Heer Lt General Schwarznecker

[Paul L Murphy]

One of the medal groups in my collection is to Lieutenant General Schwarznecker. All I have been able to find out about him so far is that he was Commander of the R?ckw?rtigen (rear area) Gebiete 582 (West Ruthenia) and heavily involved in anti partisans raids. West Ruthenia is located in the Ukraine, south of the Carpathian Mountains.

In addition, from 3 July 1943 to August 1944 he was Syrmien Regional Commander (Befehlshaber Syrmien). Syrmia is an area of Crotia, which includes the Vukovar region. It was the scene of a lot on interracial fighting between the Croats and Serbs and was given to Serbia at the end of WWII.

I imagine he much have had an interesting two wars given his medal entitlement. His medal group comprises : -

8-PIECE MEDAL BAR: - 1914 Iron Cross 2nd class; 1914 Mecklenburg War Cross 2nd Class; Hamburg.Hansetic Cross; 1914 War Combatant?s Cross; 25 Year Wehrmacht Long Service Cross; 12 Year Wehrmacht Long Service Medal; Austrian Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with War Decoration; Turkish War Medal (Gallipoli Star)

RIBBON BAR ? the above 8 medals

1914 IRON CROSS 1ST CLASS

1939 BAR TO THE IRON CROSS 1ST CLASS

WAR MERIT CROSS SECOND CLASS

WAR MERIT CROSS FIRST CLASS

1 WW WOUND BADGE IN BLACK

2 WW WOUND BADGE IN SILVER

4 YEAR WEHRMACHT LONG SERVICE MEDAL

18 YEAR WEHRMACHT LONG SERVICE CROSS

HUNGARIAN 1914-18 WAR MEDAL

AUSTRIAN 1914-18 WAR MEDAL

CROATIAN ORDER OF THE CROWN OF ZVONIMIR.NECK BADGE SET WITH SWORDS (Breast Star and Neck Badge)

SLOVAKIAN ORDER OF THE WAR VICTORY.MODEL 1939-45 NECK BADGE 2ND CLASS WITH RIBBON BAR

SLOVAKIAN BADGE FOR MOTORISED UNITS

If anyone can help me with information on this battle scarred warrior I would be very grateful.

Regards,

Paul

[Guest Rick Research]

Unfortunately that is NOT Schwarznecker's bar. He had a BREMEN, not the HAMBURG, Hanseatic Cross.

What color is the backing material on the medal bar?

[Paul L Murphy]

Rick,

Interesting. I will try to dig out a photo of the reverse of the bar, I have it somewhere. I bought this from Detlev a few years ago so I never questioned the composition of the group. Is there anything else about it that does not match Schwarznecker's entitlement ?

Could it be possible that the wrong medal was mounted at some stage ? Are you basing your comment on having seen his medal bar with the Bremen medal or on his entitelment as per your research ? I would be interested in anything else you can let me know.

Best regards,

Paul

[Guest Rick Research]

The ribbons are quite distinctly different and would never have been incorrectly applied-- certainly not on the full medal bar.

Awards for Reichwehr officers are shown in the 1924-32 Ranglisten of the Reichsheer and Reichsmarine.

I took about an hour out of my endless awards rolls typing yesterday to check-- fascinated by the extremely late and completely incorrect TWM medal bar mounting (a very 1920s affectation and one that should have been quashed by 1936-- which may be a clue in identifying this officer)-- but did NOT find a match in EITHER the army or the navy, 1924 and 1918 Army Lists, and 1926 Navy one. The combination could have been either X Army Corps or Imperial navy for the WW1 awards. Just came online today now after today's slaving over the Saxe-Coburg rolls.

So. What you have is the medal bar of

1) somebody who served continuously from Imperial military into the Wehrmacht-- but in the "invisible" Polizei of the Weimar Republic (what police Rank Lists there are do NOT show awards-- not any that I have seen) or

2) a 1939 wartime retread mounting up his awards with the new Wehrmacht long services replacing his old Imperial XXV.

I doubt the latter from this combination.

Chances are EXTREMELY high that you have a general's bar there, but the backing color will be very important to definitely write off any possible navy connection.

USUALLY Wehrmacht 25 bars, if uncommon combinations (as this is) are easy to find, but this combination did not turn up in the Reichswehr sources.

I see absolutely nothing from the obverse of the medal bar to doubt originality--at all. Simply cannot FIND him the easy way."

[dond]

Nice looking awards either way. Can you post them individually in thier respective forums or in this thread? The spange to the EK1 appears to be an early one. The bar must be pre-war since it doesn't sport a spange on the ek2.

[Paul L Murphy]

Here is a photo of the reverse. Unfortunately these are the only photos at the moment since the medals are tucked away in a bank vault in the UK and I am in Moscow !

I am presuming the bright yellow backing rules out the naval connection ?

Regards,

Paul

[Guest Rick Research]

Ah, eccentric colors! No help there, either way!

[Paul L Murphy]

Rats ! So it is either a vain and eccentric policeman, a vain and eccentric general, or a vain and eccentric sailor ! At least the guy had character one way or another.

[Damir]

Hello,

You have a very nice collection here. If you're interested, I can upload a photo of a CASED zvonimir 1st class with star and swords. I collect exclusively croatian ww2 decorations.

Damir

[Guest Rick Research]

Wow, is THIS an Old Thread!

Paul: Mecklenburg Schwerin award rolls are now being worked on. There are technical problems with the computer format of the Hamburg award rolls. 2009 looks good to finally sort this 2006 thread out though.

:rolleyes:

[Paul L Murphy]

Yippee

All comes to he who waits !