ArHo

More old men... Both found on the internet years ago: And two more 1863 veterans' portraits here as part of a very good essay on the Prussian medals and decorations of 1813-1814-1815 (German): https://www.deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-ordenskunde.de/DGOWP/links/dokumente/die-befreiungskriege-im-spiegel-preussischer-auszeichnungen/

Hi @GreyC please excuse me, I misunderstood: The reverse of the Berlin picture is completely blank, sadly, and seems to have been this way since production (no signs of a removed or added layer of paper). Thanks and best! ArHo

Hi @GreyC - I forgot: here you are :-) I would love to have it narrowed down as Silesia is not my usual field of collection. If taken in the 1870s be should belong to IR 62, should he? Unfortunately there is no early regimental history as far as I can see... @Bayern and @The Prussian thanks for the feedback on no. 2 - I was not sure but now am! @The Prussian a very interesting picture with the young man with african roots! I think I have one, too, from ww1 western front but would have to search... Cheers!

Dear @Metallica @Glenn J and @The Prussian - I still owed you something in return for your input - here he is, after more research and valuable support from other people / institutions, my veteran of 1814: Heinrich Philip "Friedrich" Storch from Tecklenburg, born / died there 1793 / 1866. Volunteer of 1814 with 4th Bat., 3rd Westphalian Landwehr-Regiment, made officer, served until 1816, not present at Waterloo etc. in 1815 as I understand, later Major a. D. (Landwehr as I understand), Bürgermeister of Tecklenburg, like his father before him, from 1818 to 1857. He also received a RAO4 later (visible on the image next to his medal for 1814) and fathered 12 children. This is his quite meritious biography in short - in no way was he a highly decorated "hero" of his time, but we can see the face of a man who lived in difficult times and did his bit. All the best and thanks again!

Well, as promised, nothing spectacular but here they are - though I have to add that I am honestly absolutely not sure about nr. 2 from Berlin, I do think that he does "look" very "asiatic", but please do correct me if this is a eurocentric visual misconception by me! He does wear the 1870/71 prussian commemorative war medal. I have to add that I do know nothing about these pictures from my "special"-box, my current research was about my main collecting field, but I would love to hear any opinions on these gents. Cheers!

Hi to all and @The Prussian - I own two pictures presumably showing "Asian" men in German imperial uniforms. I do not want to hijack this thread without asking, so please let me know if it is OK to post them here too in the coming days, thanks ? Cheers ArHo

@Glenn J brilliant, thank you - I do owe you a drink or two, though now my finely planned weekend research plans are somehow foiled.. No, just kidding: Thank you sir, again for I was not expecting this! Cheers ArHo

Good day, I just received this picture and would love to identify the man through his medals and orders, but I am not sure about the correct identification of some of these. Any help I would highly appreciate! I tried to write my own findings and guesses down below as detailed as possible. Regarding the uniform he seems to have held at the time of the making of the picture a rank from Major to Colonel. The picture was taken in Berlin at Carl Wigand presumably shortly after 1871 because of the medals of the man and the medals Wigand listed on the back of the picture (Medaille Berlin 1865, Silberne Medaille Paris 1867). But this ist, of course, just a guess. Greetings! ArHo On the Spange I see (left-right): EK2 1870/71 RAO4X Hohenzollern House Order, knights cross Prussia War rememberance medal 1870/71 Prussia war cross 1866 ??? (Russian?) ??? Order of the Zähringer Lion X + oak leaves ??? (Mecklenburg-Schwerin Military-Merit-Cross 2. class 1870?) The neck crosses (top-down) I would say, are: Austria Order of the Iron Crown ??? (Russian Order of St. Stanislaus?) Order of the crown of Italy Denmark, Danebrog-Order ??? (Saxony-Weimar White Falcon Order?)

@dedehansen and @Metallica wow, thank you both für your input, very interesting! I love them both and your answers tell me that I was right to assume these pictures are not easily found. In my collection I have only one possible piece that I would like to discuss with you: I consider this Ek21870 "small" compared to the buttons. What is your opinion? Best!

Good afternoon, just out of curiosity I was wondering if there are any pictures out there that show "Prinzengröße" or reduced 1870 iron crosses worn by the men who won them. I "developed" this question while combing through the forum and reading about these privately purchased miniatures. So, if they are out there I would love to hear / see them. Best! ArHo

Hallo to all and thank you all for your input - this has become far more than I expected, a most interesting discussion! I will not go in depth on the several interesting aspects here but just want to clarify in short my initial idea when I opened this thread: Of course I do know that the question who "owns" an antique picture often is not easy to answer and I consider myself as the curator of my collection, less the "owner". And: I gladly give away copies of the images I have in stock for free for scientific purposes (for projects I have myself profited from other's collections this way). But I was just astonished that someone would simply take the image I had made, reproduce it in bad quality and sell it. That's all because I never expected something like that to happen. So I just wanted to ask if anyone else here had similar experiences. Well, enough of thatm I personally will use more "copy protection" materials in the future and that's that, I guess :-) All the best!

