The Gefreiter With A KO3-- Rifleman, Hospital Clerk

[Guest Rick Research]

Occasionally a German career turns up so completely bizarre that only the documentation PROVING it can suffice. Today's Traveling Museum brought in a neatly sewn together bunch of documents which used the large four page (back 2 blank) Urkunden formats as covers for the paperwork inside.

Let us, however, explore this amazingly peculiar career in chronological order.

1st up-- the award document for an 1866 K?niggratz Campaign Cross:

Gefreiter Karl Ernst Rudolph David of 2./ Garde Sch?tzen Bn received this from the hands of his brand new CO, then-Major Hugo von Besser (Oberst aD 1826-1899)

[Guest Rick Research]

The next oddity is that having been very much a combatant in 1866, Gefreiter David found himself a noncombatant in the field in 1870-71--

1870-71 Campaign Medal in Steel on Noncombatant Ribbon for noncombatants who served in France. As Gefreiter Carl Ernst Rudolph David, Rendant 2. Feldlazarett 13. Army Corps. Dated 18 October 1871 and signed by von (Abbrenetz?) CO of Landwehr Inf Rgt 24 Brandenburg a/Havel.

This is the most insane of Prussian ribbons since the Noncombatant Medal on Noncombatant ribbon was given to medical and administrative personnel IN THE FIELD who served under peril of the enemy's gunbs... while stay-at-homes got a Noncombatant Medal on the Combatants' ribbon.

[Guest Rick Research]

Our next step in this 19th century Twilight Zone career is his Reserve-Landwehr Decoration 2nd Class award document. All of these were scanned at the same proportion to each other, BTW.

Gefreiter Carl Ernst Rudolph David from Tietzow Kreis Osthavelland. Dated 18 October 1877 per authorization of the 12th Infantry Brigade of 14 June 1877 and signed/stamped by (OTL) ?von Mellenthin,? Commander of I. / LIR 24, Brandenburg a/Havel and holder of an 1870 EK1 despite the boring assignment. This brings up a number of unanswerable questions:

An LD2 was SUPPOSED to have been granted to ALL Prussian non-regular military personnel after taking part in a war 'or the equivalent" OR what usually amounted to 12 years of boring peacetime service. David SHOULD have received this in 1866/67... or if he had been a REGULAR gefreiter... then why is he still listed as that rank in 1877?

One suspects he slipped through the cracks and this was a VERY late, delayed award.

And here is what this little beast looked like up to 1913 (not from this papers-only group, just as illustration)--

[Guest Rick Research]

Time passes. 1877 to 1892. A mere 15 years... from a sometimes fighter/sometimes writer Gefreiter to recipient of the Red Eagle Order 4th Class (Do NOT receive a General Decoration Medal! Do NOT receive a Crown Order 4! Proceed DIRECTLY to a "Major's" Red Eagle 4! )

Red Eagle Order 4th Class signed ?von Rauch? as Stadtverordneten Vorsteher & Rentmeister Carl Ernst Rudolph David in Nauen, 19 September 1892.

Hmmm.

[Guest Rick Research]

As a veteran of the wars of 1866 and 1870/71, David receives the Kaiser Wilhelm I Centenary Medal, in typically delayed fashion for civilians--

1897 Wilhelm I Centenary Medal award document signed by Reg. assessor ?Frh von Spitzenberg? as Rentmeister Karl Ernst Rudolph David in Nauen on 23 February 1898. Trimmed.

[Guest Rick Research]

MUCH time passes. Now it is 1905... and what would SEEM to be the END of an odd but unexpectedly lofty glass ceilinged career.

Prussian Red Cross Medal 3rd Class signed ?Prinz Solms-Horstmar,? as Stadtverordnetenvorsteher & Rentmeister Carl Ernst Rudolf David in Nauen.

His 1908/09 Orders Almanac entry simply lists names, same occupation, and his RAO4 and PrRKM3 as awards:

Note the all-purpose German civil service designator "Rechnungsrat" used to indicate a bit extra salary-wise in what was normally as far as one could go.

1908....

[Guest Rick Research]

1908... 42 years after beating the snot out of the Austrians... ending the Holy Roman Empire... laying the stage for what would become the Second of Three Reichs north of the Alps...

Decided to see if he was still hanging on in the 1913 Prussian Hof- und-Staatshandbuch that our Paul C found...

Ayuh.

But wait one goldurn minute! That must be some OTHER David! What would our Rentmeister from Nauen be doing as Chief of the Administrative Officials of the Reichs House of Lords (Herrenhaus) in Berlin????

Except it WAS him.

They who are Wise In The Way of Prussian gazetting of awards tell me that THIS David-- received a Crown Order 3rd Class 10 December 1908 (Ordensliste 1905 Nachtrag 4 page 172) as Rechnungsrat & Rentmeister aD Carl Ernst Rudolf David in Nauen Kreis Osthavelland. :jumping:

[Guest Rick Research]

And there he STILL was in 1918-- after at least 53 years of toil

with the addition of a Prussian Red Cross Medal 2nd Class and Saxon Albert Order-Knight 1st Class with Crown.

A veritable "Oberstleutnant" of civil service status...

without a college degree...

Up From The Ranks at the very heart of Prussian feudal privilege.

Sometimes,

truth is stranger than fiction.

:cheers:

[HeikoGrusdat]

...and makes a great story !!!! Thanks Rick for another funny , unbelievable and absolutely stunning history lesson :beer:

[christerd]

:love:

Amazing story and of course amazing work to get the facts behind it.

Thanks Christer