Generalstabsarzt Prof. Dr. Dr. Ernst Koschel

[areim]

Gentlemen,

this is going to be a long story.

My name is A. Reim and I am the great-grandson of Dr. Koschel.

It all started when I discovered the award documents of my great-grandfather?s medals in a pile of documents at my parents place.

I knew that his medals- except one- had been sold by my old people somtime in the 1990?s .They didn?t know about the documents or those would have been gone, too.

I decided to investigate in the all-knowing google oracle about my great-grandfather and learned that his medals are by now anonymosly scattered all over the US and completly gone. Completely gone? No! A certain Rick Research bought the ribbon bars at some remote place and managed to trace the - by than - nameless bars back to my grandfather. I contacted Rick and he encouraged me to post the documents and some pictures of my great-grandfather in this forum and I hope they will be of general interest. The pictures are still a terrible mess from a cardbord box, but I hope Rick will help me to put them into something like a chronological order, with the help of medals and ribbons.

Ernst Koschel was born May 27^th 1875 in Hannover.

Prior to starting a military carreer he was interested in poetry as this picture proves (taken 1885 in Berlin):

Im not going to go into the details of his career, They can be found here:

www.geocities.com/~orion47/WEHRMACHT/LUFTWAFFE/Sanitatsoffizier/KOSCHEL_ERNST.html

To be continued...

Regards,

A. Reim

[areim]

Dr. Koschel?s Topic continued:

After giving up poetry he started his military career, because it?s such a happy life:

Not a picture of good quality, but the original was the size of a stamp.

If Rick will be so kind and provide a picture of my great-grandfathers ribbon bars, I will continue in a more serious manner and start posting the award documents.

(Tomorrow, the mood of my lady is getting worse...I spent the whole day scanning pic and docs...)

Regards,

A. Reim

[Glenn J]

Hi Areim,

here is his entry in the Stammliste of the Kaiser Wilhelms Akadamie.

Regards

Glenn

[Paul C]

Great story, There is an outside chance that the US Archiv MAY have your grandfather's service record. If you would like to write to them send me a PM and I will get you the address and information. Being a General they may have it. I know the Archiv's have the service records of Army Generals.

[Guest Rick Research]

This was the "sole survivor," brought into my area the weekend following the big show of September 2000 and bought from a dealer from ? Michigan or thereabouts just visiting his sister in Connecticut:

ANOTHER ribbon bar turned up in July 2002, sold by Helmut Weitze in Hamburg, however the one below was STOLEN IN THE UNITED STATES MAIL en route to the buyer in Oklahoma:

I regret that only the seller's scan was ever made of the long one row bar. Be aware if anyone sees that one that it is stolen property and whoever is selling it now is either the thief or a receiver of stolen property.

I have been WATCHING for the "Oklahoma bar" ever since and will continue to do so forever.

International crime! Drama! What a story!

[areim]

Dr. Koschels Topic continued (2)

Thank you, Rick for posting the pictures and adding your part of the story.

Paul C: Thank you, but my ggf?s service record is already online to be seen at the site I mentioned in my first posting.

I will start today posting the award documents from 1914 to 1920:

1. EK2 awarded September 24th 1914. Besitzzeugnis (1918) .

[areim]

2. Ritterkreuz 2.Klasse mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern des Ordens vom Z?hringer L?wen awarded June 26th 1915.

[areim]

3. Ritterkreuz Franz-Joseph-Orden mit Kriegsdekoration awarder Juli 6th 1917.

[areim]

4. EK1 awarded Oktober 5th, 1917

[areim]

5. Bavarian Milit?r Verdienstorden 4. Klasse mit Krone und Schwertern awarded June 27th 1918

[areim]

6. Wurttemberg Ritterkreuz 1. Klasse Friedrichs-Orden mit Schwertern awarded Juli 30th, 1917

[areim]

7. Turkish "Red Star" (I don?t know it?s name) awarded ???

[areim]

8. Kreuz 2. Klasse ? 25 Years Long Service Medal? Awarded Juli 8th 1920

[Guest Rick Research]

I am SO glad these were overlooked so you could save them!

Dr. K's EK2 document is unusual, paperwork filled out by Oberst Freiherr Grote in May 1918 for an award actually made in September 1914. Such peculiar delays are not unknown-- but inexplicable!

His Franz Joseph-Knight with war decoration is a terrific example! Not only does it gives his full name (not always usual to foreigners) but his pre-war AND wartime units (unheard of, in my limited experience) AND with a bit of citation included "in recognition of superior and devoted services in the war."