Interesting: Have you ever had a picture "stolen" from you? Happened to me - this picture is "mine", basically, I took it and recently sold the original card via Ebay. I thought it was enough to add something as a copy protection but was wrong. This special seller took my picture (I can prove that it is mine...), cut away most of iit including my copy protection and reproduced it as a postcard. The b*****d. Of course I told ebay "this is wrong" but - nothing happened, as usual. Has anyone of you had similar experiences - I would love to hear them! Cheers ArHo P.S.: Of course I add this "reproduction" for documentary reasons only - please note that this seller produces ww1 and ww2 repros on paper with these typical ragged sides and usually puts (how ironic) some small stuff on it as "copy protection" himself...

Hi @Alex K you`re welcome - yes, absolutely correct nice crosses with correct ribbon(s) - broad purple with light green borders (roast me on this regarding technical terms, if anyone wants to, I am no expert ?). If I may add, interestingly, if I compare to Nimmergut "Bänderkatalog", the "green color" of the full size cross ribbon and the "purple color" of the miniature would be a perfect match, but - all good - my personal "sight" as well as the impact of time and different producers will of course have taken their toll. Nice examples - do you own them? Cheers!

Hi, the almost identical cross behind the Feldzugs-Denkzeichen for 1866 is the Feldzugs-Denkzeichen for 1849 - for Bavarian Participants of the war in Slesvig-Holsatia against Denmark 1848-50. Quite rare because the Bavarian Contingent of the troops of the German Federation was small. Greetings

Very nice, gentlemen, thank you - much appreciated! Here is the only other Freikorps picture from the group. I hope you like it ?

Hi Andreas, thank you very much for your help! All the best ArHo

Hi to all! If anyone here has an idea what this badge (laurel wreath and a hunting horn) means regarding the unit I would highly appreciate any help! I only know this picture was taken in Saxony and the man "Georg" later served with the police. Cheers ArHo

Hi all, am I right that this is another variant of these "1324" unofficial medals celebrating the constitution? Thanks for your replys

You may give it a try yourself by browsing through the Verlustlisten: Suchergebnisse Verlustlisten 1. Weltkrieg (genealogy.net) If it is a banner of a Kameradschaft from a village you may well find it.

Hi to all and thank you very much for all your input - I really appreciate that! This will help me a lot with my further search... Best regards, ArHo

Hi all! I just got a highly interesting little group of pictures all showing the same man of generals rank. Unfortunately there is no indication to his name. They came as part of a larger group of post cards, presumably in part belonging to a bavarian officer of lower rank, but I am trying to figure that out at the moment. So I hope that the name of this general may help me finding "the man" while digging through all those post cards, names, dates... Pictures 1 and 5-6 were taken during a visit of the emperor in the Bukovina (Romania / Ukraine) In picture 2 he is seen walking behind - I guess - King Ludwig III. of Bavaria Nr. 4 seems to show him at the front getting reports Oh, Nr. 56 seem to show a small cross of an order on his breast - perhaps the Militär Max Joseph Orden? And he seems to have been very tall. I really appreciate your help! Cheers ArHo

My guess is a hotel or apartment room door-sign during an official visit to the uk. Cheers

@Djedj Thank you so much for this! I guess now it should be clear for the last of us that these pictures are not period originals... I took the freedom to manipulate your picture to make the resemblance even clearer. Please let me know if you oppose. Beste Grüße! ArHo

@motojosh wow thank you, sir! This is a really interesting twist to the story. Ive been collecting pictures of trench knife wearers for some time but would never have guessed this huge knife would be something that was produced in larger numbers! Books are ordered ?

Hi all, from time to time I find a picture of such fine quality that I instantly like it. One of them is this one of a Schutztruppe veteran of the battles against the Herero and Nama in 1904-06 wearing the Südwestafrika-Denkmünze für Kämpfer 1907. It was taken that year (stamp to the lower right) in Schleiz (Heinrich Körner). Unfortunately no name, but there's always something, isn't it? I am also not able to decipher the Gefechtsspangen / battle-clasps but perhaps one of you has an idea? Cheers ArHo