W McSwiggan Posted April 14, 2007 Share Posted April 14, 2007 (edited) As I understand it ? the following are the awards that Baden authorized for enlisted men during WWI in their order of precedence.Golden Merit Medal of the Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order ? none actually awarded.Silver Merit Medal of the Military Karl Friedrich Merit Order - ~1,200Merit Cross of the Order of the Z?hringen Lion on the ribbon of the Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order ? (restricted to high ranking noncomissioned officers hence relatively small number of awards ? under 1,000).Golden Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order ? none awarded.Small Golden Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order ? ~400Silver Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order ? over 100,000.Now for the obvious question ? why more awards of the highest award used (SVM-MKFVO) than the lower ranked Small Gold merit medal? Was it quirkiness or the ?G? word or what? Edited April 14, 2007 by W McSwiggan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rick Research Posted April 14, 2007 Share Posted April 14, 2007 I've never seen any official explanation for why they chose to go with those awards.Nobody seems to have anticipated that the war would last more than a few months, and none of the OTHER states restricted gold in 1914, so premonitions of shortages and war economy don't seem to apply. Nor does Baden's selection seem as neat and tidy as Prussia's deciding to go with the Iron Cross (major wars against France) and drop the Military Decorations awarded for less important campaigns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saschaw Posted April 14, 2007 Share Posted April 14, 2007 The Small Golden Merit Medals might have been given by rank, or as a second award of the Silver Merit medal. I'm not sure, but my father has a group of those and as well a medal bar, both with Small Golden and(!) Silver Merit medal, which indicates it was given as an award for IInd act of bravery/merit. The Z?hringer merit cross on Karl Friedrich ribbon was give by rank, only to highest NCOs and similar. 556 of these were awarded from 1915 to 1918. I've got a document dated to 9. November 1918, which is, as far as I know (Rick, do you know something that's later?) the last award day for Baden monarchy awards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rick Research Posted April 14, 2007 Share Posted April 14, 2007 Unfortunately the Verdienstkreuz awards are NOT on the Z?hringen Lion Rolls I've got. And those are SO bad and so tiny that I cannot read a day or month on the entire last page of 1918 awards.The final Z?hringen Lion ever awarded was a BZ3bX to Leutnant dR Erich Lutter on the staff of 28. Res Div. Baden's military Archive is apparently intact. I think sommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmebody local (hint hint ) needs to go see things there "live" and see about getting more and better Rolls. From what I have, there are CITATIONS for all the MKFVO 1914-18 awards for instance. That would make a nice little book all by itself. The rolls for the MKFVO and its Silver Medal are nice clear neatly written LARGE lists, so I would hope that any for the gold medals would be the same. Only the OZL Roll seems to be wretchedly DUMB. (More Work For Other People, that's my motto!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W McSwiggan Posted April 15, 2007 Author Share Posted April 15, 2007 Looks like all the votes are in and quirkiness wins. Is anyone surprised? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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