Heer Who is this general?

[HeikoGrusdat]

Does anybody know this 3.Reich era general? He has a nice medal bar with Austria and Japan at the end and a DSWA in the middle.... but after 33 it is not my time...picture is made in Holzminden.

thanks for all ideas...

Heiko

Edited September 24, 2009 by HeikoGrusdat

[HeikoGrusdat]

detail...

[Ulsterman]

Is that a NONCOM EK2? or do my eyes deceive me?

[HeikoGrusdat]

hmmmmm.... I am really not shure

[Guest Rick Research]

No, normal Iron Cross pair.

These are the impediments to an identification:

1) He is a RETIRED General(major?) from the "fore and aft" strips under his shoulder boards

2) The SW Africa Medal was NEVER listed in Prussian Rank Lists or the Reichsheer's

3) The Reichsheer lists do not show foreign awards except for 1914-18 from the Central Powers, so the Japanese award is also "invisible"

4) There is no GERMAN combination to sort him out. The pair of EKs and the ÖM3K is siomply not enough, with a Wound Badge

5) Although he doesn't look ancient, God alone knows WHEN he retired, to come back "mit der Uniform" and updated Wehrmacht long service awards. If he had the XXV (which is quite likely from the "invisible" 1897) this could be a circa 1940 photo of him in z.V. status

Generally, for a nameless identification, a combination which is "visible" must be present-- and that is not the case here.

[Ulsterman]

Hmmmmm...given the Centennial though-I'll wager 50:50 odds that the Japanese Order was pre- 1914 (and how many of those are there?) and with the Austrian Merit Order roll being worked upon, we know we have someone in the Reichsherr @ 1919-25 by the 25 year LS award?

That should narrow the field a bit, esp. since we know we are looking at a Major General zV.

[Claudio]

Interesting bar!

The last order looks like the Japanese order of the Golden Kite.... but I might be wrong!

ciao,

Claudio

[Guest Rick Research]

Actually it is a class (5th?) of the Sacred Treasure. BUT...

ALL of our collective intergalactic research work has been 1914+. Pre 1914... matches only arise in connection with something on Rolls 1914+...

nothing here from one of the Rolls we've been working on (1914+) = "invisible."

As far as any Reichsheer List shows, this group is: EK1, Wound Badge, ÖM3K. Period. Not knowing when he retired, the only path to a solution (and frankly, not worth my time for the results/effort/time) to hunt the guy down would be finding EVERY OFFICER with the "3" awards mentioned, eliminating all those who were not in service 22.03.97, and then tracking down each of those HOPING for a lone Japanese award to show up in the May 1914 Rank List.

It took several of us 2 days to find Oberstleutnant Stechow. It would involve the same effort on this-- with no guarantee that a match WOULD be found... if that is a 1920s Japanese award.

It ISN'T "easy" and the "hourly rate" is :speechless:

[Guest Rick Research]

Well, since it has been too COLD to do anything outside, I've spent time being the Inspector Javert of Nameless Photos--

and come up with a very good suspect indeed.

He was never a Wehrmacht General.

He never listed the Japanese Sacred Treasure.

But the one, the only Reichsheer officer POSSIBLE-- "EK1, XXV, VAbz, ÖM3K" who met criteria listed above for seniority was.....

Engelien's portrait (taken during the war, obviously) from a 1931 Reichsheer commanders album that Glenn found.

SecLt 18.08.94 G4g (1897 Medal, check)

Oberlt 27.01.04 Qq (Regimental Adjutant Inf Rgt 43 throughout Hottentot War: must be SWA-Steel)

Hptm 27.01.09 C7c (Inf Rgt 157 when the war started)

Maj 18.08.15 H2h

OTL 01.10.20 #11

Oberst circa 1925

and charakterisiert Generalmajor aD in 1927 as noted below photo (rank, check)

He died in 1940 (alive after October 1936) so apparently he is dressed up here as an early WW2 Generalmajor zV, insignia added to his old Reichsheer uniform-- and wearing a new cap. OR he has simply decided that (after October 1936) being retired with permission to wear the uniform of a Generalmajor meant he could just "modernize" everything-- because Keilig shows no WW2 duty for him at all.

So he is not a "Wehrmacht" General at all and...

what the HECK he is doing with a Japanese Order not shown anywhere is a mystery. Post-WW1?

So: just a few days of tenacious prsuit of a General in the wrong uniform wearing invisible awards-- all in a week's work for a Research Cyborg. :whistle:

[HeikoGrusdat]

:catjava: Man you ARE magic !!!! :beer:

[Ibrahim Ahmad]

Rick ,,, do u have a time traveling machine ??

That is just amazing work , with just a blurred image of a medal bar !!!

Well done my friend

[Guest Rick Research]

I have a time travel machine-- but it only works in "forward."

Decades of constant immersion in the subject. Hundreds of old books and other obscure sources to hand. Internet connection to the rest of the Research Cyborg Collective for mutual aid. All enormously time consuming-- which is why nobody could ever afford to pay me or my research comrades hourly rates.

What is the end result quote unquote worth?

Well, somebody long forgotten is remembered.

We are the Keepers Of Memory. Not QUITE as exciting as the Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission or the Stalinist Revival... but we do what we do.

Doesn't put food on MY table but it IS a very effective form of self-therapy without insurance and medication expenses. :whistle:

[AlifRafikKhan]

Amazing! At least in this kind of 'knowledge', I can say that you're 1 in million! :D