Hungary Post Your Hungarian Medal Bars

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

Things have been a little slow lately. Possibly due to summer holidays and lack of time to post. It was like that for me as I was away from Budapest for a month. Now that September is upon us the holiday season is over, time to post some of the goodies you acquired over the summer or if not that something for this thread. We have a long thread on individual awards and we have discussed nedal bars in some unrelated threads but I don't think we have done a thread specifically for the posting on medal bars so I am going to start one. Hunyadi is in the U.S. looking after some family business and no doubt he will add to the thread when he returns. Here is the only medal bar that I own at the moment. It is a long one and indicates lengthy service. The front view is a good example of Order of Precendence during the HUPR.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited September 11, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

The reverse of the bar. The ribbons can be slid onto the brass bar without undoing them as is necessary when putting a medal on a medal loop on a tunic.

[Ulsterman]

What sort of person wore that bar? A military officer?

I am surprised at the Labor Order at the front (is that a 1984 version?)... as I supposed that it was for civilians only.

[hunyadi]

I am convinced more and more that this is a Munkasor medal bar as they qualified for both the civilian labor awards as well as the military awards. As there is a 30 year medal I would rate that the silver labor medal was probably awarded in 1987-88 as a reward for the 30 years in the Munkasor in concurrence with the individuals retirement.

[Gordon Craig]

Charles,

Thanks for the response. A better job than I would have done.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Hauptmann]

Hi all,

Here's my contribution... only one I have so far.

[Hauptmann]

Dan

[Ulsterman]

...and quite a bar it it! I wish it were mine.

I wondered about the Munkasor thing-as I googled "munkasor" last month and found a whole series of snapshots of Munkasor officers saluting while the choir in the background gave the raised fist salute. They all had the Labour medal and what I thought were LS medals-and now CD's post confirms it. One of the present day Ministers apparently was a Munkasor officer.

[hunyadi]

Bar 1 - dont know about this one - looks like it could be a bottom bar for a general who had a much more impressive 'upper bar', a person with the most lack-lustre career, or a previous collector who found a way of storing his collection of service medals (I bought this just as it is)

[hunyadi]

Bar 2 - This looks like a typical bar for an Lt. Col who served the HUPR

[hunyadi]

Bar 3 - one of my most favorite of all - pictures will tell the reason why...

[hunyadi]

Bar 4 - really like this one too!

[Ulsterman]

Hmmm-this is why we need pictures of them being worn!

Is #4 bar there-a Munkasor medal with a red ribbon?

[hunyadi]

Hmmm-this is why we need pictures of them being worn!

Is #4 bar there-a Munkasor medal with a red ribbon?

The blue stripe is being coverd up by the preceeding ribbon...

[Ulsterman]

So #4 is a Munkasor officer type?

[hunyadi]

So #4 is a Munkasor officer type?

More than likely, but its impossible to say for certain. With the Order of Merit to the Socialist Nation at the front he was a high party member - one of the elite. Though I would have also expected to see the Jubilee Medal in there as well. The bar is not 'full' and still has some room for one more medal. Perhaps it fell off and was never replaced. Finding photos of medal bars in wear is a hard subject as they do exist and they were worn, only for really big events (or private affairs far from the propoganda cameras. I have seen one photo at a party function where Rakosi is wearing his medals - a man who was follwoed constantly by the propoganda machines and a man who liked to have his photo taken with important 'other' people...even if they wernt really in the room with him.) Anyhow - the ribbon bar was just the prefered method for about everything.

[hunyadi]

It was a great weekend to buy a medal bar... here is one of the more interesting bars as it is a pair! 13 in all and form the looks of it probably a Brig General who spaced his medals out for a nice 'top and bottom' bar. The photos may not show it well, but the wear and 'dirt' of the medals convinces me that these have been together for a good time. (the 35 year, 30 year, Jubilee, and Gold Service are cleaner and 'newer' than the rest which look like they were worn a few times and the medals added as they became awarded at later dates in the career.) I have a nice Generals Tunic that has been negelected without a top and bottom bar...

[hunyadi]

another thing that I like about the bar is that the ribbons are not mounted incorrectly - they overlap the wrong way. Perhaps this was taste or perhaps it was just the way they ended up on the bar...

Edited October 6, 2007 by hunyadi

[hunyadi]

To begin a reference for 'medal bars in wear' here is a Munkasor tunic that I got a while ago - the bars are sewn down to the tunic, so its belived that this hung in the closet in this manner for several decades

[Ed_Haynes]

What else can I say:

[hunyadi]

a pretty common photo of Farkas in his dress uniform with his medal bar

[hunyadi]

These are from my own personal collection - once again - Munkasor. As I have been thinking about it and scanning these. I would assume that probably about 80% of the medal bars that come to market are probably Munkasor. These guys were the 'Weekend Warriors' and there is by far more of these photos in publications and in private that contain them wearing medal bars. They wore their bars in seemingly every event possible and therefor had more use of them that say thier military counterparts whom almost always appear in parade photos wearing only the ribbon bar. Just a random thought followed by a theory...

[hunyadi]

can we sing 'Ive got the Joy-Joy-Joy down in my heart! Where? Down in my heart!'

[hunyadi]

this is from January of 1974 (according to the scribble on the reverse) looks like an awards ceremony.

[Ulsterman]

Great snaps!

Interesting that the chap at the bottom handing out the awards has no centennial medal.

By the SUPERB Munkasor jacket-the Teachers' award really makes it and that double medal bar is FANTASTIC!!!

_A three jump salute!

Edited October 7, 2007 by Ulsterman