Valter

Yes, they fought in Tirol in 1915, shoulder-to-shoulder with Austrians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpenkorps_(German_Empire) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Königlich_Bayerisches_Infanterie-Leib-Regiment

Odulf, you are right. These things were possible, but very rare. The grenadier on your pic has party long service awards (both bronze and silver, as it should be with anyone who got silver grade), but not army long service award. With such strange combinations, everyone should be very cautious. I still believe these bars are fake, too many things wrong. To Nicolas, I searched a bit on the web but couldn't find exact criteria for NSDAP LS decorations. As far as I understand, yes, some kind of full-time involvement in party business was necessary, not mere long-term membership.

They can be identified as c**p. Westwall miniatures (these little pieces on brown ribbons) were never used on real ribbon bars (but on lapel bows for civil dress. And silver NSDAP long service without bronze one? They should be worn together. And how can some professional NSDAP official at the same time be a professional soldier in Wehrmacht? NSDAP long service awards were not awarded just for party membership, but only for professional service in party formations, and not even all of them. Otherwise they would be much more common, according to number of nazi party members. ;-)

I have to say this bar doesn't look period to me. The stitching is very messy, with thicker thread than usually seen, and ribbons are placed really sloppy. It appears the ribbons are placed to the bar recently, hard to say if they are original or not. Maybe they even are, but the rarer Duppel ribbon was not available to the seller (=faker). The hardware and medals appear original to me. So probably a bar put together from (partly or completely) original parts, with very bad craftsmanship. It could also be repaired by the owner somewhere in time, without proper replacement parts (ribbons) and skills. Did you check the ribbons with black light? And tested the thread wether cotton or synthetic?

I was also thinking about wiederholung spange, but never seen one before, neither on other German awards. Was that medal even possible to be awarded twice or more times? I've seen a picture of a bar with two Hessen medals (Niemann's catalog, I think), but never "in real" or on ribbon bar.

Check here: http://medals.pl/europe.htm Most of them are german, but not all; 9 - Bulgarian, 2 and 3 - spanish civil war, 16 - some allied country victory in WW1 medal...

Very nice medals, and rujabs box is excellent, not often seen! What's the meaning of the plain bar on the ribbon?

A nice and often overlooked award. I got my first one from a friendly member here, but recently got another one in a group... just to realize there are two variants, most notably are lions - one has skinnier and the other more builded arms and legs, but there are differences on averse, ring and loop too. The medal with skinny lion is also thinner. (the later has replacement ribbon, unfortunately).

Tifes, thank you very much for such a detailed explanation! Great information and historical background.

Oh yes, that's from Max und Moritz, I know these!

Gentlemen, thank you for these very interesting explanations. Historical details like this keep me amazing all the time.

Very nice medal and other pictures too! Why was this regiment nicknamed "Maikäfer"?

Ian, Dave, thank you very much for these explanations. This certainly makes sense - approval of orders already recommended durign the war yet unsolved at the end of hostilities (and empire). I found this article in the official gazette of Austrian budesheer: http://www.bundesheer.at/truppendienst/ausgaben/artikel.php?id=917 However, the article states that comission only worked between 1919-22. On what basis were then made orders of MMThO in 1929, 1931 etc?

Recently I had a conversation with fellow collector about awarding of Austro-Hungarian awards years after the end of WW1. At first I though it's unlikely that imperial awards of dissolved empire could be awarded years later in Austrian republic, but I was directed to this page http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/mmto.htm where many awards of Maria Theresia orden are listed as awarded in 1920's and as late as 1931. Who, on what basis and by which criteria awarded these once-imperial awards in republic? Are these considered official awards, equal to WW1 period awards, or were these awardings unofficial, by some veteran organisation or... ? What kind of decorations were awarded in 1920's, imperial era left-owers or newly produced? Was there a ceremony or something?

My small contribution, three Hanseatic bars in kinda environment where they were earned... (sorry, double post - don't know how it happened... )