial governors were finally determined. (more interesting stuff, if someone is interested I can further translate it) Old uniform: New one: German text:

Thank You for answering, so it is a form of a uniform worn by civilian servants? would be fantastic if anyone has a picture of such a piece

That's a beauty, especially with these two commemorative medals. I like those very much. The heraldic motives on the backsides are stunning. Thank You for sharing.

Has anyone more pictures and information about this uniform? Thank You and kind regards!

Thank You for the interesting answers. Maybe they got the idea after seeing the one in the HGM in Vienna, which has a similar case Unfortunately I didn't find a full picture It seems like cases in this style existed in many variants: Here a dedicated one for a Golden VK with Crown, also in the same style Silver Signum Laudis: That one from a Dorotheum auction might be in the same style, unfortunately there isn't a picture from it opened up. According to the description this is a case for a MVK III in brilliants from Rothe

I have a question regarding the MVK in brilliants. One, awarded to Rudolf Graf Montecuccoli (1843 - 1922) was auctioned at the Dorotheum in 2015. Going through pictures of the Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood I found out were it went to. Interestingly there it is presented in a case, which wasn't mentioned in Ludwigstorffs auction description. Further there it is mentioned it was made by A.E. Köchert. The case has the emblem of Franz Thili's Neffe inside. Did they do cases for insignia of other manufacturers? So my question is if this is the original case? Has someone viewed it before the auction? Was there a case? Dorotheum: Tallinn Order Museum:

A diamond fleece, which belonged to Moritz Graf Dietrichstein, it can be seen at the Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood The one labeled with number 1 is also a magnificent piece as it was the property of no one less than Metternich

Has anyone ever seen such an enameled collar, similar in design to the neck badges, as this one of Leopold II?

Nice bar! When I change (add, restore, repair,...) something, I write that down and add a card to the piece. For me it is important to know, if something was changed. Regards

That was highly interesting, do You know of any regiment which lost it's "Leib-title"?

You're right, calling them all a family is a bit weird. There were and are a LOT of different lines and branches. In WW II 33 members were killed through action or bombing.

That makes sense - thank you for answering

Members of the Kleist family an old noble family, originating in Hinterpommern, gathered in total 30 PlMs. They include 3 field marshals and 4 black eagle knights. That makes them for sure the epitome of German officer families. I can highly recommend to visit their Familienverband homepage. It's very informative: https://www.v-kleist.com/index.html The PlM recipients were the following (list from the family homepage - I don't know why they are in the following order, seems like that origins from the book out of which the list was made): 1. Werner Heinrich - up from 1740? 2. Conrad Friedrich - 1742 3. Carl Wilhelm - 10th Feb 1742 4. Adolph Bogislaff - March 1760 5. Ewald Georg - 1742 6. Georg Ernst - 8th Dec 1757 7. Franz Ulrich - 1742 8. Friedrich Ludwig - 1753 9. Peter Christian - Nov 1757 10. Primislaff Ulrich - Oct 1756 11. Reimar - up from 1740 12. Friedrich Wilhelm Gottfried Arnd - Sept 1757 13. Wilhelm Heinrich 23rd Oct 1758 14. Hans Reimar - 22nd Sept 1789 15. Friedrich Wilhelm - Oct 1756 - 2nd award Aug 1787 (what means that???) 16. Ludwig Franz Philipp Christian - 17th Sept 1793 17. Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Philipp Christian Oct/Nov. 1787 18. Friedrich Ferdinand Heinrich Emil - 4th Dec 1792 - oakleave 31th March 1814 19. Friedrich Anton Ulrich Carl Leopold - 7th Jun 1794 20. Friedrich Carl Gottlob - 17th Dec 1807 21. Christoph Friedrich Anton Joachim - 16th Jul 1794 22. Franz Otto Kleist von Bornstedt - 7th Dec 1794 23. Louis Baron v. K. - Keyserlingk - 8th Feb 1808 24. Friedrich Christian Ewald - Dec 1813 - crown: 16th Nov 1865 25. Carl Friedrich - 1813/14 26. Ewald - 17th Sep 1866 27. Alfred - 18th Oct 1918 28. Henning Alexander - 16th Jul 1762 29. Henning Alexander - 1742 30. Zabel Georg - 1742 31. Peter - 13/18th Oct 1814 ??? Not to forget the Knightscross with Oakleaves and Swords bearer field marshal Ewald von Kleist and Knightscross recipient Major Jarislaff von Kleist-Retzow (found his name in the list of knightscross recipients, he should be also a member of the family, would be nice if someone has more information about him, e.g. his parents?) The well-known writer Heinrich von Kleist was also a member of the family

That should be Wipert von Blücher, who was ambassador to Finland 1935-1944 PS: Just found a proof:

PS: And regarding St. Stephen and Leopold collars. They seem to be extraordinary rear. Does anyone know an auction were one of them was sold?

Baron Jean Pierre Theodore de Wacquant-Geozelles

Is there any approximation how many collars are still existing today? I know there are documents about the collars in the Austrian Staatsarchiv from the Obersthofmeisteramt. Would be interesting if there are also documents regarding the collars collected in after 1921???