Bundesrepublik Dr Viktor von Zahn-Stranik

[Herr General]

I just bought a nice photo on ebay from the German Diplomat Dr Viktor von Zahn-Stranik. The seller told me that he had just sold al the awards from this man. Did anyone save the photo's?

Does anyone have more info on this man? Carrier? Awards?

I will post the photo asap

[Herr General]

Here's the photo.

Edited March 26, 2007 by Herr General

[Herr General]

I can't find any info on this man. Does anyone have a German "Who's Who" from the 60's?

[Jacky]

He appears to have a collection with a good number of decorations

[Herr General]

He received this award according to a document sold recently on ebay:

Das Grosse Verdienstkruiz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in 1963

[Herr General]

Nobody with info on this man?

[Herr General]

Here is the picture. Bigger scans will follow:

Just saw that I already posted the image. Sometimes I am ....

Edited March 31, 2007 by Herr General

[webr55]

The only info I can find is that he appears to have been a high ranking official in the German Foreign Office during the 1950s. At least Ministerialdirigent, maybe Staatssekret?r.

Regards

Chris

[Paul R]

I look forward to seeing the larger scans!

[Herr General]

Here's a larger scan!

[ukraus]

Hello Herr General, I think Dr. von Zahn-Stranik was a very distant relative of mine. I would be interested in exchanging information.

[Megan]

Quite an array there...

Neck badges: German Order of Merit - possibly Grand Merit Cross (Großes Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens) given the lack of a star from this order amidst the array (he may just have run out of space!) and the Italian Order of Merit.

Stars: Sweden Order of the Northern Star Commander 1st Class, Spain Order of Isabella the Catholic, Portugal Order of Christ, Portugal Order of Prince Henry the Navigator, the other one will have to wait until I am at home with my references!

Sash: Looks like Portugal Order of Prince Henry the Navigator.

Edited January 5, 2015 by Megan

[ukraus]

Recently I wrote that he was a distant relative, more exactly, the cousin of my grandmother. His father and my grandmothers father were brothers, out of a family of farmers in a German village of northern Bohemia. The oldest brother took a military career in the Austrian Army, where he was ennobled and changed his name from "Zahn" to "von Zahn, Edler von Lichtenhöhe". His son Victor went to an Austrian Diplomatic Academy which he finished after WWI. He worked as a diplomat for Ceko-Slovakia, probably until the German Annexion of 1938. During the war, he is said to have worked for the German War Administration in Belgium or the Netherlands. After WWII, he worked for the German Foreign Office as a negotiator of bi-laterial trade agreements. It seems that his main achievement was the first German-Soviet Trade Agreement. He had a wife, but no children, and died in 1973 near Munich. That's all our family knows about him, because there  was not much contact between the brothers and there descendants. But hopefully I'll soon know more when I saw his personal file at the foreign office in Berlin.

Unfortunately, our family has no pictures of him, and so I would be very glad if you could send my a copy or I high-quality scan of the photo you posted.