Tricky Photos: The Process Of Research

[Guest Rick Research]

What you see is what I have to work with:

No name. No date. No ANYTHING. :banger:

[Guest Rick Research]

OK... the visible, visual clues, then:

1) Spike helmet and 3 button cuffs... infantry

2) Major, Unit "47" on boards (nice and sharp and clear-- see following scan)

3) Prussian eagle straining against the spike helmet cover

4) Prussian eagle guard on the IOD89 sword

5) Prussian Crown Order 4th Class (KO4) and Prussian XX Years Reserve-Landwehr Cross (PrLD1) on medal bar, Prussian Iron Cross 2nd Class and Saxon Albert Order-Knight 1st Class with Crown and Swords (SA3aXKr) from buttonhole

So. Who and what do we have here?

[Guest Rick Research]

An OLD Prussian Major, of the Reserve or Landwehr, with a fairly unusual Saxon decoration.

Hmm.

What to do? Where to start?

Welll....

[Guest Rick Research]

1) No match on awards from Reserve officers in Prussian Infantry Regiment 47.

2) No match for pre-war officers in Landwehrbezirks under authority of the 47th Infantry Brigade

3) Off to the wartime Saxon Albert Order rolls:

Erhard Roth †, "Verleihungen des königlich sächsischen Verdienstordens mit Schwertern ... im Ersten Weltkrieg 1914-1918," PHV Phaleristischer Verlag Michael Autengruber, Offenbach: 1998. ISBN 3-932543-34-3. My own publisher BTW and good luck finding the 1990s run of books now. All long out of print. Buy reference books when they come out or collect something else....

SA3aXKr awarded 209 times as an initial award. Not so bad!!!

BUT as SECOND awards-- Crown added to EXISTING preliminary award of an SA3aX-- 1,149. Oooog. OK, doable. But wait-- there's more!!! Could ALSO have been swords added to a prewar SA3aKr-- another 72.

Right then.

Those have to be hunted through for Prussian Reserve or Landwehr Majors who wore spike helmets and had 3 button cuffs.

Because NONE of them have a "47."

Ah as they say, ha.

There is ONE.

Just one.

Only the ONE.

[Guest Rick Research]

SA3aXkr as an initial award (makes sense, given for rank not repeat decoration-- no EK1, after all)--

KP Major dL Kramer, Commander of KS Labor (Armierungs) Battalion 21-- on 15 December 1915. (Roth, page 115)

This is puzzling:

1) what is an elderly PRUSSIAN Major doing commanding a SAXON unit (were there not enough elderly Saxon Majors?)

2) Where did Prussian Major dL Nofirstname Kramer COME from???

Back to the Prussian annual Rank Lists from before the war. Majors of Reserve and Landwehr were VERY few and far between before the war-- most men dropping of these rolls as Captains. So we are seeking a dR or dL Hauptmann Kramer, with a KO4 and PrLD1.

OK, found one: page 967 of the May 1914 Prussia/Württemberg Rank List. But is the Hauptmann dL II Infanterie Kramer of Landwehrbezirk I Frankfurt am Main THIS Kramer? Awards match, still no first name...

so check the vanity press 1908/09 German Orders Almanac:

Ah. First name, date of birth which matches apparent age in wartime photo nicely. Civilian job and home address now known.

But is that HIM?

[Guest Rick Research]

At this point, Daniel and I "know" that Gottfried Kramer is The One-- but that has not yet been proven. We're 1914+ guys. We need Glenn and Andy for data before that.

When this puzzle first came up, Glenn found Herr Kramer had been commissioned as a SecLt dR in

Inf Rgt 81 on 13 May 1880 (only regulars have rank dates in the annual Rank Lists-- dR and dL guys had their own "segregated" lists-- MUCH harder to find ). Kramer was promoted PremLt dR 24.03.90 and Hauptmann dR 27.01.96 in that same regiment

(so what's with "47"? are we going astray here??????)

before drifting into his local Landwehr status due to age.

Huh. "Luckily" our officer career colleagues have devoted YEARS of their lives to ferreting out promotion etc data, while my section of the Research Collective has focussed on awards. Both sides working separately but in tandem, we can compare notes. (Ain't this internet wonderful?)

Glenn is in the dreadful process of indexing the entire wartime promotions, transfers, etc gazette of the Prussian army-- the Militär-Wochenblätter. So he's "paged" our Major Kramer.

I happen to have that volume, so here is, MWB 23 March 1915, Column 1334, announcing charakterisiert rank as Major dL for Herr Kramer per the 22nd--

Well well well well well-- would you look at that! Kramer of Frankfurt am Main is CONFIRMED as commanding a SAXON Labor Battalion in SAXON 19th Ersatz Division. :whistle:

[Guest Rick Research]

So-- what's with that pesky red herring of a "47?"

47th Mixed Ersatz Brigade of Saxon 19th Ersatz Division.

Our Pure Prussian is wearing Saxon numbers on his shoulder boards!!!

Imagine the mis-identification and confusion if his insignia turned up loose!!!

End result:

4 researchers on 2 continents spend 4 or 5 hours (not counting Glenn's YEARS indexing) in order to restore the name of a city billing department supervisor nobody has ever had any reason to have heard of before to an anonymous photo.

Has the rotation of the Earth reversed? Is global hunger solved?

Noooo-- but we do what our odd talents best suit us to.

Got him.

This is only possible in THIS case because

1) there is a Crown on that Saxon Order, making it SO unusual that after laboriously sifting through ALL the potential suspects ANYWAY (always have to, always) he was all that was left.

2) this is a sharp clear (but badly scruffed alas) photo revealing UNIFORM details. This successful conclusion could NOT have happened with a medal bar. We needed to see "what" HE was, not simply what the awards were.

3) it required team work, sharing gigantic and scattered pieces of puzzles from original sources we have acquired at great expense over decades, for which there is no One Stop Reference.

Context-teamwork-resources.

"Easy" answer

afterwards. :beer:

[Naxos]

So-- what's with that pesky red herring of a "47?"

47th Mixed Ersatz Brigade of Saxon 19th Ersatz Division.

Our Pure Prussian is wearing Saxon numbers on his shoulder boards!!!

Imagine the mis-identification and confusion if his insignia turned up loose!!!

Bravo!

I can add:

The IR47 had a cipher instead of a number and there was no RJR47 in existence.

But boards with the number 47 do exist ... and now (thanks to Rick) we have photographic evidence.

Edited November 2, 2009 by Naxos

[Mark C]

Wonderful! A work of art in synergistic research, with intrinsic mystery.

Thanks!