The EK1 document signed by aviation Chief of Staff Thomsen is a prize!

His Bavarian document lists PRE-WAR unit affiliation. This is what the Bavarians did with all their Urkunden, probably out of some strange sense of wartime security, since they published these in the Personal Nachrichten. Anyone who did not have a pre-war regular unit assignment would have something like "of a reserve infantry regiment" or "in a fortress signal lamp platoon" or whatever-- no actual units were listed.

Your great grandfather had more than enough calendar years in for his XXV Years Service Cross, but since regular military personnel were creditted with double pension and long service time for war years (1914-18 = 10 for them and 5 for everybody else!) that is why the war years are noted. Naval personnel who got "double time" credit even in peacetime for service outside German home waters could have gotten one of these with far less than 25 real years of duty. Schutztruppen members also got "double time" for their overseas peacetime service. Count Zech must have gotten tired writing autographs, since his full name was Graf von Zech sonst von Burckersrode genannt!!! Once the new Wehrmacht long service awards came out, this would have been replaced and updated by the new forms in October 1936. In his 1935 photo ? Biblio Verlag, he was still wearing that XXV immediately after the Hindenburg Cross X:

The award date for the Turkish War Medal also known as the "Iron Half Moon" or "Gallipoli Star" is probably on the back side inside the square box there. His name, rank, and unit would be rendered in Turkish in the wreath at top on front, while the rest is usually a generic text partially filled in about service against the common enemy. He never served anywhere near Ottoman troops, so this must have been a nice present from a Turkish Pasha visiting German aviation headquarters. I have one to a Marine divisional orderly officer who spent the entire war in BELGIUM, so those things happened. An old U-boat commander my late friend Neal O'Connor knew called this sort of award a "Fr?hst?ckorden"-- just the sort of thing some visiting Highness handed out after a pleasant evening in the officers' mess.

In 2007, this is an amazing and fantastic group of award documents to see still miraculously preserved TOGETHER, despite all that has happened.

[areim]

Rick, your knowledge is amazing. I?m not even able to decipher old german handwriting. I always thought myself of being quite good in military-history but right now I feel as if I?m not able to tell Hindenburg from Ludendorff.

The story about the EK2 is getting really weird. For about 2 years now, I live in a small village in lower saxony and we have a tiny castle here, more old than picturesque. It belongs to the Grote-family since 1664. The great-gandfather of the actual Freiherr was an Oberst Louis Karl Ferdinand Freiherr Grote born in 1854. I tried via Internet to get the complete name of the 1918 commander of the K?nigin-Augusta-Regiment Nr.4 but without success. It would be a strange coincidence if this was him.

It seems you?re right about the "Fr?hst?cksorden", there?s not even a date, at least not in ararbic numbers in the box mentioned by you.

I going to start the next posting marathon of the remaining documents one of the next days.

Best regards,

A.Reim

[Guest Rick Research]

Yeah but that's easy for me because that is the way I learned German, and it is also the same basic English handwriting used over here in the 17th century too-- not that I go back quite THAT far, personally. Glenn will have the correct Baron Grote information. (I've always wondered why they and a handful of other aristocratic families did NOT use "von?")

[Glenn J]

The Regimental Commander of G.G.R.4 was Oberst (27.1.18 F) Karl Oskar August Freiherr Grote, born 15 September 1865 at Nienburg a.d.W. He commanded the regiment from 22 Jan 1918 - 26 Jul 1918 moving on to command the 73. Infanterie-Brigade. He died on 20 December 1953 as a Generalmajor a.D. He was a battalion commander in I.R. 72 in 1914.

Regards

Glenn

[webr55]

This is a truly fascinating thread!

Chris

[areim]

Gentlemen,

i am deeply sorry for not continuing this thread as promised back in 2007, but the real live kept me from from doing so. But now i have some time for the really important matters and I will continue posting the remaining docs. I hope they are still of interest.

The next document :

Permission to wear wings and dagger:

[areim]

Frontkämpferbescheinigung:

[areim]

This is the only medal from my great Grandfather remaining in my posession:

Spanish Miliary Crosss of Merit 2. class

[ostprussenmann_new]

This is both a great story and sad one. I will keep on the look out for the ribbon bars. I hope that one day your are reconnected with your ancestors items.

ostprussenmann

[areim]

The document for this medal:

[areim]

It seems that it was not very common for a German officer to wear a spanish medal, because a lot of paperwork went prior to that:

[areim]

and some more paperwork:

Translation in German of Spanish document