Daniel Krause

LtGen v.Besser,

one of our friends here owns exactly HIS Ribbon bar.

Type Besser in the search function and he will turn up.

Best regards

Daniel

Hi Imperials,

as all of You know, Rick L. is destroying his hands by tyyyyping award rolls.

I cannot leave all work to him, so I - and other friends like Uwe - do the same here in Europe.

Finally we will publish our work in some books in the well known Michael Autengruber - style.

It HAS to be printed, any digital form cannot survive more than 10 years. I learn that just now.....Uwe wrote something 1994 on an Amiga computer - no way to put in on any modern machine. Means to type everything agaaaain - no ocr-scan did work without lots of mistakes..........

So, but...

Soon will come out:

- Princely Hohenzollern, known from Ricks thread

- Sachsen Coburg Gotha, known from Ricks thread

- Sachsen- Weimar, known from Ricks thread

- Sachsen- Meiningen, known from Ricks thread

- W?rttemberg - THE ORDERS - in WW1, Military Merit, Crown and Frederick with swords in WW1

- W?rttemberg - THE DECORATIONS - golden Military Merit Medal, Cross of Merit, Wilhelmscross

- W?rttemberg - non-w?rttemberg decorations given to members of the W?rttemberg Army in WW1

- Saxony - non-Saxon awards to Saxons in WW1

....and we plan to do more things, but thats all for the next months.

This kind of award rolls will not be printed in quite big editions. There are just a few people interested in it.

But, to estimate the needs a bit better, please let me know who is seriously interested in which volumes. As more as we can print, as cheaper they will be.

Please let me know. Hopefully for Christmas the first Volumes will be ready.

Best regards

Daniel

Daniel;

Am I to understand correctly that you are working on (amoung other rolls) the roll for the Wurttemberg Golden Military Merit Medal (WGMMM)? That would be great!

Yup, I do.

Rick is doing quite a lot, You know and I add more things from "th eother side of the ocean".

Best egards

Daniel

Oh, guys,

for the W?rttemberg Wilhelmskreuz......has nobody a roll????? I have!

Gustav Klein, Oberleutnant der Reserve in the Bodenseeflottille got his Wilhelmskreuz with swords 15.April 1916.

Best regards

Daniel

BTW, this roll will be available soon.....among others like W?rttemberg Military Merit Order, golden Military Merit Medal, Cross of Merit......not only Ricky is working hard.....

Hi Guys,

I?m shocked......THAT is right!!!!!

This funny guy did really wear a whole bar nearly HALF OF IT composed from non-conform Kleindekorationen!!!! The tip was THE clue. So it costed just 5 minutes to find him with my ?Wunderwaffe?.

THIS GUY had: Red Eagle 2 w.Oaks , Crown 2 with star, EK 2 1870, Johanniter, XXV, 1870 medal, SWA medal, Centenary, Bav.MVO Officers pinback, Hannover Langensalza 1866, Hannover Jubilee 100, Oldenburg OV3bX, Ernestinian Commander with star, Sa-Meiningen cross, Lippe-Detmold 3rd class with X ? here WRONG ribbon, W?rttemberg Crown knight with lions, Belgian Leopold Officer with X, Danish Dannebrog knight, Italian Crown Officer, Russian Stanislaus 2nd class.

So THIS GUY should normally wear 2 Stars, 4 neck crosses, 1 pinback cross and only 14 awards on the bar.

THIS GUY was born 27th of July 1839. HE served obviously in the Hannover army , last as Rittmeister in the K?nigs- Husaren regiment before he went in Prussian service. HE went then in the Hussar regiment 15 and raised up to Commander of the 9th Cav Brigade. HE became MajGen in 1891 and made LtGen in 1896.

Already in Pension he became a writer. Look for HIM in google and You find pleeenty of famous books written from HIM.

According the Honor rank list HE was not recalled for WW1, but it seems he was still more or less involved.

HE died in 1918.

Who is HE? Friedrich Freiherr von Dincklage- Campe!!!!

Heiko, congratulations!!!!! Thats the most odd but unquestionable original Prussian ribbon bar I?ve ever ID?d.

