On The Shoulders Of Giants

[Guest Rick Research]

Thanks to the enormous generosity of Eric's widow, the dedication of our own Jeff Floyd-- and the personal intervention of two fine (but shy) fellow GMIC members I have been designated as The Keeper of the Ludvigsen library. Words cannot express my gratitude, but perhaps the coming decades of sharing--as Eric Ludvigsen, George Seymour, and Neal O'Connor all shared their knowledge and reference sources with fellow collectors (like a very young me) across Planet Earth can continue their legacy.

Among the TREASURES of data which have been passed to me are Eric's monumental typed statistical studies of Imperial German awards. Work which I was aware of solely from a xeroxed copy of PRUSSIAN awards that came to me from my guru George's reference library. To my amazement, there are two manuscript binders full of OTHER studies--

the only existing copy of decades of work.

Here are the contents-- listed far more briefly than the 150 or so pages actually are:

[Guest Rick Research]

[Guest Rick Research]

[Guest Rick Research]

For those of you who have asked me, over the last several years, how many RAO4s on "white black" ribbons without swords, or MEZ2s were awarded for 1864 or 1866, or totals of this or that variety of Prussian award, this is where such information has come from.

Here is a sample page from the original, showing annual numbers of every variety of the Prussian General Decoration in Silver medal:

Eric went through over a century of awards rolls and lists, and hunted through a breadth of old period references unavailable to collectors of our and future generations, to GET these sorts of figures.

One by one. Into the millions of awards.

This lifetime of work simply should not remain as a single typed copy in my hands. It should be published and shared with other collectors. The prospect of retyping it into computer columns on pages that require weird changeable columns daunts me. What I would like to do-- after

1) asking Mrs. Ludvigsen's permission

2) seeing whether Paul can indeed get these printed in as excellent a way as his scanned Rank List and the Hildebrand "Kriegsmarine" volume

3) seeing what public reaction is here for possible number of copies to print (guesstimating in the $20-25 cost range)

is ask you folks if you think, like me, that having this printed as a facsimile manuscript-- just exactly as Eric typed it (corrected typos and all) himself would be as pleasing to you as the thought is to me. THAT will show the actual human scale of the LABOUR involved in producing what becomes--afterwards-- "instant answers."

There was NOTHING quick, or easy, about any of this. Eric spent DECADES amassing the references required to produce this work, and years counting statistics to be typed out. Just TRY to imagine finding, buying, and working through over 100 years of period sources and then counting millions of awards one at a time to produce a statistical tally by year after year after decade that is not available anywhere else on earth.

[Ed_Haynes]

Even someone "outside The Club" would be interested in this!!

And in the days before Excel!!

Edited April 22, 2009 by Ed_Haynes

[Paul R]

I saw a roster for the Prussian Lifesaving Medal!? We can get an accurate head count from that!!!!

[Guest Rick Research]

Numbers, yes. Names (with exceptions noted)-- no. For that, the actual Orders List and so on have to be consulted. Eric was interested in statistical totals and annual awards, charting--and I mean literally--charts are included--patterns of peaks and droughts in the various awards over time. Note, as the example shown above-- the dramatic increase in General Decoration medals from the late 1890s up to the Great War. Since those were fairly automatic civil service long service awards, an indication of the rise of the Prussian bureaucracy is evident.

Without being able to see ANNUAL figures, what use is a one line Grand Total? :catjava:

[eitze]

Hi Rick,

as you can imagine, I am greatly interested in the WALDECK Military Merit Cross lists

But I wouldn`t wait until a big book is printed, in which most of the other data has no benefit for me.

So I would like to ask you, if I could get a copy or a scan of the mentioned pages.

And of course - I am willing to pay for it and your work !!!

Thank you

eitze

[christerd]

:jumping:

Speachless ....... my mouth is forming a big O and yes I want to buy copies if they will be available

Amazing

Christer

Edited April 23, 2009 by christerd

[Paul C]

As Rick mentioned this is Eric's lifes work. I have seen it and it is an incredible amount of data and information. If we published it would probable be in in about 8x10 size and in paperback with a nice glossy cover. The main question, as Rick states is, is there enough interest in this data to justify publication.

[Deruelle]

Great news, of course it will interrest serious collectors

Christophe

[Stogieman]

It's not an incredible amount of work... it's an opus with a total of dozens of boxes of notes and records, carefully maintained and nourished over the decades. Awe-inspiring would be more accurate.

