As Altenburg As It Gets: A Super Minis Group

[Guest Rick Research]

One of today's contributions from the Traveling Museum (living dangerously between the Great Anecdotal Global Warming Storms of December 2008 ) is this magnificent Saxe-Altenburg chain to a public employee:

flipped over

I assumed this one would be easily identifiable, given the late Erhard Roth's work on the pre-war Altenburg Rolls. What I hadn't anticipated was the obfuscation caused by some Rolls reporting ONLY Rufnamen while others gave ALL names-- leading to some confusion even with jobs and residences listed.

Working from the pierced and enamelled Dienstauszeicgnung f?r Hof- und Staatsbeamte, Geistliche, und Lehrer,

I checked the 447 Christmas Eve annual recipients 1913-17 of the Service Decoration for Court and State Emploees, Clergy, and Teachers against recipients of Altenburg Silver Merit Cross of the Ernestine House Order and the Duke Ernst Medal with "1914" bar. Out of 445 male recipients, can reduce the Suspect List to 7---

Chain button marked ?Altenburg? over ?F. (maybe ?B.?) Eberhardt?

EH3bX (no match in Rolls--??? missing Meiningen 1916-18 or ? postwar or ? Rufname "issues")

EK2 1914

Saxe-Altenburg Bravery Medal

Saxe-Altenburg Duke Ernst Medal with bar ?1914?

EH4

Saxe-Altenburg Civil Service Decoration

Saxe-Altenburg 1903 Jubilee medal

Prussian Cross of the General Decoration

SA4

Prussian LD2 old style brooch/bar

These are the ONLY people who had the TRIO of EH4, Ernst ?1914? and the CivSvcDec without other Altenburg ribboned awards?

HEINER, Robert: EH4 (Altbg) 31.08.08 Finanzkontrolleur in Altenburg, Ernst Med ?1914? 01.07.17 Rechnungsrat in Altenburg, CivSvcDec 24.12.15 Rechnungsrat in Altenburg

HEYNER, Otto Friedrich: EH4 (Altbg) 16.09.06 Rektor in Ronneburg, Ernst Med ?1914? 01.01.18 the same (both with only ?Otto?), CivSvcDec 24.12.13 as Otto Friedrich, same job and residence

H?NIG, Julius Oswald: EH4 (Altbg) 31.08.17 as ?Oswald? only--Lehrer in Meuselwitz, Ernst Med ?1914? 01.01.18 as the same, CivSvcDec 24.12.15 as Julius Oswald, same job and residence

SCHMIDT, Emil: EH4 (Altbg) 18.03.10, Ernst Med ?1914? 01.07.17, and CivSvcDec 24.12.15 all as Kantor in Gro?r?da

SIELER, Albin: EH4 (Altbg) 31.08.08, Ernst Med ?1914? 01.02.17, and CivSvcDec 24.12.17 all as Dr., Rektor in Altenburg

VOIGT, Friedrich: EH4 (Altbg) 24.12.15, Ernst Med ?1914? 01.10.18, and CivSvcDec 24.12.13 all as varying forms of Gymnasial Turn- und- Zeichenlehrer in Eisenberg

And possibly

K?HNICKE, Hermann: EH4 (Altbg) 16.09.05 as Pastor in Meuselwitz but Ernst Med ?1914? 01.10.17 as Bezirks Schulinspektor in Eisenberg and CivSvcDec 24.12.14 as the same so not sure if there were TWO entirely different men with the same name or not.

There is some confusion over Christian names in the varying Altenburg Rolls, with some using multiple given names and others only the ?Rufname.? This is where having an occupation and residence helps sort all of them out EXCEPT for K?hnicke, who remains a doubtful prospect.

There does not seem to be any particularly ?likely? candidate for the EH3bX. Aside from discrepancies in given names, since ALL of these people had 25 years of service when they received their Christmas Eve CivSvcDecs annually, they would seem unlikely at age 45-ish to have JUST made Leutnants of the Reserve DURING the war.

This will come down to verifying the Prussian Cross of the General Decoration AND Saxon Albert Order Merit Cross (SA4) to ONE of the above ?suspects.?

If anyone CAN find a Prussian Cross of the General Decoration or the Albert Merit Cross to one of the suspects above, or has a 1914-ish Saxe-Altenburg Court and State Handbook, assistaance in narrowing this suepct list would be MUCH appreciated.

[VtwinVince]

Absolutely stunning Kettchen, what more can you say?

[Guest Rick Research]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhkay. Elephants and Research Gnomes nevvvvvvvvvvvver forget. New... DIFFERENT... and DEFINITIVE data is now in, as we add period reference sources:

[Guest Rick Research]

(Can't get any smilies to work... I've been away too long?)

1) Saxe Ernestine House Order-Knight 2nd with Swords (EH3bX) not in correct precedence--?? Post-war)

2) Prussian Iron Cross 2nd Class (EK2) 1914

3) Saxe-Altenburg Bravery Medal (AT: 15,788 awarded)

4) Saxe-Altenburg Duke Ernst Medal with bar 1914 (HSAE14: 1,086 awarded -381 to women = 705 to men)

5) EH4 (836 awarded including non-natives etc81 during the World War etc)

6) Saxe-Altenburg Civil Service Decoration 1913-1917 (444 male & 3 female recipients)

7) Saxe-Altenburg 1903 Jubilee Medal (2,448 awarded)

8) Prussian Cross of the General Decoration (PrKrzAEz: 13,000 plus awarded 1900 on)

9) Saxon Albert Order-Merit Cross (SA4: 9,772 total awarded 1876-1918 most obviously to Saxons)

10) Prussian LD2 old style brooch/bar pre-1913

[Guest Rick Research]

The solution to recovering the identity of this Altenburg career civil servant/military reservist is, as always, in the COMBINATION of awards. Obviously the place to start is with the easiest one, because of the fewest recipients. Altenburg government employees received their CivSvcDec on Christmas Eve in the year they completed 25 years service. But since virtually all of them also received a 1903 Jubilee Medal, and generous House Order promotions over time, the NON-Altenburg awards are the key. Note however how FEW there were of awards commonly considered common.

We of the Research Gnome Community are accustomed to arcane and obscure awards abbreviations, but even those require knowledge of the DIFFERENT glyphs and abbreviations used in each of the Imperial German states. Consider this page explaining such entries in Sachsen-Altenburgs 1914 Staats-Handbuch:

(((Insert SAlt minis scan 02)))

Rather than endlessly typing out in full the names of German awards, we of the RGC use handy shorthand, based on the PRUSSIAN system of abbreviations, or in cases where cryptic glyphs like the above (remember: commonly used yet different in every state!!!) we improvise abbreviations. Over time, all this becomes intelligible. Really.

[Guest Rick Research]

We of the Research Gnome Community are accustomed to arcane and obscure awards abbreviations, but even those require knowledge of the DIFFERENT glyphs and abbreviations used in each of the Imperial German states. Consider this page explaining such entries in Sachsen-Altenburgs 1914 Staats-Handbuch:

Rather than endlessly typing out in full the names of German awards, we of the RGC use handy shorthand, based on the PRUSSIAN system of abbreviations, or in cases where cryptic glyphs like the above (remember: commonly used yet different in every state!!!) we improvise abbreviations. Over time, all this becomes intelligible. Really.

[Guest Rick Research]

Chancery Secretary Kurt Schack of the Standing Council for Grammar School Affairs is about as "un-celebrity" as anyone could imagine. And yet....