EK 1914 My EK II Document

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello All,

I am posting a photo of an EK II document from my collection. It is not all that great or showy but I purchased it because of the name. Our family originated in Germany and over the course of many years (going back hundreds of years) migrated back and forth between Germany and the UK. Somewhere along the way we changed the spelling of our name from Wolff to Wolfe. Most of the Wolfe side of the family was involved in the British military. The Wolff "group" settled in and around Belfast. This EK II was awarded to Fusl. Wolff. Not very likely a true relation but I liked it and now it lives with the rest of the collection.

The document says (pardon my poor German translation),

Identification Card, In the name of His Majesty the Emperor and King is the Fusilier Wolff second order the 12th Company Fusilier Regiment Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern (Honzollernsches) Unit number 40 on 18. 4. 1917 the Iron Cross II. Class is conferred and has been declared.

I have not been able to gain any knowledge on this unit or where they were on or around that date.

I hope you like it.

Cheers

Brian

[Guest Rick Research]

Hmmm... too bad no date and place of birth on that one, since I just recently got a book listing every single WW1 soldier from Hohenzollern

but there is NO index, and it is in "highway order" by towns and villages.

DOES have date and place of birth and all awards. But 900 pages to go through.

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Rick,

I didn't know there was even a chance of researching this fellow. I wish I had more information.

Cheers

Brian

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

he got his EK2 at Verdun, this was in the period after the "big battle" but still a lot of heavy fighting.

[Ulsterman]

Hmmm... too bad no date and place of birth on that one, since I just recently got a book listing every single WW1 soldier from Hohenzollern

but there is NO index, and it is in "highway order" by towns and villages.

DOES have date and place of birth and all awards. But 900 pages to go through.

I went through that book as well and have a couple of comments:

1. About 20%+ of the awards are missing-at least. It is obvious by the scope of the answers that men filled out questionnaires, "how many months as a POW"?) and some villages are missing entirely.

Also, I have several docs of Hohenzollern awardees that don't show up in the book AND

I noted 11 (!) instances of KIA pictures showing men wearing medals-where none are listed in the book.

Also, I have hard time believing that some towns had nobody with a name ending in a letter above "S" after having half a dozen of every other letter in the alphabet. Smells like incomplete returns to me.

2. Multiple state awards to Gefreiters were a LOT more common than I had ever dreamed.

3. If you were an officer or senior NCO of any more than a few months service and didn't get an award, you were either killed quickly or really, really, really unlucky.

4. I note some very interesting navy award patterns, which confirm things noticed earlier.

5. It confirms, the higher ones rank, the more likely you were to get a medal...or two or three.

Having said that I have begun a last name index, which i expect i will finish sometime around the next US presidential election.

Well worth having.

Edited March 20, 2007 by Ulsterman

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi,

he got his EK2 at Verdun, this was in the period after the "big battle" but still a lot of heavy fighting.

Hi Chris,

That was more than I knew when I posted this document.

Many thanks.

Brian

[Ulsterman]

I went through the book-it's alphabetical so it was easy-no Wolff. All the other Wolfs I found either died earlier, were in the wrong unit, except for one Sergeant, who also got the Hohenzollern medal. But I doubt that's your man.

Amazing how small some of the villages were-and just how dominant some families were in those places. We forget how provincial the world was 100 years ago.

[Brian Wolfe]

I went through the book-it's alphabetical so it was easy-no Wolff. All the other Wolfs I found either died earlier, were in the wrong unit, except for one Sergeant, who also got the Hohenzollern medal. But I doubt that's your man.

Amazing how small some of the villages were-and just how dominant some families were in those places. We forget how provincial the world was 100 years ago.

Hi Ulsterman,

Thanks for your efforts. This fellow must have been related to me because I'm usually were I shouldn't be.

Cheers

Brian