Dave Danner

Another photo of Olbricht:

Most awards and most highly decorated are not the same thing. However, among the core conspirators, he was probably the most highly decorated. If you count Erwin Rommel, though, he would be much more highly decorated. Olbricht was one of the limited number of recipients of the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes and one of the highest Imperial German military awards - in his case, the Military St. Henry Order of Saxony. Rommel had the RK and two of the highest Imperial awards, the Prussian Pour le Merite and the W?rttemberg Military Merit Order. Alexander von Falkenhausen, another person close to the conspirators, has the Pour le Merite but no RK. Hans Oster, a core conspirator, had the Military St. Henry Order but no RK. Olbricht's medal bar shows the EK2 1914 with 1939 Spange, the "Saxon trio" (MSHO, Merit Order and Albrecht Order) with another award mixed in in third place (possibly the 1939 KVK2x), the Ehrenkreuz f?r Frontk?mpfer, two Dienstauszeichnungen, and some other awards, including a Spanish order at the end. The breast stars appear to be a mix of Romanian, Spanish and Italian.

The second-to-last, red with yellow edges, is the Russian Order of St. Anne. The last is the Serbian Charity Cross. I suppose it's possible that a German might have gotten this, but its proper ribbon is pale blue, not whatever shade of puked-up orange juice that is.

There is only one type. The ribbons are the same. Orange-red center stripe with thinner stripes of yellow, orange-red and white radiating outward to the edges. The only difference I see is that on Jens' bar the ribbon stock must have been too red. Baden's colors were yellow and red, but the particular shade of red is pretty orange-ish. The medal was made of zinc, the center was silver-washed and the arms were gold-washed. But these were wartime production and weren't done well. Here is about as clean an example as I have ever seen:

And for someone who wasn't in the war. If the combination is military (I have no idea what civilians might have qualified for the Centenary Medal), probably a turn-of-the-century Hauptmann.

Another, by someone who spared some expense putting together his bar.

One more combination. An enlisted man who stayed on a few extra years beyond the two wars.

I suppose I can add something anyway:

Why do I always have to be the nitpicker? Not Saxon, but Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. Unless the context is clear (e.g., "Saxon duchies" when referring to the three duchies of Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen), to avoid confusion the term "Saxon" should be reserved for the Kingdom of Saxony. By the way, really nice bar. The Silver Merit Medal with Clasp and Swords (silberne Verdienstmedaille mit Bandschnalle und Schwertern), the Saxe-Weimar equivalent of the 1870 Iron Cross, is pretty uncommon. Saxe-Weimar's enlisted EK equivalent in World War One, the General Honor Decoration with Clasp and Swords (Allgemeines Ehrenzeichen mit Bandschnalle und Schwertern), is patterned after this award. Interestingly, Saxe-Weimar's regiment, IR 94, fought at W?rth, Sedan, and Orl?ans, but none of those bars are present. By the combination, the bar may have belonged to someone in another Saxon or Thuringian unit in the XII (Saxon) Army Corps. So maybe there's no nit to pick after all, as the recipient might have been a Weimeraner (the person, not the dog) in a Saxon unit or a Saxon who otherwise drew the Grand Duke's attention.

By the way, here is an article I wrote explaining what each of the clasps to the 1870-71 KDM were for: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/KDM_1870-71.htm It's sort of a clasp-driven summary history of the Franco-Prussian War.

IIRC = Internet speak for "If I remember correctly"

Andy, that's the second time I made that type of error. For some reason on another forum I wrote that the Army DSC for Afghanistan was posthumous even though I had actually seen the officer in question being decorated. Major league brain fart there. The Air Force Crosses were both posthumous, and somewhere I did manage to put together a list of most Air Force Silver Stars for Afghanistan.

IIRC, I got it when the euro was pretty weak (around $0.80) so it was cheaper than it otherwise would have been.

My only big one, with 1864 there to join 1866 and 1870-71:

I picked up on eBay a few years ago this set of four bars, obviously removed from a medal bar (the seller didn't have anything else, and wasn't the one who broke it apart):

Another simple one, without the 1866:

Nothing not to like. As you note, a lot of history and in great condition. To keep it going: Although the mounting styles are a little different, this one mirrors yours with a twist. The Centenarmedaille and the KDM for the Franco-Prussian War, and an 1866, but from the other side. In this case, Bavaria.

Technically, the bar is not over 130 yrs old. It dates from 1897 or just after, when, in honor of the centennial of the birth of Kaiser Wilhelm I, the Centenary Medal was issued to all active military personnel and veterans of the Wars of Unification. The other medals themselves, though, were probably the soldier's earlier issued ones newly mounted with the Centenary.

Each of the grades of the MVK can be seen here: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/bavaria2.htm

http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/states.htm It generally does not cover service medals, but it covers the primary military awards of each state. If I have the time, I plan on adding a separate section on campaign medals. As always, contributions of images to fill the many gaps are more than welcome.

My example, with yet another bar variation: a silvered "1925-LEVANT-1926" version: [Edited to re-add images]

I missed one: Kapit?nleutnant Johannes Remy. That makes five naval officers in 3 1/2 years of war.

Yes. There was also an unofficial Combat Artilleryman's Badge. People basically took a CIB, removed the rifle, repainted the plate in the appropriate branch color, and put the appropriate branch insignia on top (tank for armor, crossed cannons for artillery).

There's something mildly disturbing about a statue outside a school of an author of children's books wearing a long coat with his hands stuck in his pockets.

Elsner was still mayor of Eschershausen in 1941, when he was quoted deciding not to decide to do anything about the stature of the town's most famous son, novelist Wilhelm Raabe. http://literaturatlas.de/~lb22/1024/1024_raabestatue.htm The power of the internet runs out after that point.