7 Medal Baden Officer Bar

[Paul C]

A recent find with the following medals:

1. 1914 EK2

2. Baden WW1 War Aid

3. Hindenburg combatants

4. RAO4

5. 25yr LSC

6. Kaiser Centennial

7. Baden 1902 Jubilee

Per Rick we have this down to one 1914 candidate, a Hauptmann Seitz, from IR 170. He is the only one in the Baden Regiments (14 Army Corps) that has the appropriate time and did not receive the Baden Lion award or Prussian Crown Order. What makes it impossible to nail it to Seitz is that we can not confirm that he received the 1902 Baden Jubilee. So for now it is just another nice bar. If anyone has a regimental history of the IR 170 please let me know.

[Guest Rick Research]

Seitz retired on 27 May 1914, and as a career-long Baden unit officer might/should have gotten a Z?hringen Lion (Knight 2nd with Oakleaves as Hauptmann, or a Knight 1st as a probable char. Major aD?) on retirement, not having (amazingly) gotten one earlier. Quite oddly, he acquired a Chinese Order of the Double Dragon (not worn on a medal bar) some time between 1902 and 1905.

His "leisure years" were brief, since the war started a month later and Germany was in two months after he left the army. He was ultimately re-retired with the seniority of a continuous long serving regular char. Oberstleutnant aD.

But I find no OZL for him on the WW1 rolls, which is strange-- an indication he was not called back to a BADEN unit, and yet somehow, somewhere, got the War Effort Cross from his "home" state?

ALL the other 1914 "suspects" with Red Eagle IVs and no Baden OZL were NOT serving in any Baden unit in 1902! :speechless-smiley-004:

My first reaction to Paul's medal bar was that this was an Oberstleutnant when the war started, probably held the Prussian Crown 3rd with that REO4, but got the Crown Order bumped up to a wartime 2nd Class with Swords (most full colonels seem to have received a Crown 2X rather than an HHO3X), and a similar Commander grade OZL-X... but no other 1914 matches for ANY officer with a Red Eagle 4 and no other German medal bar grade awards. The 1902 was, of course, never listed in Prussian Rank Lists.

[Bob Hunter]

"...just another nice bar." I'd maybe rate it a high nice maybe even a low wonderful! jumping

I wish you both luck in nailing down the Seitz connection.

[Stogieman]

It's always a shame that the second piece shows up with the finish usually fallen off. I think over the years I have seen less than a dozen of that Baden War Effort Cross with it's original (silver) finish and gold center