infos for Deckoffizier Otto Biediger ?

[HeikoGrusdat]

hello all,

has anybody some infos for Otto Biediger , Deckoffizier in the imperial german navy , this photo is made in China 1910 but I am not shure about the medals... N°1 looks like the DSWA-medal , you can see (or guess...) the stripes , the medal has the typical form , definately not the china-medal from the ribbon... N°2 looks like a small turkish medal

Can anybody confirm these two medals - and knows more he got?

thank you

Heiko

[HeikoGrusdat]

the medals...

[HeikoGrusdat]

and the reverse...

[Guest Rick Research]

I agree-- Southwest Africa Medal and a Turkish Liakat Medal over IX Years Service brooch. Note there is no 1897 Centenary Medal.

Now it gets weird.

I read his last name as "Riediger," not Biediger. BUT-- in 1908 and 1914 there was NO Deck Officer named Biediger, Kiediger, or Riediger. There was a reserve zur See officer named Riediger who was NOT him.

Aybody got a 1910 Navy Rank List? :speechless1:

[HeikoGrusdat]

Thank you Rick....could be Riediger of course - but I think he must have been active in the 1908 volume with this DSWA-medal.... :speechless:

[Guest Rick Research]

Ahhh, but as a 1908 Petty Officer (some sort of Obermaat in whatever his branch was) NOT listed. Petty Officers were not listed, only Warrant Officers (Deckoffiziere) with the "real" officers.

Once he CAN be identified as to branch and posting, each subsequent year can be checked to see if he DIED or retired-- those notes follow every single section.

But first he needs to be found in 1910.

He would have been quite young to be promoted to Warrant Officer-- joined no earlier than April 1897, so only 13 years service in when this was taken, at most. It would have been very unlikely that he WOULD have resigned, so I suspect something killed him like a disease we now have medication for.

[arb]

The Marine Ranglisten for the years 1910-1914 do show a "Maschinist" Riediger, although the spelling of the name changes in 1913 to Ridger, but it also includes "Otto" as his first name.

Otto entered naval service on 01.04.1900 and became a "Maschinist" on 01.11.1909, serving with the II. Werftdivision aboard the S.M.S. Leipzig, althought by 1913 he is no longer on sea duty but still with the II. Werftdivision.

Despite the change is spelling, there is no doubt that the "Riediger" found in the 1910 Rangliste is the same as the one seen on page 42 of the 1914 appendix for "Deckoffiziere."

Now, he is listed as having only one single decoration and that is the FW3 (1914 now shown as D1).