BlackcowboyBS

Hi, I have checked the lists of the recipients of the Prussian golden Military merit cross, the so called Pour le Mérite for NCOs. The IR 74 recieved 9 crosses, but the first reward was given on May 1918. The guy was Willi Hausinger. Here is the complete list: Willi Heusinger: 05.18.1918 Ferdinand Albers: 07.08.1918 Friedrich Möller: 07.08.1918 Ernst Reiche: 07.16.1918 Ludwig Hagemann: 10.25.1918 Meyer: 10.25.1918 Oskar Riemenschneider: 10.25.1918 Friedrich Schuttmann: 10.25.1918 Adolf Wendt: 10.25.1918 Please bear in mind, that I have written the dates in the american format, so it is month, date, year. If your friend is relative to some of the guys mentioned by me, than you know, which order he got.

Hi Elmar, the show was cancelled and there was defenitly no show in Gunzenhausen. But there was a non public and privatley held convention of the BHMA. About 60 to 80 people were there and after 5 hours all was over. We all hope that next year Gunzenhausen will happen again with all of us. kind regards Stephan

This is a pure beauty so much very interesting pieces on it! I love that he has also the life saving medal, I truley admire the Lippe cross with swords on the ring, I love the hanseatic cross from Bremen. Very very nice! By the way was he really actice on the front line? Do you have any information on that?

To me the first one looks like the Jubilee Memorial Medal for 50 years of entering the throne of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. They were two versions of it one for armed and police forces the other one for federal employees. the medal

wow, great Story, Thanks for telling Enzo, I really appreciate it.

Coming back to the golden chain of the guelphic order, I can show you 5 hallmarks on a silver gilded version. From left to right this is what these hallmarks do stand for: The head: made in the regency of king William IV. (or Wilhelm IV. in German reading) the lion: made in sterling silver the t: made in 1834 the lionshead: made in London JJE: made by the goldsmith John James Eddington. more will be found in my book when it is published.

Thank you for your information, I have changed the link to the correct one.

Hi, there is not much, that I can tell you right now, besides, what my plans are and what I have done in the past on my books on the orders and medals from Brunswick. There will be an introduction on the history of the Kingdom of Hannover There will be a chapter for each order, so we have a chapter on the guelphic order, the st. Georg and the Ernst August Order, There will be chapters dealing the medals of Hannover, sorted by themes, like military long service, life saving medals, merit crosses etc. You will find photos of the orders, medals, medalbars, award documents, hopefully photos of the bearers, intersting stories about some awards, why they have been made, stories behind awards ... things like this. In my books on Brunswick I had the list of all bearers of the order of Brunswick included, but I am not sure, if I will do it again in my book on Hannover. To give you an idea, you may want to take a look in my books on Brunswick: Book 1: https://cdn.website-start.de/proxy/apps/y2gpz4/uploads/gleichzwei/instances/6AB6C635-842F-4689-BE8B-EAAF30F7F4CF/wcinstances/epaper/4be58de3-e5f4-4d39-82ec-99ea269752dc/pdf/Leseprobe-Band-1-Braunschweiger-Orden.pdf Book 2: https://cdn.website-start.de/proxy/apps/y2gpz4/uploads/gleichzwei/instances/6AB6C635-842F-4689-BE8B-EAAF30F7F4CF/wcinstances/epaper/83f5f5b1-8ddf-47f5-87bc-483e530c0d32/pdf/Leseprobe-Band-2-Braunschweiger-Orden.pdf Book 3: https://cdn.website-start.de/proxy/apps/y2gpz4/uploads/gleichzwei/instances/6AB6C635-842F-4689-BE8B-EAAF30F7F4CF/wcinstances/epaper/44d1588c-aebe-4cc5-8543-12349ac6b8da/pdf/Leseprobe-Band-3-Braunschweiger-Orden.pdf My Email Adress, where people can contact me regarding this topic is: orden_kgr_hannover@schwarzbuch-verlag.com So my journey begins but it will be a long way to get there.

Dear Colleagues and Collectors, actually I wanted to announce it officially in Gunzenhausen, but since Gunzenhausen is cancelled this year, here it is! I started working on the book about the orders and decorations of the Kingdom of Hannover. Since I can now bring in the experiences from my book about Brunswick, I think it will be a good book. I'm not sure if there will be, for example, the list of all bearers of the three Hanoverian Orders. For the list in the book about Brunswick I have been typing and checking lists every evening for almost 4 months. In Hannover it would probably take even longer and many people want to buy the Braunschweig book without the third part. What is your opinion about this? From some museums I have permission to use their pieces, two big Hannover collectors will also allow me to use their collection, but I will definitely need the help of one or the other here. I'm looking for photos of people wearing orders and decorations from Hannover, as well as photos of rare pieces and variants and award certificates! Soon I will activate an email address, which will be used only for the topic orders from Hannover. I will publish it here and you can communicate with me there. As a small introduction I want to tell you some information about the Golden Chain / Collane of the Order of Guelphs, maybe some of you don't know it yet. There are three different collanes, there are real golden, silver gilded and bronze gilded. If you look at the statutes of the Order of Guelphs, you will notice that the name cipher of the founder George III is shown without the III. The real golden and the silver-gilt specimens, however, have a Roman 3 under the name aisle, the bronze-gilt chain does not. Here I show you the averse and the reverse side of the cipher of a silver gilded chain. The hallmarks are nice to see, you can easily recognize the manufacturer. (Everything else about this in my book) The chains were made in Hannover as well as in England, maybe also in France, I have to check that. My time schedule is as follows, the book should be published in spring 2023, I am aiming for the spring meeting of the DGO. With this in mind, I wish you a happy 30th anniversary of German Unity.

Hi Graham, yes, due to the Langensalza medal you can easily tell the owner of this medal bar. The bar belonged to Lindemann. He won the life saving medal for the rescue of a comrad and saved him from drowning. Lindemann made his way up until sergant then left the army and became tax collector. Hi Claudius see above, he was sergant at the end of his military career and became tax collector. Lindemann got his merit cross 2nd class 1883 and the first class of the merit cross in 1904. Against the official regulations he kept his 2nd class and mounted it on the ribbon of his long service medal for 15 years. If you are interested in stories like this, you find many more in my books on the Brunswick orders and medals from 1696 untill 1918.

How do you like this very special medal bar from Brunswick?

No, sorry no name available. And yes, this is a pretty early painting, I guess somewhat between 1835 and 1855.

another quite nice medal bar from an officer and veteran from the war 1870 / 71.

A nice old painting showing a soldier from the Duchy of Brunswick with the long services medal bar for 10 year of active service for ncos. I hope you like as much as I do!

Gentlemen, I would like to introduce Alexander Halm to you. He was born in 1840 and died 1913. So he never was forced to see the downfall of the German Empire, lucky man he was! He served as mayor in Metz and later became president of the district of Unter Elsaß-Lothringen. This was one of the three districts of the Reichslande Elsaß-Lothringen built 1871. As you may spot, he wore the commanders cross second class of the order of Henry the Lion around his neck, also the Comander of St. Albrecht from Saxonia, which is nearly hidden behind his jacket and the Prussian crown order 2nd class. On his medal bar you can spot the red eagle 3. class with bow, the crown order 3rd class and the Bavarian 3rd class of the merit order of holy Michael. As the Reichslande were directly controlled by the German Emperor, one would expect only Prussian awards and orders, so how comes that Alexander Halm wore Brunswick, Bavarian and Saxon orders? Well, after the victory in 1871, Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick wasn’t willing to sign the military convention and giving up his supreme commando on the troops of the Duchy of Brunswick. So he was forced to leave his Infantry Regiment 92 in Metz, where it was stationed until 1886. (You can read about this in much deeper details in my books on the Orders and Medals from Brunswick). Other contingents in the fortress of Metz were from Saxiona and Bavaria. So that is the explanation why the mayor from Metz was was also getting orders from this German States. I am not sure about the uniform he wears, was this the uniform of a chamber key master or was this a uniform for presidents of a district? Maybe one of you can help me with this. He was also a district chief executive in his political career.

