Mike Dwyer

God bless every one of them! Nice photos, Bob, thanks for sharing. I like to see local events like this.

Chris, Absolutely beautiful boards!!!!

Dave, That's not a charm bracelet, it's a miniature chain designed to be worn with civilian formal evening wear. Placing miniatures without ribbons on a chain has been very popular in Europe unlike the USA where they are usually mounted together with ribbons.

A bit but Rupprecht was still a very distinguished looking gentleman in old age.

Solomon, Very, very nice! I noticed on page 2 of the statues, after the Furst's printed name, it says Freiherr von Richtofen. Is that the same family as the famous WW1 air ace?

Maybe. I tell you what we'll jump him in the alley and you can have his overcoat..............I want the pickelhaube. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco. http://www.palais.mc/wwwpal.nsf/ABDA2D1C46...1256BA60047D03C

Very nice helmet!

As a former regular army, national guard, and army reserve Military Policeman, I say, "Way to Go!"

Heiko, Both are beautiful bars! Wonderful!!!

I don't have any "dogs of war" since I only collect postcards of royalty and generals, but I do have a few with dogs in them. Unfortunately, I seem to only have one cataloged on my computer right now. Crown Prince Willy and friend...............

I'm more familiar with USA Scouting, but Beaver is a rank of Scout. Beaver Scouts are young boys, around 6 years old who start as Beaver Scouts and then around the age of 8 1/2 move to Cub Scouts. So, this is a Scout medal, not a military one.

I'm no expert, but I would guess a "purist" would consider these to be two separate orders with the same name and insignia. I believe the Republic of Portugal awards some order (I don't recall which one) that is still awarded by the royal house too.

The only thing I know about it is the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry lists this as a house order of the Royal House of Bulgaria, so the former king, Simeon II, can still award this order if he so wishes (depending on how the Bulgarian law works). Successor governments often pass laws forbidding the awarding of former ruling houses orders, but it is generally accepted among chivalric scholars that the successor governments actually have no authority to regulate house orders. They may forbid them and make them illegal, but that doesn't stop the head of the former ruling house from disobeying the law and awarding them anyway. The head of the house may suffer legal consequences for disobeying the law, but his awarding of the orders is still valid, just not recognized by the successor government.

Dave, as always, excellent! Your pages are ones that I neve tire of visiting over and over.

Franz Josef or Karl?

Several years ago there was a travelling exhibit called "Nicholas and Alexandra" crossing the USA and my family and I stopped to see it in New Orleans. They has quite a few of Czar Nicholas' uniforms in the display. I'd say an average 10-12 year old boy of today would easily have fit into his uniforms. He was fairly short and very, very slender.

Since the US seems to lag behind many other countries in sharp looking, history-laden honor guards, I thought I'd list this. Prince Charles during his recent visit to Philadelphia reviewing the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry.

Rick, I'm probably wrong, but I don't think so. I've seen a colorized copy of that photo somewhere before (I realize that the colors could have been wrong) and in that photo the coat, if I remember correctly, was dark green, the collar was black and the braid edging was gold. If you'll look very carefully at the braid, I don't think it has the checkered pattern of the Abzeichenborte. Gebsattel is much, much older in that photo than in mine. I believe that photo was taken well after the war and I think he's wearing some type of civil uniform, or perhaps of some type of organization.

I'm not sure what uniform that is in GlennJ's picture, but I believe it's post-war and non-army. Here's a picture of Freiherr von Gebsattel in his army uniform.

One of my very, very favorite British empire officer's dress uniforms! Very elegant, but in an understated sort of way!

I don't have any DDR items, but I have to say I've always enjoyed looking at their uniforms. To me it was a real shame that in their effort to do away with all connections to the Wehrmacht the Bundeswehr made their uniforms so ugly!

The old guy I saw at the Kaiser Wilhelm I monument was wearing a hat just like the one in the middle photo Dave posted, the officer on the left in the bowtie and mess jacket.

Wow! Thanks for that link!!! Being a march music geek, I'm in loovvvve!

I believe I told this story somewhere before a long time ago, but here it is again............. I don't know anything about imperial navy headgear, so I could be way off here, but this is my only encounter of some type of officer's cap (I don't know what kind). I lived for a year with my elder brother and his wife in West Berlin, Germany from August 1964 to August 1965. My brother was a US Army lieutenant stationed there. The last couple of weeks I was there we did a lot of touring of the city. We went somewhere on the edge of the Grunewald and there was a rather large brick tower that had a huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I in it. We walked up the stairs to the observation platform at the top and there was an elderly man there that appeared to be a caretaker. He looked to be in his 70's or 80's and he was wearing civilian clothes along with some type of imperial navy officer's cap. I just remember the reichs cockade surrounded by a wreath with the imperial crown over the top of it. The cap was in decent shape, but was about as old as the man was.