An Impossible Medal Bar?!

[medalnet]

[Guest Rick Research]

I agree!!!

This bar is impossible! Note the Red Eagle peacetime class given to full Colonels? yet the wartime Orders with Xs given to Majors? and the lack of any military long service award. A ridiculous combination? couldn?t possibly be real ?

which belonged to

charakterisiert Oberstleutnant iG aD Erhard Eduard Deutelmoser.

[medalnet]

Is this the fastest ever

How can this be?

[Guest Rick Research]

First let us consider the MILITARY career of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff, Retired Deutelmoser, born in Iserlohn 22 June 1873.

Second-Lieutenant 20.05.93 C7c in Inf Rgt 53

Oberleutnant 12.09.02 R3r and detached to the Great General Staff

Hauptmann iG 21.05.06 C4c but assigned to Inf Rgt 69 for ?ticket punching? troop unit experience

Major iG 19.11.12 Cc in the Prussian War Ministry?s Ministerial Section of the Central Department

So far, so good. Here he is from the 1914 Prussian Army Rank List, showing the assignment above, as well as Prussian Red Eagle Order 4th Class and Brunswick House Order of Henry the Lion 3a both awarded between the 1913 and 1914 editions of the Rank Lists:

[Guest Rick Research]

And here he is in the Honor Rank List:

Ayuh. Retired as Lieutenant Colonel?sure seems to denote a sluggard? should have retired as a char. Oberst after the war. Oh well, he must never have gotten out of that office in Berlin, shuffling papers, tch.

[Guest Rick Research]

Uh? no. It comes down to having Arcane & Obscure Reference Sources. You see, the Guild of Research Gnomes has collective access to more? unusual reference sources.

Smack dab in the middle of the war, you see, Major iG Deutelmoser decided that Prussia?s Great General Staff was not the life for him. War Ministry work? bored him. And so? ( thanks to Glenn?s arduous labours in subterranean places, slaving over a hot scanner )...

on 28 October 1916 he upped and retired (as charakterisiert Oberstleutnant iG aD) and became...

[Guest Rick Research]

AN INSTANT "DIPLOMAT"! And why NOT start out at the top, without any of that annoying passing the two State Examinations stuff? Head of the line, brevet Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff, Retired in the middle of the Great War Deutelmoser! TWO pay grade bumps up for the new civilian! You are now, in one hop, a civil service "Colonel" instead of a General Staff Major!

And, sure, let?s just CONFIRM all of his German (no foreign awards shown for the duration) decorations TWICE?in the 1918 Handbooks for the

German Reich:

[cartoonman]

Might one also note that the Centenary Medal never goes in front of the BMVO???

---Cartoonman

[Guest Rick Research]

And Kingdom of Prussia:

But wait! That?s not all!

[Guest Rick Research]

(To digress: Medal bar is in PERFECT Reichs/Prussian precedence, as it should be.)

Here he was in the 1935 edition of "Wer Ist's?"--

No awards listed, aggh!

ALL that remains is finding verification of a 1918 award of the Red Eagle Order 3rd Class (on bow) replacing his Red Eagle 4-- in 1918. As a civil srvice "Colonel," he had LEAPED right over Lieutenant Colonel status, so a normal Crown Order 3 would not have been appropriate...

not that there is ANYTHING "normal" about this

impossible medal bar.

[Ulsterman]

Good Lord.

I think Andreas owes you two chappies a beer or two!

Incredible career ("old Bavarian farming family')....and research too. :cheers:

Edited March 18, 2009 by Ulsterman

[Paul C]

darn straight on the beer. It was a joint effort and I may know where there is a pic of the guy!

[Ulsterman]

several beers then-

picture? :jumping:

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes indeed. Lots of work-- and of course would have fallen down completely without the weirdly obscure reference sources laboriously scanned by Glenn and Paul without which we'd have the Rank Lists and Honor Rank List-- and NO CLUE WHATSOEVER.

When Paul spotted this at S.O.S. we both rejected it out of hand-- without LOOKING for it. It is THAT "inexplicably" bizarre. Luckily Daniel pointed out that the Gnome Collective already HAD him from the rest of his awards.

Kudos all around, my Fellow Delvers In Damp Dark Places! :cheers:

[medalnet]

Guys, great work, this is what makes this hobby so exciting and amazing.

Next round is on me

[webr55]

Truly amazing work again, Rick!

[Riley1965]

Rick,

Which medal is the Crown Order 3 ?

Doc

[Guest Rick Research]

He didn't GET one, Doc. He skipped from a Red Eagle 4 (lucky Captains and all Majors routinely) OVER a Crown 3 which in peacetime he WOULD have gotten routinely as a Lieutenant Colonel. IF he had transferred over at the same pay grade he left the military in, that is what he WOULD have received-- but he was "bumped" TWO pay grades, making him a civil service "Colonel" without ever having been a "real" Lieutenant Colonel!

Normally, to find a Red Eagle 3rd Class with bow on a medal bar like this WITHOUT a Crown Order 3 (none here) that indicates that under the normal sequence of awards a Crown 3 must have been replaced by a Crown 2nd around the neck (Major General) leaving the Red Eagle 3 with Bow behind. (And how could he have been a Major General when he was a Major?... Gnome Brain Lockdown. )

I can't think of another occasion where a Red Eagle 3 on bow was the next award after a 4th Class.

Normal sequence was

Red Eagle 4, Crown 3, Red Eagle 3 on bow replacing the 4, Crown 2 replacing the 3, Red Eagle 2 with Oakleaves replacing THAT 3 and so on by rank.

This medal bar is so completely, impossibly abnormal, that only the ability to identify its original Very Weird owner prevents it from being rejected

my initial reaction

as a Frankenstein bar.

[RAO]

Here is a small contribution to this work.

Deutelmoser on 02.10.1918 in the Staatsanzeiger with the awarding RAO3Sch gelistet.

@medalnet

One beer also for me. ;o)

Regards Mike

[Guest Rick Research]

HURRAH !!!!!!

:cheers:

[Claudio]

Wow! That's what I call a great joint research effort... I am really speachless...

Andreas: I guess you're quite an happy camper right now...

[medalnet]

[Claudio]

Ich h?tte mir denken k?nnen, dass es eine Godet-Spange war... So well put together and those tightly and perfectly folded ribbons... Great bar!

Thanks for showing the back... I like backs... only of medal bars and, of course of women! ;-)

Ciao,

Claudio

Edited March 19, 2009 by Claudio

[Riley1965]

Here is a small contribution to this work.

Deutelmoser on 02.10.1918 in the Staatsanzeiger with the awarding RAO3Sch gelistet.

@medalnet

One beer also for me. ;o)

Regards Mike

What does this mean?

Doc

[Claudio]

RAO3Sch

reads

Roter Adler Orden 3. Klasse mit Schleife

see also Andrea's very informative website under the link http://www.medalnet.net/Rote_Adler_3.htm

It was only to confirm that that officer really got the above-mentioned rarely awarded order (especially in a group like this, for an officer like Deutelmoser), which is quite extraordinary, I must say.

Edited March 19, 2009 by Claudio