Leutnant der Reserve Oskar Morath - Baden

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Is there anyone who can help me with finding out information on the following Officer:

Leutnant der Reserve Oskar Morath (Baden).

Cordial greetings,

[David Gregory]

Stijn,

Without any context, the chances of finding out anything about a Leutnant der Reserve are very small.

Do you have any known unit, location or award information?

David

[Stijn David]

Hi David,

Thank you, yes sure i have some info on this person:

Known awards:

* EK 2 (awarded 1915)

* OZL - Knight (awarded early 1916)

Known units:

* F.A.R. 14

* F.A.R. 16

Hopefully this will help a bit?

Are these guys (der Reserve) also listed in Ranklists of some kind?

Cordial greetings,

[David Gregory]

Stijn,

As far as I know, reserve officers are not included in the the rank list volumes.

It might take some time to find them, but the regimental histories of FAR 14 and FAR 16 may mention him.

David

[Ulsterman]

Alas, I find nothing on him in the FAR 14 book.

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Thank you for the search in teh FAR 14 book.

He was part of that unit for the periods:

1908 - 1909

and

05.08.1914 towards 01.02.1915

Any idea on what battles this regt. was involved during the mentionde period?

He was then part of the FAR 16 from:

01.02.1915 towards 28.08.1916

Cordial greetings,

[David Gregory]

Hello,

Thank you for the search in teh FAR 14 book.

He was part of that unit for the periods:

1908 - 1909

and

05.08.1914 towards 01.02.1915

Any idea on what battles this regt. was involved during the mentionde period?

He was then part of the FAR 16 from:

01.02.1915 towards 28.08.1916

Cordial greetings,

Stijn,

FAR 14 was part of 28. Infanterie-Division for the duration of the war. The link shows the battle entries in detail.

FAR 16 was part of 1. Infanterie-Division on the Eastern Front from the beginning of the war until the beginning of March 1916, and then at Verdun until the beginning of June 1916. By mid August it was back on the Eastern Front, where it remained until the end of 1917.

It would seem that Leutnant der Reserve Morath received his awards for actions with 28. Infanterie-Division shown in the link above and with 1. Infanterie-Division on the Eastern Front.

Do you know which batteries or other parts of the regiments he served with? I'll see if I can dig out any more information when I can get to my books.

David

Edited November 6, 2006 by David Gregory

[Stijn David]

Hello David,

Thank you for that info, i do not know much more at this point but this mans Wehrpass (WP) is on its it way towards me (should receive it during the next 2 weeks).

I hope that more info is written down altough i doubt that to much detail will be given as the WP is a WWII issue.

Anyway i will write down all i have as it is written down.

Cordial greetings,

[Glenn J]

Stijn and David,

reserve officers are not included in the the rank list volumes

If he was commissioned before May 1914 he will be listed in the Prussian Rangliste. If commissioned after that date I should be able to find his commissioning date in the Milit?r-Wochenblatt. Morath is not too common a name and I have indexed all of the remainder of 1914 and the best part of 1915. I'll check when I get home this evening.

Regards

Glenn

[Stijn David]

Hello Glenn,

Thank you in advance for the search => looking forward towards what you might find

Anyway i have received the following info already on our Leutnant der R.

He apparently received the OZL on : 14.01.1916 - unit listed: fu?artillerie-batterei nr. 361

Does that info fit in the above given ?

Cordial greetings,

[David Gregory]

Stijn,

I assumed from the abbreviations above that you referred to Feldartillerie-Regimenter 14 and 16.

Morath may have served with the field artillery and then transferred to a foot artillery unit, hence the Fu?artillerie-Batterie Nr. 361 unit designation.

During some periods of the war, foot artillery units were attached to division-level formations, but it is more likely that his unit was attached to a corps or army and did not rotate in and out of sectors of the front as much as divisional units.

It might be possible to pinpoint the activities of Fu?artillerie-Batterie Nr. 361, but finding that information will not be easy as most reference works of that period are not indexed.

Any context information that you have will help to narrow the search down.

David

[Glenn J]

Stijn,

that was easy

Vizefeldwebel der Reserve Oskar Morath was serving with the Ersatz-Bataillon of Fu?artillerie-Regiment Nr. 14 when he was commissioned as a Leutnant der Reserve on the 21st of February 1915 with a patent of seniority of the same date.

Regards

Glenn

Edited November 6, 2006 by Glenn J

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Thank you for both answers => very interesting (im a bit a WWI dummy, as WWII is my main collecting interest but once so often im blinded by imperial beauty )

Very nice info to see when our object of research was promoted from Vizefeldwebel towards Leutnant der Reserve.

I also did receive the following info in the meanwhile:

This person should be mentioned (his award of the OZL) in the "Staatsanzeiger f?r das Grossherzogtum Baden, Sonderdruck I/1916", page 20 !!!

He was awarded his EK 2 on 25.07.1915

So the ploth thickens => hopefully more will be found in a while

Cordial greetings,

Edited November 6, 2006 by Stijn David

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Well i can add finally a bit more info on dr. Oskar Morath.

He was born : 22.04.1885

He was drafted into the army at 01.10.1908 - Fussart. Regt. 14

Units as known:

- 1914 & 1915 / F.A.R. 14

- 1916 / F.A.R. 16

- 1917 / Inf. Brigade d. 34 Inf. Div. ( ????)

- 1917 / Fussart. BAttr. 361

- 1917 & 1918 / Landw. Fussart. Batl. 29

I do not know how the entry : Inf. brigade d. 34 Inf. Div does fit in? - hopefully you guys can teach me?

As for know promotions at this time:

30.09.1909 : Unteroffizier

05.08.1914 : Vizefeldwebel

21.02.1915 : Leutnant

He was demobilized at 16.12.1918 + seemed to have survived the madness of WWI without a scratch (at least no entry about wounds etc ... are to be found

Battle-entry's:

1915 : Gefecht am Hartmannswillerkopf

1916 : Schlacht bei Verdun

1917 : Fr?hjahrsschlacht bei Arras

He also must have been entitled to receive the Hindenburg, but no entry + no medal present in his legacy.

Im looking forward towards all new info that can be added.

Cordial greetings,

He held the title of Professor at 1940 (and also dr.) - altough i do not know in what ?

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Please meet herr Professor Oskar Morath

Anyone a idea how it would be able to find out in what he was a Professor? (most probably impossible but you never know?)

Cordial greetings,

ps: i was lazy and have taken the picture from the former owner.

[Stijn David]

Hello,

And here we have his "Z?hringer L?we", it is my first and i must say that i am stumped by the quality of these pieces.

They (=OZL) are so delicate and beautifull (at least towards me). The pictures (scans) do not do justice to the beauty of the award.

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

I have received more info on Morath and his OZL, the initiative to award him something (in this the OZL) was given from the Bayerische 8 th. Infantery Division.

How does the Fu?artillerie-Batterie Nr. 361 fit into this Division? Anyone a idea?

Cordial greetings + thanks for looking,

[webr55]

I must have overlooked this. Oskar Morath got a Dr. in geology from the University of Freiburg in 1913 (there is a small chance that it might have been in 1914, but I could not determine this 100%). The title of his dissertation was "Theoretische Grundlagen für die Konstruktion geologischer Modelle".

Chris

Edited November 13, 2017 by webr55

[Stijn David]

I must have overlooked this. Oskar Morath got a Dr. in geology from the University of Freiburg in 1913 (there is a small chance that it might have been in 1914, but I could not determine this 100%). The title of his dissertation was "Theoretische Grundlagen f?r die Konstruktion geologischer Modelle".

Chris

Hello Chris,

Thank you very much, could you referr me the source where you have found this information?

Do you have a clue at wich university he was to find during the interbellum as well as during WWII?

Cordial greetings + thank you,

[webr55]

Hello Chris,

Thank you very much, could you referr me the source where you have found this information?

Do you have a clue at wich university he was to find during the interbellum as well as during WWII?

Cordial greetings + thank you,

You find this information in several German university library catalogs, for example the Staatsbibliothek Berlin.

About his "Professor" title: As I find no further publications of his, I would most definitely think that he was not a university professor, but a senior teacher at some Gymnasium ("Gymnasialprofessor").

Regards

Chris

[Stijn David]

Hello Chris,

Thank you for this further information, much appreciated.

Anyone any idea's how the Bayerische 8 (reserve) Infantery division does relate towards the Fu?artillerie-Batterie Nr. 361 ?

Was this ID a active front unit?, iff so any clues on links wher eto find info on that division?

Thanks in advance,