webr55

A very fine bar, congratulations!

I agree with what you think, this is an original bar in which the 2nd class Red Cross Medal was lost and incorrectly replaced. 

I believe this was not an officer's bar. The Medjidieh order is key here: foreigners were usually awarded one grade higher than what nationals of the same rank got (as was common in many countries). So Dr. Zschech got a 3rd class neck cross, which he would not have received in Prussia in that grade. This one was probably not a Dr., but a senior level medical NCO, who got a 5th class which (for nationals) would have been conferred only to officers. 

The construction of the bar also looks more like an NCO's. So while the wearer is unfortunately invisible, it is of course a great bar.

Regards

Chris

Fritz Erbse got his Dr. med. in 1902 from the University of Würzburg.

Thanks laurens for the additional info!

Nice find! I have yet to look through it all, but it seems there's a lot of interesting stuff in there. 

Well. Please look at the picture above and compare. 

Again: I believe this is not the Braunschweig KVK1, for two reasons:

- The shape of the arms of the Braunschweig KVK1 does not match.

- The Braunschweig KVK1 is smaller than the EK1, while Bartenbach's award is the same size as the EK.

See the picture below of both awards in wear for comparison.

At first I thought: Navy (Mecklenburg and Oldenburg awards). But he is not listed in the Navy Rolls. The backing also looks black rather than blue, so I thought Army. 

Actually, he was both: A Marine. And not just any one: he was commander of one of the German Marine Regiments. 

It took a while to find him, but this is 

Oberstleutnant Ulrich von Usedom. Born Schwerin 27.10.1871. In 1914, he is listed as Major in the Adjutantur of the III Army Korps, holding a RAO4, Johanniter and the Life Saving Medal (and, not listed: Centenary Medal). From 4.9.1916 until 1918, he was commander of the 1st Marine-Infanterie-Regiment. In 1918 he returned to the Army and ended WW1 as Oberstleutnant aD. Alive in 1931. He was awarded/gazetted

HHOX on 23.11.1916

BZ3aX on 2.2.1916

SA3aX on 16.6.1917

Regards 

Chris

Hard to tell. We need a better scan. 

No. As I said, the shape does not match. I still think I was right: This is one of the unofficial 1920s pinback crosses, see above. 

You’re right, I can’t see the laurel wreath either. And the shape doesn’t match the Schaumburg. 

To me, this looks like one of the unofficial 1920s awards. Could be the pinback cross of Frontkriegerbund or Kriegserinnerungszeichen. Of course, these were banned in wear in the Kriegsmarine, but maybe the Admiral (picture must be from 1938/39) didn't care. 

A very interesting bar. Are those two silver eagles?

Congratulations! 

Also, see this thread: 

This is a pre-1914 Navy bar. I thought it would be easy to identify, but it was a bit tricky, because no one really fits 100%. Still, I believe this bar belonged to

Dr. Walther Uthemann (1863-1944), in 1914 Marine-Generalarzt, later Marinegeneraloberstabsarzt (equivalent to Admiral). 

He had the 1889 visit to Constantinople medal in silver, this is confirmed from other sources. His awards fit his ranklist entry from 1914 IF we assume that

- he chose to wear his Greek Redeemer and his Russian Stanislaus (of which he both had Commander grades) on his bar rather than from his neck (we have other examples of this), and

- his outfitter mixed up Osmanie and Medjdie ribbons (Uthemann had the latter one).

Regards 

Chris

As can be seen on his earlier picture (which was taken before 1935), he already had the Red Cross medal on his ribbon bar. The pinback cross which can be seen on his later picture looks like the pinback of the Red Cross Decoration in its form after 1934, not like the Volkspflege cross.

The 3rd ribbon in the first row is the Saxon Albert Order with swords, knight 2nd class. But the outfitter used the wrong ribbon, that of the Italian Messina 1908 earthquake medal. 

The last ribbon in the 2nd row is simply the Red Cross decoration. 

Thanks for the additional information! 

Lukasz,

thanks for this information about the Cuban order, I did not know that. That picture of Ehm was definitely taken before he received his Vaterländischen Verdienstorden in Gold in 1978. So it cannot be the Che Guevara order. 

Yes, in that case, the Yugoslav Order of Military Merit 1st class is very plausible. Actually, I found that in 1977, visits of friendship and talks took place between the GDR and Yugoslavia: https://www.nd-archiv.de/ausgabe/1977-01-14

It therefore is very likely that Ehm received this award on that occasion. Thanks for the information!

Yes - thanks for the picture, I think that’s exactly the badge he is wearing. 

Here is another interesting bar with related ribbons, it was auctioned some time ago. There you have

1) Order of Vasa 

2) Golden Medal of the Pro Patria Society Gustav V 

3) Golden Medal of the Fire Insurance Society 1842 

4) Golden Medal of the Life Insurance Society Victoria (light blue ribbon with white stripes!)

I don't know anything about the last three medals nor about the societies which conferred them. Particularly interesting for me is No. 4 - the ribbon looks quite similar to no. 4 on my bar. Could that be a life insurance society medal?

Greek Order of the Redeemer is an interesting idea. The ribbon fits exactly, yes. And red could be the George I... hm. 

The order of mounting is a key issue here, I agree. I would like to challenge one assumption, though, namely that no one puts foreign awards first. See this 1920s Swedish bar sold a while ago. The medal in first place is the Gustav V 70th Birthday Commem Medal from 1928, followed by French Legion d'Honneur, then Swedish Polar Star and Vasa, then again two French ones. (By the way, actually, four of the ribbons are on my bar, too.)

It's really hard to tell how old the metal parts are. This type of ribbon bar construction I have never seen before, neither in German nor Anglo-Saxon bars. My thought was: maybe it is someone from the household of Gustaf V or Gustaf VI.

The crown has been soldered to it, question is: was it done by the wearer himself? In that case, there would have been other bars of this type (which I have never seen), but he wanted to put a crown on it. Or did the crown break off and was resoldered? In that case, this might be a totally unique construction. 

The Order of Carl XIII is a very interesting idea. That is quite a rare, high-ranking order, am I correct? 

I agree about the claps or rosettes, but maybe they just were not used on this type of bar. 

Regards

Chris

This is the late WW2 hollow back swords type. What are the earliest examples you have seen?

It is in the ribbon bar devices gallery: What I mean is this type of swords device: