webr55

Close-up of Pohrt: He seems to have been a flyer from the Marineinfanterie. The 1918 RL lists an Olt dR Pohrt - with only EK1 and LD2! - but he's wearing the Lübeck Hanseatic Cross, Anhalt?, BMV4X, TWM and the Medjdie order. Pohrt got a Dr. jur. from the University of Breslau in 1921.

Came across this nice picture in a museum display:

The most important piece of information from this album would be the WW1 awards. I wonder if there is a way this information could be "extracted", so that we can compare the awards to the respective entries in the 1918 ranklist.

How many pages does it have?

Many, many thanks! He was born 9.3.1854 - which means he was commissioned and got his EK2 at the age of 16!

Hurrah! Hurrah! There is no other source that lists his Hamburg Hanseatic Cross! Now I definitely know I've got his bar: THANKS!

That IS a very interesting find!!!! Especially because it lists ALL wartime awards! This seems to be an album printed privately in small numbers for the 1906 crew. Can you make out whether this is part of a series? Are there any more details about publisher, year, etc., exact title? And is there a page about "Siegfried Tschirch"? Regards Chris

Now that is interesting, thanks! Born in 1854, he was 17 at that time - so no wonder he was not yet commissioned. (And I still haven't found his exact commission date yet.) Quite a prolific family!

What about "my" Alfred v. Besser? He should be in there too, EK2 as Sek.-Lt.

What a find!

??? Have I missed anything?

The combination of battle clasps indicates II. Armeekorps.

That's the one I was aiming at, too. However, this bar has been fiddled with. In second place, that must be a long service award, probably an XXV. Also, if I remember it correctly, the ribbon of the Ernst August Order is different from the one used here.

Could you show us the inscription? Is it definitely "Müngh", not "Münch"? Is that an "E.", not a "P" or "Ph"?

And we have an ID: It is Mountain troops Generalleutnant Karl Wintergerst (1892-1945, MIA). This copy of a photo of him was posted on AHF:

It's difficult to find pictures of Wintergerst where he is definitely ID'd. This one is supposed to be him, front row, 2nd from left: Somehow, I think I see a resemblance...

Could this be the later Generalleutnant Karl Wintergerst? Awards match.

It certainly would. Usually, the guys who had themselves photographed in the new WM uniform also had the Hindenburg already. A Luitpold jubilee would then be the most logical one.

I think this is a crown with X on the third ribbon. It has a shape quite similar to the HHOX device. I also agree that #4 does not really look Hindenburg-like. Besides the SA3X, the only plausible alternatives for such a ribbon with swords would be Zähringen and SEHO. How does the spectrum shift work for those? How old is he? I tend to think 40s. Can't really be an XXV in last place. Even an LD2 would not be very likely for his age, would it? Maybe a PrKO? Ribbon bar is in Bavarian style, but that does not really help.

Close-up of his ribbon bar. I think I see: EK2 1914, HHOX, BMV4XmKr (?, device looks vaguely like a crownX), Hindenburg (?), DA (?). I could not match anyone from the RH 1932 list with these decorations. However, I might be wrong with the orders. Maybe that is not even a Hindenburg. Somehow his face also seems familiar to me.

Just got this picture of a Major in early WM uniform:

That is really a once-in-a-lifetime chain. It certainly belongs to a German, most likely Prussian. We can rule out Schmidt and Hittorf. Judging from the Internet list of Royal Gold medal winners, there are only two candidates: - Friedrich August St?ler AND - Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884), very prominent archaeologist. He got the Royal Gold medal in 1869 and the PLM in 1872. Both were Protestants, so I think they would only have got the Vatican order if there were a special reason for it. My feeling is that this is rather the case for Lepsius, because he was apparently president of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome from 1867?1880. He travelled both to Rome and Paris a number of times. Also, I think St?ler would have had even more Prussian (esp. dynastic) awards, because he had very close connections to the Prussian king, having designed the rebuilding of the Hohenzollern castle in Hechingen, for example.

I suppose they are in order of rank?

WOW!! That such a thing exists and we didn't know! I checked it: The K?niglich-preu?ische Ordensliste was published from 1862-1905. It had a predecessor, the "Ordens-Liste der Ritter und Inhaber k?niglich-preu?ischer Orden und Ehrenzeichen", which was published from 1825-55.

I've started a thread here.