webr55

I am no expert for this award, but Chambers of Commerce ("Industrie- und Handelskammern") gave awards for various kinds of merit, like promoting local business or cultural affairs, this sort of thing. I don't know if this award was maybe given to some veterans, too, for whatever merit, but it was not awarded by a veterans' organisation.

I used to have one of these cased, but sold it (see below). As Christian said, it is not a Veteran piece, but a Chamber of Commerce award for merit in the industry. BTW, this should be moved to the Weimar forum.

The awards are correct. And it is a.L. Chris

Is there a complete list of the recipients in that book? Chris

Could that be the Freikorps von Diebitsch cross, 2nd class? Ribbon comes close, at least.

Wow, this is a very nice Freikorps ribbon bar! #2: Baltic Cross Can't see the color of #3 very good, is it black with white stripes? Then it is the medal of the Iron Division, quite rare on a ribbon bar. See photo below: #4: looks like Schwarzburg

Gentlemen, a considerable amount of our ID research is based on the 1924 Reichsheer ranklist. We usually take for granted that those putting together and proof-reading the ranklists had to be - being German - very accurate! However, especially Rick already pointed to some errors. Now I wanted to know how good the list really is: I compared award entries on five pages to those in the 1932 RL, presuming, of course, that errors had been corrected by then and no new ones inserted! This is just a small sample, and I only compared a couple of random entries, but the result is staggering: Twelve major mistakes on five pages: p. 141: Hptm Glokke, missing a Hamburg Hanseatic Cross Hptm Förster, missing a Saxe-Meiningen Cross p. 144: Hptm Brosch, erroneously given a LS Hptm Behschnitt, ?R2K should read ?R4K p. 145: Hptm Heinrici, missing a Saxe-Coburg medalX Hptm v. Kleist, missing a Life-Saving medal (THIS one might have been awarded later) Hptm v. Chappuis, missing a Wound Badge p. 146: Hptm Stimmel, missing an SA3aX Hptm Wolff, missing an SE3X p. 147: Hptm Wagner, missing a Wound Badge Hptm v. Studnitz, EK2 should read EK1 Hptm Otto, missing a HE3X I think the upshot of this is: Always compare 1924 entries to later ones!

Thanks! I didn't know that! Chris

The seller says all those medals are marked with a name, Max von Kawaczynski. Maybe this should read "Kaweczynski", there is one (not this court flunky) in the DOA 1908/09.

At least, the photos show that he kept wearing his Royalist badge well into the late 1930s!

Closeup: The awards he's wearing here are: Neck: Bulgarian MMO Cdr Pinback EK1, Austrian Franz Joseph Cross, BWB, Brunswick EAK 1st cl (almost invisible) Bar: BMV4X, EK2, Luitpold Jubilee, Brunswick EAK 2nd cl, Hohenzollern 3rd clX, Württemberg Friedrich 1st cl., Austrian Iron Crown, ÖMK3 (that was the ghost wreath on my pic), Bulgarian St. Alexander, Spanish MMO non-com He also held a PKO4, Hessian Philipp Knight 2nd, SA3b, BZ3b and Brunswick Henry the Lion, but he's only wearing his wartime and homestate awards.

YES!! It's him. Gustav Freiherr von Perfall, Generalleutnant 1.08.1939 In 1932, he was in the Reichswehrministerium. The 1939 RL shows him as Higher Cavalry Officer in Bamberg. Never advanced any further. Here is another pic of him as Oberst, and what is interesting is that he wears his BMV4X in first place, right before his EK, like in my pic. Later, as General, he obviously switched to Prussian precedence.

Thingy:

So he is a) Bavarian b) an aristocrat c) a future Generalleutnant.

Got him! Here's another pic of Mr. Monocle. The problem was that in my pic, he is wearing only a REDUCED set of his awards. He left out a Bulgarian MMO Commander and an Austrain Franz Joseph pinback. But that little thingy on his right side clearly identifies him...

And a closeup of his face:

He's also got a wound badge, see below. What I find strange, if this is a Bavarian royalist, why doesn't he wear his ribbon bar in Bavarian style?

Ah! So it is this one: That was only awarded to very few people, am I right? So he should have been a Bavarian aristocrat?

Shoulderboards. I think there are two pips.

BTW, a perfect Erich von Stroheim monocle, isn't it?

And the badge. If the photo is ca. 1935, he should have been in the Reichsheer.

The ribbon bar is very hard to tell at this angle. That MIGHT be a Bavarian award in first place, followed by an EK, XXV, two things with swords (1st maybe Hohenzollern?), then something with a wreath (Württemberg or ÖMK3X). There seem to be neither LS eagles nor Hindenburg.

I bought this one because of the officer wearing a large ribbon bar. But when zooming in, I noticed the badge on his right side. It looks a little like a Bavarian Pilot Badge, but I'm not sure. Any ideas? Apparently, it is an Oberst wearing a ca. 1935 uniform. Maybe Bavarian, but I have no idea who. Chris

I think this is the later SS-Brigadef?hrer Hans Bauszus. He was a member of the DSWA Schutztruppe. The photo must be pre-1935 (no Hindenburg), and he was promoted to Brigadef?hrer in 1937. Great pic!

Good job! I think I see faint traces of a cross in the center and the characteristic wreath around it - this should be Waldeck 4th clX.