Mike Dwyer

Somehow the princes of Schaumburg-Lippe were able to keep their castles and other property after 1918. I believe they were the only ones.

Dan Murphy

Daniel,

I was watching a show on the History Channel, Discovery, PBS (one of those educational type channels!) about Queen Victoria a month ago or so and they had several scenes dealing with Prince Andreas, the current head of the ducal house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They had his historian on there showing letters between Princess Victoria and her future husband, Prince Albert, scenes of the prince walking around his estate with his estate manager, and scenes from his "palace". While it was very nice looking, the "palace" looked more like a very large, old, house to me than a palace. Anyway, my point was apparently Saxe-Coburg-Gotha got to keep at least some of their stuff too.

(Now that I'm more awake, I'll edit this and add some other things I just remembered!) The Prussian royal House of Hohenzollern still has Castle Hohenzollern in southern Germany, which is still used by the family and houses a museum. http://www.preussen.de/en/today/hohenzolle...D12A03A42B62980

The princely House of Hohenzollern still has Castle Sigmaringen. http://www.hohenzollern.com/

I could be mistaken, but I believe the royal house of Bavaria still has at least one of their palaces. There could be others out there too, I just don't know.

As some of you know, I collect postcards mostly of royalty and nobility. Usually when I look at them, or we all talk about Kaiser Wilhelm and others, I think of them all in the past tense. I know that Archduke Otto, the crown prince of the Austrian empire, son of Kaiser Karl, is still living, but he's about the only one I ever think of as still being with us.

Today I was reading some royalty news and was kind of shocked to read that the younger son of the last reigning Duke of Braunschweig (photo attached) just recently died! Prince Georg Wilhelm, born in 1915, died on 8 January 2006.

I just forget that there might still be a few of the royals and nobles born under the old Empire still out there somewhere.

Very, very nice photo. Field artillery???

According to Daniel Murphy in another thread, Elo Sambo, who was originally from Kamerun, was a kettledrummer in the mounted band of the Leib Garde Hussars. There's a photo of him in the thread located at http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4649

I don't remember when Friedrich-August von Sachsen abdicated.

Stogie,

King Friedrich August III renounced the throne on 13 November 1918.

I was spring cleaning today, here is my old company badge. We never wore these, they were given when you left the company.

Anyone note the slight German influence? I am sure some German Legionnaire designed it at about the time AnneMarie was the regimental song....

Chris,

I agree there does seem to be a Luftwaffe look about it.

Excuse my stupidity, but if this is for the 3rd Company, why is there a 2 on it? It that the regimental number?

Although... and I see this for the first time as I take the pics... the "squeel like a pig" angle may also point to a sculptor with a sense of Humour...

Yeah, I see what you mean. Still very nice lions though!

will get it done ASAP

So, Chris, did you forget about me?

Such "stage presence"-- you'd think he was at LEAST a Grand Duke! That "royal" fur collar is really the final touch for an old guy with a very theatrical sense of himself!

I was thinking the same thing, Rick. In fact in several of those photos, he could pass as the Kaiser's brother, Prince Heinrich of Prussia! Maybe he was aware of that?

When I was in the Army and stationed in the Washington, DC area 1985-1990 I had the priviledge of accompanying a friend to visit Semper Paratus Lodge #49 in Washington, DC (which I just found out no longer exists, it was consolodated into Harmony Lodge #17 in 1998). The story I was told was that the lodge was founded in 1934 and a commandant of the US Coast Guard was involved in it's founding. Anyway, the connection to this thread is that the tyler used a Coast Guard officer's sword to guard the door. At the time I thought that was a very nice touch.

Claudio and Wild Card,

While I found the grand collar of the Black Eagle very nice, my personal favorite was the grand collar of the Order of the Wendish Crown. Do either of you have any idea what that sold for?

Well, if I may ask, this is a photo postcard of Prince Heinrich's son, Prince Waldemar of Prussia. Is the uniform he's wearing a later uniform of the Automobile Club or is it something different?

The dagger.

This does not look like the same type of dagger as originally posted by Flyingdutchman.

Well, I finally got my memory to working and I managed to scan the postcard I mentioned back on 30 December of Prince Heinrich of Prussia in the Automobile Club uniform with dagger. Due to the angle of the photo, you can't really see the dagger all that well.

I've posted the full postcard here, next I'll post a closeup of the dagger.

WM5806,

Thanks for the reply. I knew that UK Freemasonry was a bit more complicated and organized that US, but not much else. I'm sure you are aware that in the US we don't have a national Grand Lodge over all of the state lodges.

In Georgia (and probably most other US states) we have Masonic Districts. For instance my home lodge, Mount Hermon 304, F & AM, is in the Fourth Masonic District of Georgia. We do not have a district lodge as such, there is no district master, etc., but each district has a District Deputy Grand Master who represent's the Georgia grand master within that district. There are also some other district functionaries too. The DDGM's jewel is gold and his apron is trimmed in gold also, but they are much plainer than those worn by Grand Lodge officers.

I've truly enjoyed this topic area and some of the wonderful items displayed here.

Here's another for you enthusiasts:

A Past Master's collar jewel from the days of the Antients.

Silver, hallmarked 1812 with a maker's mark of I.R., measuring 105mm across by 95mm high (4.13" by 3.74" for those used to different units). Sadly not engraved.

Am slowly running out of treasures to show you . Let's see some of the nice enamels other members must have!

Yrs etc

WM5806

[attachmentid=22041]

That is the same past master's jewel that is still in use in the state of Georgia, USA. Most American lodges use another version that also has the square above the arc, but Georgia past masters are supposed to use one just like yours. Sometimes they're hard to find, so many past masters use the same as everyone else. Most Masonic jewelry dealers here in the USA stock past master's jewels in gold, but in Georgia only Grand Lodge officers use gold, lodge officer's jewels are supposed to be in silver.

Just bought this for grandaddys pocket watch, it hangs over the round part of thestand. Next to it an inkwell, written on the bottom it says from the prop of a plane that crashed in 1918

That's very nice, Chris. Any chance we could see a better shot of that lion that's just behind it? (I have a thing for lions and eagles)

Mike

Nice sword - and with history to boot! Thanks for sharing them. The swords I have shown are all pre-war swords. Your sword was produced after the war started. Initially the base metal of sword hilts was brass with fire gilting. After the war started both brass and gold became too valuable to be used for swords. Steel was substituted for brass, and you will sometimes find gilt over steel versions. However, steel did not hold the gilting very well. When the regulations changed making all metal parts of uniforms non reflective the hilts were switched from gilted to black enamel. To be honest it is a lot harder to find this version than the gilted as the only made the painted variety for a very short time.

Mark

Mark,

Thank you very much for your reply. I had always presumed the black hilt was probably a war-time attempt at camouflage!

Kaiser's cypher

Knuckle guard

I have a imprial German sword I inherited from my father. I don't know much about it, except it's a little different than any I've ever seen. It's shaped like a lot I've seen, but there is no gold-colored metal on the hilt, the entire hilt and scabbard are black. The only lighter colored metal is the wire on the grip and Kaiser Wilhelm II's cypher on the grip looks like brass. It has the Prussian eagle on the hinged, fold-down, knuckle guard. There are no maker's marks anywhere. The blade is rather rusty and there are some rusty patches where the paint has been chipped off the scabbard.

The story my father (who is no longer living) told me, if I remember it correctly, was..........he was a US Army infantry first lieutenant in WW2. There was some small town, somewhere (he never told me where) that the Waffen SS had rolled into and put up barricades. The SS told the Volksturm commander to get out his old men and teenage boys and defend the town to the death! Then the SS left. As the US troops approached, the Volksturm commander had the barricades removed and as the troops entered the town my dad was the first US officer the commander spotted, so he surrendered the town, and his sword, to him. My dad accepted the sword and kept it.

I apologize for my photographic technique (or lack thereof) and this particular digital camera doesn't seem to do closeups very well.

However, other degrees (of which I am not a member, so I am happy to be corrected) I believe to only admit members who profess the Christian faith (e.g. Rose Croix, Royal Arch, Knights Templar and Red Cross of Constantine). Hence, I suppose, the Christian imagery.

I'm not sure what is done in other countries, but here in the USA the Royal Arch, the Rose Croix (which is just one of the degrees of the Scottish Rite 4th through 33 degree) and even the Knights Templar do not "require" a member to be a Christian. But there are Christian characteristics to some of these degrees. I went through the Scottish Rite and the York Rite (which includes the Royal Arch, Royal & Select Masters, and the Knights Templars) with a member of my Blue Lodge who was Jewish.

Mark,

Very nice set from the most beautiful of the German orders!

Mike,

to add to Rick's post:

Graf von Schlieffen was indeed commissioned in Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 94. He had entered the regiment as an Avantageur (Fahnenjunker) with early promotions as follows:

Portepee-F?hnrich: 16.5.88

Secondelieutenant: 16.2.89

Premierlieutenant: 1.9.96 X6x

Hauptmann (ohne Patent): 27.1.02

From 1905 onwards he was at various cadet schools, initially Bensberg. From 1 Feb 1906 to 21 July 1906 he went to Karlsruhe whilst still on the strength of Bensberg to replace a sick company commander when he was transferred officialy to Karlsruhe. Finally to Wahlstatt from 1907/1908. He retired from active service becoming a Bezirks-Offizier in the rank of Major z.D. at Neustrelitz on 16 December 1916. He appears to have definitively retired sometime in 1917.

Regards

Glenn

Thank you very much, Glenn.

Carl Viktor Graf von Schlieffen

Yes, you are a GOD!

Just because I posted a couple of royal postcards on WAF and mentioned I collected royalty, nobility, and generals this new guy thought I could actually help him! After spending nearly 2 hours trying to read the writing and trying to find him on the only ranklist I own (1914) I decided to ask the experts.

Thanks, Rick. I'll be sure to tell him I had nothing to do with this, other than I guessed the first word was "Graf".

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but since you all are IDing officers. On another forum a newer member asked me if I could help him ID this officer. I was shocked he'd believe I'd actually know enough to possibly be able to ID this guy. I can't read that German script worth a darn so I have no idea what his name is. I thought I saw "Graf" in there, but now I'm not sure. The photo comes from a scrapbook of the Berlin-Lichterfeld/Preussisches Offz. Akademie

Any of you guys possibly be able to ID him?