Best regards

Daniel

niiice one!!!

Is there a hole from a missing device at the Crown ribbon?????

Best regards

Daniel

exactly the same!!!!!!

As Rick told, it is a small world......

Best regards

Daniel

After the breakdown of the K.u.K. Monarchy Gustav Siess as the most senior Commander led the return of the 15 German Submarines from the Mediterranean sea back to Kiel. On the way he received information about the Revolution in Germany and collected his Boats in the fjords of Norway to give orders for the arrival at the harbor. Thanks to god that it did not come to hostilities with the revolting Navy forces in Kiel. 15 full armed and war experienced Submarines were a considerable power against the revolting Home fleet!

The government of Friedrich Ebert was on power and Gustav Noske as Governor of Kiel had already full control over the situation. The Boats could return to Germany with full honors. Gustav Siess retired at the 11th November 1919 with the rank of a Korvettenkapit?n.

1935 he was reactivated in the Air Force. He raised up to Branch Chief in the Air Ministry, but because of illness he retired still in WW2 with the rank of a Lieutenant General. 1945 Siess was caught by the Soviets and had to spend 10 years as POW. As seriously ill man he returned in 1955. 15 years he could still spend in retirement. Lieutenant General Gustav Siess died in his 86th year at the 14th October 1970 in his hometown Hamburg.

Sic transit gloria mundi, 24 years later I purchased in Hamburg one of his ribbon bars for just 35 German Mark. Not an anonymous Order, no impressive Decoration, just some gram of iron and silk, but this some gram of material could tell me an interesting piece of naval history.

Best regards

Daniel

Gustav Siess was born on the 11th December, 1883 in Hamburg. He joined the Navy as a Sea Cadet in 1902 and did his basic training at the school ship "Moltke". His first assignment as Leutnant zur See (29th September, 1905) was at the heavy cruiser "Hansa" in East Asia. Then he served most of the time, in the Torpedo and Mine branch. Very soon (on the 30th March, 1908) he became Oberleutnant zur See. In 1911, just after 9 years of service, he received his first decoration, the Crown Order 4th class. Already promoted to Kapit?nleutnant (on the 12th April, 1913) and Commander of a Torpedo boat he saved a seaman from drowning, For that act he received in November 1913 from the Emperor personally the Lifesaving medal. At the outbreak of the war he was still Commander of Torpedo boat V-1 and was transferred in February 1915 to the Submarine branch. After some months aboard U-41 under Kapit?nleutnant Hansen he took over his first own Submarine in October 1915. He became Commander of U-73; a brand new Minelayer Submarine.

At 5 tours in the Mediterranean sea the mines laid by U-73 sunk 11 merchant ships with 79.254 BRT and 3 warships, among them 2 Battleships! On the 27th February 1917 Gustav Siess received the knights cross of the Hohenzollern House Order with swords.

His most famous victim was the Hospital ship "Britannic"; a sister of the "Titanic", with 48.158 BRT the biggest ship sunk in WW1 by a Submarine.

The loss of the "Britannic" by a mine was not immediately clear and lots of legends turned up. One side speculated about a bomb put by a German spy or that the ship was torpedoed, the other side spoke about illegal transport of ammunition.

The destiny of her older sister as biggest naval disaster of this time was for sure not without influence. After the "Titanic"- disaster both sisters, the "Olympic" and the "Britannic" were basically improved. Despite of that the "Britannic" sunk only 55 minutes after the mine hit her. Luckily just 28 people from the 1134 Crew Members and Patients died, but this happened only because 2 lifeboats were released too early and were smashed by the still turning propellers.

Later he commanded with U-33 an Attack- Submarine and could add 35 more sunken ships to his score. At the 24th April 1918 Gustav Siess received the Order pour le merite as 25th Submarine Commander and as first Hamburg Citizen ever.

Beside of the already mentioned Decorations he received the Hanseatic Cross from his hometown Hamburg and 2 Decorations from Germanys Allies. The Osmanic Empire awarded him the War Medal, better known as he Gallipoli Star. The k.u.k. Monarchy honored him with an Iron Crown Order 3rd class with war decoration. This ribbon at the bar was quite irritating at the ID process. I thought first that this was a peacetime decoration, because normally the lower-ranking Military Merit Cross was the first award given to German Officers, an Order like the Iron Crown was normally handed out as second award. Now this "irritation" became the "hot spot" of the ID; a close-up of the portrait shows clearly that he really received initially an Iron Crown and no Military Merit Cross; for sure a rare case. Now the untypical style of the bar makes also a sense; Siess had 3 years of service in the Mediterranean sea out of Austrian harbors. So it is easily possible that he ordered his wartime ribbon bars at local outfitters.

Again, a coincident helped me. Some weeks ago I was searching in some older volumes of the annual German Soldiers Yearbook and gotcha! A portrait showed EXACTLY the combination of my bar, and the owner was discovered - Gustav Siess. The Soldiers Yearbook contained also a short biography and some hours of Google search completed the story.

Beginning of the nineties I was due to professional reasons several times in Hamburg. Of course this was good occasion to "harvest" at the local Militaria dealers. At one of my "campaigns" a group of ribbon bars caught my eye. A set of three bars belonging to the same Officer, just that they were "growing" over the war. At that times my funds were quite limited so I could afford just one - the last one.

The ribbons appeared as following:

1. Iron Cross

2. another Prussian war ribbon, most likely the Hohenzollern House Order

3. Prussian Lifesaving medal

4. a light blue ribbon, probably the Prussian Crown Order or a Wuerttemberg Frederick Order

5. Hamburg Hanseatic Cross

6. Austrian Iron Crown 3rd Class

7. Osmanic War Medal, better known as he Gallipoli Star

The style of the bar is quite uncommon and reminds more on an Austrian bar.

The fact that there are not any attachments did not really make it easier.

A hope for an ID was only in the combination of Ribbon 2 and 3 in connection with the usual Rank lists. Years passed, hundreds pages from different sources were worked through, and I did not come closer to an ID. There was still a good dozen of possible owners remaining, two of them "hot candidates". One of them should later appear as THE owner.

Nice portrait.

I think that little badge is either a Veterans badge or something Ottoman-related.

Is a closeup available?

Best regards

Daniel

W?rttemberg is a bit odd.

The Wilhelms-cross was in general a NON-COM award. It came with swords top military guys without frontline service and without swords to civilians and some kind of military Beamten.

Best regards

Daniel

...and one example from Hessen-Kassel;

who can make the ribbons out????

next:

next:

Hi SPM,

that combined Baden Ribbons were originally used for that old style miniature Barettes.

They needed just some centimetres but had to wove a good metre so we have some remaining pieces around.

Here are the other examples from my collection:

For Schie?platzmeister and Wild Card:

Your nice Baden Grand Ducal guy had indeed the Ludwig from Hessen. Olga was still not existing around 1850.

I have some more examples of these. Anyone interested?

Best regards

Daniel

Normally it was ordered, that decorations of enemies states are not longer authorized to wear.

That was also the case for all former allies who "turned over".

Best regards

Daniel

actually he went zD in 1910 from the General staff with additional RAO2aE, KO1, SWA Steel and WK2a

He died in 1914.

Best regards

Daniel

indeed Italian,

Grand cross star of the Order of Maurice and Lazaro.

I suppose a G?ring pic?

Best regards

Daniel

You are the man!!!!

PM sent!

Dan

actually the Wilhelmskreuz WAS his W?rttemberg wartime reward for WW1 service.

Not all WW1 guys received plenty of stuff like the celebrities.

Best regards

Daniel

Hi Gentlemen,

for a planned publication I am looking for good (300 - 600 dpi) scans of some Sanke cards of the following Air Force aces:

- Lt Max M?ller

- VFw Sebastian Festner

- VFw Schleiffer

- VFw Edmund Nathanael

- VFw Franz Joseph Ophaus

Many thanks!

Daniel

my one; unfortunately just a 2nd row missing the Crosses of Liberty: