General d. Inf. Friedrich Olbricht

[webr55]

Gentlemen,

I found this photo of General der Infanterie Friedrich Olbricht (1888-1944), one of the central figures involved in the plot to kill Hitler. The photo shows him in 1942, on the occasion of his daughter's marriage.

Now I was very surprised to see Olbricht wearing so many foreign breast star awards (I count at least 4, if not 5). He must have been the highest decorated resistance fighter! Does anyone know which awards he got?

Chris

Edited November 11, 2017 by webr55

[Dave Danner]

Gentlemen,

I found this photo of General der Infanterie Friedrich Olbricht (1888-1944), one of the central figures involved in the plot to kill Hitler. The photo shows him in 1942, on the occasion of his daughter's marriage.

Now I was very surprised to see Olbricht wearing so many foreign breast star awards (I count at least 4, if not 5). He must have been the highest decorated resistance fighter! Does anyone know which awards he got?

Chris

Most awards and most highly decorated are not the same thing. However, among the core conspirators, he was probably the most highly decorated. If you count Erwin Rommel, though, he would be much more highly decorated.

Olbricht was one of the limited number of recipients of the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes and one of the highest Imperial German military awards - in his case, the Military St. Henry Order of Saxony. Rommel had the RK and two of the highest Imperial awards, the Prussian Pour le Merite and the W?rttemberg Military Merit Order.

Alexander von Falkenhausen, another person close to the conspirators, has the Pour le Merite but no RK. Hans Oster, a core conspirator, had the Military St. Henry Order but no RK.

Olbricht's medal bar shows the EK2 1914 with 1939 Spange, the "Saxon trio" (MSHO, Merit Order and Albrecht Order) with another award mixed in in third place (possibly the 1939 KVK2x), the Ehrenkreuz f?r Frontk?mpfer, two Dienstauszeichnungen, and some other awards, including a Spanish order at the end.

The breast stars appear to be a mix of Romanian, Spanish and Italian.

[Dave Danner]

Another photo of Olbricht:

[webr55]

Yes, of course others had the Swords, Diamonds, PLM... But the sheer amount of sheet on his uniform got me carried away!

[Dave Danner]

Add Bulgarian.

One of the breast stars looks like it might be the National Order for Military Merit. Also, the medal at the end of the medal bar may not be a Spanish MMO, but a Bulgarian Order of St. Alexander. It's hard to tell.