Austria-Hungary Austrian Freikorps Carinthian Cross

[Paul R]

I have just purchased this bar from Stogieman. My questions are?

What is the award criteria for this medal?

Was this medal discontinued upon the introduction of the Hindenburg Cross?

How many were issued?

If someone has a pic of this medal, please post it. I would also like to see any other medal or ribbon bars that carry this medal.

Paul

[Josef Rietveld]

Hi Paul, i'll try to give a little summary:

The Crosses were created by the local government of the province of Carinthia (Landesregierung) on the 4th of November 1919.

Classes:

- allgemeines K?rntner Kreuz f?r Verdienst (common cross for merit) - on a ribbon

- allgemeines K?rntner Kreuz f?r Tapferkeit (common cross for bravery) - on a ribbon

- besonderes K?rntner Kreuz f?r Verdienst (special cross for merit) - pin-back

- besonderes K?rntner Kreuz f?r Tapferkeit (special cross for bravery) - pin-back

The common cross for bravery was given to all members of a Volkswehr-Alarm- or Heimwehr-unit with a minimum of 28 days of membership who had taken active part on some battles. The cross were given for less than 28 days (or those who haven't seen any battles) when the perticular man was commander of a unit and/or was had received wounds by enemy-fire.

The special cross for bravery was given for outstanding acts of bravery and/or leading the troops - the winner must have received the common cross before!

The common cross for merit was given to all members of a Volkswehr-Alarm- or Heimwehr- unit with a minimum of 28 days membership but for non-combatants and for all other who had supported the fightings in any ways like work or goods or medical help or propaganda etc.

The special cross for merit was given or outstanding organising or supplying to non-combatants - the winners must have received the common cross before!

The winning of any cross for bravery excepted the award of any cross of merit!

The Austrians had about 200 killed and 800 wounded - the award postmortem was not allowed.

The cross itself was made of zinc with the inscription on the obverse: K?rntner Freiheitskampf 1918-1919 and in the case of the Bravery Medal F?r Tapferkeit on the reverse side. The ribbon was yellow-red-white. Like the Iron Cross, the General Cross was worn from a ribbon on the tunic front whereas the Special Cross was worn without a ribbon on the left breast. Carinthian Crosses remained the property of the awardee or his family on the death of the holder.

At last here to total numbers of awards:

common cross bravery - 12.932

common cross merit - 4.072

special cross bravery - 1.009

special cross merit - 241

regards

haynau

SOURCE:

http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/

Edited December 11, 2005 by haynau

[Josef Rietveld]

reverse Cross for bravery 2nd Class

haynau

[Paul R]

reverse Cross for bravery 2nd Class

haynau

Haynau,

Your explaination is perfect! Are these very expensive to obtain? If anyone out there has any pics of the various classes, please post them! Thank you again!

Regards

Paul

[Josef Rietveld]

Hi Paul in comparism to the awarded number of crosses they are quite cheap. at ebay-germany the sell one at the moment. auction ends in about an hour. LINK

regards

haynau

PS: by the way, the explanations come from the AH-Site i mentioned above. You don't have to know everything, but you have to know whre to find things.

[Paul R]

Darn it! I missed the opportunity! Is this the normal "rate" for this medal?

I am intrigued by this bar as it belongs to one of the few people who were in the Freikorps without WW1 service! I have not seen too many like this.

Regards

Paul

Edited December 11, 2005 by Paul Reck

[Josef Rietveld]

Darn it! I missed the opportunity! Is this the normal "rate" for this medal?

Regards

Paul

Normally the sell the lower classes for 30 to 50 euro

haynau

[Guest Rick Research]

Thanks for the award numbers, new information to me!

I had a Tapferkeits 2nd Class years ago but it is among the many things sold long before I was ever computerized.

One ODD thing with these second class crosses is that they seem to have been "always" (?) worn out of the buttonhole of a tunic, and not on the normal Austrian trifold ribbon. Mine was on such a "German" straight, narrow ribbon.

[Eric Stahlhut]

[Eric Stahlhut]

the owner opted to fix it himself. the planchet is thick and heavy.

[Eric K.]

Eric

First off I'm glad you made it here!!!! Second, like always you post some great items!

Eric

[Eric Stahlhut]

a relative

[Guest IMHF]

Thank you all, this is great information. Makes me want to collect WWII German Militaria again.

Paul very cool ribbon bar, thank you for sharing it:

Thank you

Lorenzo

[Paul R]

Thank you all, this is great information. Makes me want to collect WWII German Militaria again.

Paul very cool ribbon bar, thank you for sharing it:

Thank you

Lorenzo

Thanks Lorenzo!!

Eric S, what is that medal you posted?

[Eric Stahlhut]

Eric S, what is that medal you posted?

hi paul, it's not a medal per se-more of a commemorative cross from the times that led up to the situation resulting in the subject of this thread.

hope you don't mind that i posted it-didn't mean to derail the thread-but i figured since carinthian stuff is so relatively obscure it

wouldn't hurt to include it.

it's a heimwehr or 'eisernen wehr' cross...

cheers, ~e

Edited August 11, 2008 by Eric Stahlhut

[Paul R]

Eric,

Thanks for posting it!! It is very relevant! What type of ribbon did they use for it?

[Eric Stahlhut]

i have only seen two examples and both have horizontal pinbacks.

[Eric Stahlhut]

found this today whilst searching for saschaw's dang red-enameled badener.

it's struck in zinc

[Eric Stahlhut]

can't say i'm convinced it is a period piece. notice the lack of detail to the stippling--especially on the upper arm of the cross. but who knows? apparently there were several different versions and materials used

[Eric Stahlhut]

another bad sign

[Josef Rietveld]

A special K?rntner Cross f?r Verdienst (241 issued) was sold recently on ebay. IMHO it was a good one.

EBAY

regards

josef

Edited September 22, 2008 by Josef Rietveld