August Sch?fer from Detmold

[Solomon]

Hello Gentlemen,

I just got a new highlight, maybe some of you saw it on Ebay, divided into single auctions

?I bought the complete group, to keep it together:

The owner was

Friedrich August Christian Heinrich Sch?fer,

Bezirksfeldwebel by the Bezirkskomando M?nster

born in Detmold on February, 20th of 1885

1) his medalbar with

Iron Cross 2nd Class 1914

Lippe-Detmold war merit cross (combatants-ribbon)

Hanseatic cross Hamburg

Hindenburg-cross

Medal for long service 2nd class for 12 years (repaired)

Medal for Long service 3th class for 9 years

Lippe-Detmold silver merit medal of the Leopold-Order

Schaumburg-Lippe silver merit medal

Edited April 30, 2007 by Solomon

[Solomon]

2) Ribbon-bar with

Iron Cross 2nd Class 1914

War merit cross 2nd class 1939 with swords

Hanseatic cross Hamburg

Lippe-Detmold war merit cross (combatants-ribbon)

Schaumburg-Lippe silver merit medal (watch for the ribbon!!!! )

Hindenburg-cross

2 x Medal for long service WW 2 (The eagles are missing)

The ribbon for the Leopold-Order is missing, because he wasn?t allowed to wear it without the medal (->statutes).

But there is al litte mistake...the tailor put the wrong ribbon for the Schaumburg-Lippe merit medal on it

(he mounted the Lippe-Detmold merit medal ribbon ).

Edited April 30, 2007 by Solomon

[Solomon]

3) Bestallung ?Bezirksfeldwebel?

date: August, 4th 1911

signed by: Generalmajor Wagner (?)

[Solomon]

4) award-document for the silver merit medal Schaumburg-Lippe

date: August, 17th 1911

signed by: Freiherr von Feilitzsch

I don?t show the statutes and envelope for these documents, if needed I can also do.

But...what is this???

Do you remember? He was born in Detmold, but he got an award from Schaumburg-Lippe

(almost an political enemy of Lippe-Detmold) before he got something from Lippe-Detmold!

[Solomon]

5) award-document for the silver merit medal of the ?Leopoldorden?

date: August, 30th 1911

signed by: (Eduard) Pustekuchen (Geheimer Regierungsrat Detmold, highly decorated)

Ah...only 2 weeks later he got his Detmold-award....now he was political correct decorated

By the way...there were 331 awards of this medal...

[Solomon]

6) Letter for the award-document and statutes

signed by: (Eduard) Pustekuchen

[Solomon]

7) statutes for the ?Leopoldorden?

This is the version with its changes till 1911...

[Solomon]

8) Award-document for the long service medal 3th class for nine years

date: November, 30th 1912

signed by: ??? Oberleutnant

Please remember, on that date he was only 27 years old!!!

Edited April 30, 2007 by Solomon

[Solomon]

9)Award-document for the war merit cross Lippe-Detmold

date: November, 20th 1915

Ooooh...two bizarre things:

He got his war merit cross Lippe-Detmold before the IC 2nd class 1914 !!!!

And the type of document is new for me:

The seal at the bottom is not printed black (as it is on my other documents for this award)!

This must be a early type of the document...

[Solomon]

10) Bestallung Feldwebelleutnant

date: December, 20th 1915

signed by: Freiherr von Billisch (Generalgouverneur from Belgium)

A quite uncommon document from Belgium?never seen before?

[Solomon]

11) Award-document for the iron cross 2nd class 1914

date: December, 21th 1915

signed by: Generalleutnant Wemner

[Solomon]

Puuh...hard work to post all items....

Some (unimportant) documents are missing:

Hanseatic cross award-document

Long service medal 12 years award-document

And the award-documents for the WW2-awards

If you see one of them, please inform me, if possible...

I hope you like this rare and weird group...weird because of the awards from Schaumburg AND Detmold!

Greetings

Solomon

Edited April 30, 2007 by Solomon

[Gerd Becker]

What an amazing group, Solomon Thanks for sharing it with us.

Great job keeping the group together, congrats

[Guest Rick Research]

His Bezirksfeldwebel appointment was signed by later General der Infanterie Ernst Wagner (1854-1923)

His IX years Medal was signed by Oberstleutnant "Lindenburg," but I am not sure which of TWO that name and rank this one was.

The EK2 is signed by commander of the 7th W?rttemberg (!!!) Landwehr Division, Adolf von Wencher, who was the commander 6 April 1915 to 26 July 1917.

Nice nice group-- and a very good balance to the destroyed traceable Lippe medal bar we've just seen on German eBay.

[Solomon]

His Bezirksfeldwebel appointment was signed by later General der Infanterie Ernst Wagner (1854-1923)

His IX years Medal was signed by Oberstleutnant "Lindenburg," but I am not sure which of TWO that name and rank this one was.

The EK2 is signed by commander of the 7th W?rttemberg (!!!) Landwehr Division, Adolf von Wencher, who was the commander 6 April 1915 to 26 July 1917.

Thank you very much for the identification.

I added the information in my files.

Greetings

Solomon

[derGeneral]

Congratulations Solomon, great work with a fantastic group

[Glenn J]

Solomon,

the Generalgouverneur of Belgium was Generaloberst Moritz Freiherr v. Bissing.

The Lindenberg is the 1914 Bezirkskommandeur of Crefeld - char Oberst (22.3.14) Lindenberg. The former commander of I./I.R. 173, he commanded Bezirkskommando M?nster from 13 September 1912 to 17 February 1914.

Regards

Glenn

[joemiller]

This is a great thread. But could one of you explain the significance of the bezirksfeldwebel rank? How is it different from a feldwebel. I learn something new everytime I read a thread on the site.

[Glenn J]

Joe,

the Bezirksfeldwbel was the designation of the SNCO in each company sized recruiting area district within a battalion sized recruiting dustrict (Bezirkskommando). Depending on the geographical size of the Bezirkskommando, the actual number of company districts and therefore Bezirksfeldwebeln could vary but usually there were about four or five per Bezirkskommando.

The Bezirksfeldwebel was the main point of contact for all personnel subject to military service within his company sized recruiting area district and all requests for exemptions for reservist/Landwehr training exercise exemptions and notifications of changes of address etc, etc. were directed to him.

Regards

Glenn

[Guest Rick Research]

That is-- it was a POSITION but NOT a Rank. The Bezirksfeldwebel could have been an Unteroffizier. My "white-black" EK2 recipient, Sprungmann (search on that name should turn up various document threads) was this position in 1918, but had only been called up into the army in 1914. He was not a career long service NCO, but apparently had superior administrative skills.