Well I will be attending and will bring some sets of my book upon the orders and medals of the duchy of Brunswick with me. So People who might be interested in purchasing it, could have a look into and buy it!

wow fascinating thread I love the story behind this! Thank you guys, very impressive.

Regarding the ic from 1813, this is what I can tell. In the 2nd class, for the experienced collector, both the question of the chronological order of production and the question of originality are usually easy to answer. For example, the very early bestowal copies were made in 28 or 29 parts, the later bestowal copies were made in 5 parts. The EKs from the bestowal from 1834 onwards can be easily recognized by their iron core. Such distinctive features are usually missing in the 1st class. There are also a few EK I 1813 whose ribbed frame is made in several parts, similar to the 2nd class. And on early specimens, four or eight eyelets have been attached to the plate instead of the needle. Nevertheless, despite the low number of awards, I cannot remember having seen two EK I 1813, which are indiscriminately similar in manufacture. All the perfectly contemporary EK I 1813 that I have seen so far are unique pieces in themselves. For this reason, in contrast to the 2nd class in the 1st class, it is not easy, in my opinion, to answer the questions of originality and chronological classification. Many aspects and clues have to be considered. The EK I 1813 you show has potential to be a contemporary example. Ultimately, one would have to hold the EK in one's hands and examine it in peace. @saschaw To be honest, I am tempted too!

At the auction house, they claim that this piece belonged to Adolf Wilhelm Leopold Ludwig von Rosenberg-Gruszsynski. He recieved the IC 1 for the battle at Paris on 30.th of March 1814.

Isn't this one going in an auction by benemerenti on 18th of September?

I would go with Sascha, that the cross on this medal bar is the knights cross of St. Henry from Saxon. Also I would like to remind, that the dukes, kings and so on, always could wear what they liked, even if this was against the official regulations. Who should blame them at those times? But to come back to the original question, I wouldn't guess that the cross, which started this discussion is the st Henry, I would more go on the order of the Lions from the Netherlands.

So I need to tell you the name of the recipient of the last medal bar, that I have posted here. She belonged to Theodor Kermess who worked at the Reichstag, he was a servant in the auditorium. If you wanted to learn more on orders, medals and bars you may are interested in my new books on the duchy of Brunswick. You can find more information on these books here: https://www.schwarzbuch-verlag.de/unser-programm/blaue-reihe/braunschweiger-orden-und-ehrenzeichen/ There is also a view into the book for every book on this page. Book 1 with 508 pages deals with the orders Book 2 with 436 pages deals with all the medals Book 3 with 358 pages deals with the recipients of the order HdL, shows all names and a reprint of the von Vechelde from 1837 (only the part which deals with Brunswick) You can order directly at the publishing company at orden@schwarzbuch-verlag.de We ship worldwide.

Hi Wild Card, nice to read from you! VtwinVince, I have never heard of that, as far as I know, these medals normally were kept in the family of the guys who got these medals. So I guess that it is pretty seldom that these medals are burried together with their former recipients. But I am with you, if this is true, then this is scary and ghoulish! (love that word, Thx for it!)

Hi Andreas, yes he was awarded the Ehrenzeichen 1.st class on 18.th of october 1909.

Saxcob is right, this guy got the KDM for 1870/71 then served the whole imperial era and earned the EK 2 on the white ribbon in WW1 and also the Merit Cross for War Aid in 1917. This medal bar tells a life time story of an guy who lived and served Prussia well in the good old imperial time! I love medal bars like this.