A Württemberg-Baden Super Hero "Leutnant" Medal Bar ?

[Guest Rick Research]

This medal bar also passed through with the Traveling Museum and is shared for your enjoyment and with the hope that it can be identified. My Württemberg sources are not up to this!

Unlikely as the combination seems, in my paws it passed every test of consistent materials and construction. With the exception of the Württemberg WilhelmskreuzX which has been swapped out for a Prussian Crown Order 4 but other than that...

The Wtbg/Bdn pairing would seem to indicate someone from Inf Rgt 126. The medals (from BOTH! ) and Orders indicate somebody who was at NCO level during the war, and commissioned as a Leutnant-level. The Charlotte Cross and the wrongly replaced Wilhelms might hint at an Etappen medical connection, though the other 5 are as frontline as can be.

[TS Allen]

Hello

That is one of the most beautiful medal bars I've ever seen! Sometime in the last ninety years medals just loss some element of workmanship.

Just a thought, though, One Year Volunteers were enlisted men who could expect promotion to officer rank. I would think that if a young German man from a middle class family enlisted in the Army in 1914 to do a year of service with the standard OYV expectation that he leave the active service to serve several years in the reserves, it would make sense for him to be at the front or otherwise too occupied to enter the reserves as an officer in 1915. The reservists were largely called up, few people were leaving the service, and thus it would seem plausible that an OYV would have been stuck in the army for just a bit longer, where there is greater need for him.

Then, later in the war, the bureaucrats come to their senses about this young man, realize that his social standing and immense performance make this man suitable for a Lieutenantcy, and promote him either in the regulars or the reserves?

I only have a passing knowledge of medals and such, but, this seems plausible to me based on my knowledge of pre-war conscription practices. I have no idea if all of this fits in with the promotion practices, which are another beast, although I'd love to know!

~TS

[Guest Rick Research]

Yup, no higher than a mid-war Leutnant or Assistenzarzt, frontline and rear area-- SEVEN decorations on the medal bar--and surely there was an EK1 underneath, too?

I should also point out that the mounting precedence of the Friedrich Order ahead of the Silver Military Medal Medal is correct for those two grades. A Gold MMM would have outranked the WF3bX.

If there was no Charlotte Cross, I'd have been tempted into thinking "aviation" from this array... but surely not.

I tried matching up Wilhelmskreuz Xs with BZ3bXs but couldn't find a solid suspect from that duo. It's only "easy" AFTERWARDS! :cheeky:

[saschaw]

Great bar!

Is the Baden merit medal made of silver or iron, bronze, zink... ?

[Guest Rick Research]

I don't remember. Silver, I think. If it had NOT been, I'd have been more dubious about a late-war enlisted medal with the Zähringen too.

Traveling Museum things... PASS THROUGH here. Their time on the Epson Altar is short. Often, there is drinking and cigar smoking and socializing going on in the other wing of the Schloss while I am hurriedly slaving over the scanner. Being a High Priest of Epson involves many personal sacrifices, you know.

[Wild Card]

Hi Rick Research,

A question - If this bar has an “Etappen medical connection” or belonged to an Assistenzarzt,

is the black on white Iron Cross ribbon correct?

Echoing T S Allen’s comment, “That is one of the most beautiful medal bars I've ever seen!”,

I must say that it certainly is colorful.

Thanks for sharing,

Wild Card

[Guest Rick Research]

Sure-- a mix of frontline and rear area service-- MASSIVE quantity of awards for as junior an officer as it was possible to be.