The number of people involved in the actual facts, figures and statistics today is rather dismal. There are the keepers of the flame.... Rick Research, Daniel krause, Paul Chepurko.... but not many others.

[Komtur]

... The main question, as Rick states is, is there enough interest in this data to justify publication.

Of course I am interested too, but the question above is not easy to answer.

As far as I know, the experience with the Lundstr?m/Krause publications are not as good as it was hoped before. It can make a difference, that in the case of Eric Ludvigsens work we have informations of different German states, what could bring a wider interest.

To reduce the financial risk of the editor, it should be the cheapest way of edition. I believe none of us want a luxury edition for the library - we only want to have the numbers.

Thanks Rick for the willingness to share this treasure with us

Kind regards, Komtur.

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes, I am thinking paperback too. Paul's reprints are SUPERB quality, with soft covers. :beer:

[saschaw]

Not much Baden in this, but interrested though. One for me.

:rolleyes:

[Ed_Haynes]

There would certainly be an interest among OMSA members, a society which holds Eric in the respect he deserves.

[W McSwiggan]

Having seen these treasures first hand ? I would love to own something containing this information.

Beyond that ? as discussed with Rick ? my first concern is the preservation of this ?one-of-a-kind? information!

Photocopy, scan, PDF whatever ? the best safeguard is having multiple copies!

Then ? allowing the rest of the world to obtain copies becomes prime. I personally find the ?pen & ink? changes rendered in Eric?s own hand to be very special and worthy of preservation. I would gladly manually photocopy the whole lot by hand to obtain a set!

[Ed_Haynes]

It would be as easy (actually, easier) to scan this material as a PDF as to photocopy it.

[Guest Rick Research]

Am scanning it to distribute among the Gnomes to prevent God Forbid Total Loss.

A little demographic study (have obscured some Still Secret Stuff which will also cause MUCH when the Lippe Detmold Rolls are published ):

This is typical of the sort of detailed focus that Eric put into his research. Answers to questions nobody else could answer.... :catjava:

[Guest Rick Research]

Spoke with Mrs L today and have received blessing to share Eric's work with the collecting world. Now it comes down to Paul's technical skills and whether the expense of printing can break even.

Sample graph:

For those of us who have always wondered about exactly what sorts of spikes and valleys in numbers of awards there actually were-- here it is. The initial spike in Crown 4s was obviously the result of awards with swords for the wars of 1864 and 1866-- but the mid-1870s HUGE jump in that class certainly surprised me. At that period, Crown 4s were often bestowed as followups to recipients of the Red Eagle Order 4-- the exact OPPOSITE of what the normal "track" was later. And I would have said--having never had sources that far back-- that it wasn't until 1900 or so that Crown 4s became common/devalued by Wilhelm II.

New and surprising data on a whole range of awards, eh? :catjava:

[W McSwiggan]

Knew that but... this data is so valuable that I'd take rolls of quarters to the local library to copy if that's what it took. Clearly scanning into PDF is superior if one owns the necessary equipment.

It would be as easy (actually, easier) to scan this material as a PDF as to photocopy it.

[W McSwiggan]

This stuff is simply magnificent!

[Guest Rick Research]

119 pages of non-Prussian material, 118 Prussian pages and 5 Prussian charts like the one shown. :speechless1:

[Ulsterman]

Thank God!!

A lifetimes' work well done. The book is wonderful and useful beyond measure.

Well done Rick!

Chris Boonzaier wrote that he served the muse Clio. I thought of that quote last Monday.

This is a fantastic work of historical analysis that will reshape how everyone in our "club" views these awards (and for those interested in these baubles as measures of cultural, political and social power as well as achievement) it will change in some slight but important ways the way the German imperial military was comprised.

Bravo and Hurrah!

A three cat salute!

:Cat-Scratch:

If I can be of any assistance (to paraphrase the late, great Warren Zevon): 'lawyers, guns money'...let me know.

[Guest Rick Research]

Cover design?

In case anyone ever wondered how many Red Eagle Orders 3rd Class with Bow had "70" jubilee buttons-- the answer was 3. And the year each was bestowed

et cetera

et cetera

etc

can be found in Eric's having sorted out of a century of the Prussian Orders Lists.

That sort of detail goes beyond "mere totals" to knowing where-- and when--to find NAMES. Numbers folk should be happy... names folk should be happy at having places to search dramatically focussed. :catjava: