From Nowhere To Nowhere: An "Invisible" Colonial Saxon Ribbon Bar

[Guest Rick Research]

Sometimes—more often than I’d like (arrgggh)—my own Mystery Ribbon Bars defy identifications.

This is one, to a (following career clues “on display” here) a Saxon Southwest Africa 1904-1906 enlisted soldier who was eventually commissioned during the war, having risen from the ranks. That career path suggests ONLY a technical officer (Zeug or Feuerwerks), a Veterinarian (the Imperial era German military kept them in long petrified “Deckoffizier” sort of limbo before commissioning them), or some sort of army administrative official like a paymaster.

1) Prussian Iron Cross 2nd Class 1914 combatant

2) Saxon Merit Order-Knight 2nd X (1st Class for Captains up would have been impossible)

3) Saxon Albert Order-Knight 2nd X (as previous)

4) Reichs Militär Ehrenzeichen (all but certainly the 2nd Class Medal)

5) Saxon Friedrich August Medal (war ribbon introduced in 1905 and undoubtedly for SW Africa here)

6) Honor Cross for Frontfighters aka Hindenburg Cross X

7) Saxon Army Long Service award

8) Saxon Army Long Service award again

The sword devices on #s 2 and 3 are gold, indicating an Order and not the Merit Crosses given to Feldwebelleutnant Warrant Officer types. Yet the only officer/Beamter listed in the 1914 Saxon Army Rank List with a MEZ2 and sFAM was a reservist*** who did NOT receive a SV3bX nor qualify for TWO long service awards.

I have been through all 1,832 SV3bXs and cross checked those against the SA3bX Roll (both done by the late Erhard Roth):

and have only 4 “suspects” who I cannot eliminate—

DREYER, Hermann: on the SV3bX and SA3bX rolls as “Zeug-Oberleutnant aD” (that is, a RETIRED officer called back up during the war) yet he was not listed in the Saxon Rank Lists of 1896, 1904, 1907, 1911, 1914, or in the 1914-1918 Honor Rank List. That makes him so completely inexplicable that I cannot imagine him as a serious possibility.

FREYER, Hans: Commissioned Feuerwerks-Leutnant 03.03.16 and demobilized after the war as a Feuerwerks-Oberleutnant aD, with SV3bX and SA3bX.

FRÖHLICH, Kurt: Veterinär after the 1914 Rank List, Oberveterinär 19.12.17 B. Demobilized as Stabsveterinär aD from Train Abteilung 19, with SV3bX and SA3bX

And lastly

WICKLEDER, Arno: Commissioned Feuerwerks-Leutnant 04.06.15 B in Fußart Rgt 12, but served during the war with Prussian (!) Reserve Infantry Regiment 15! Demobilized as Feuerwerks-Hauptmann aD.

There were NO OTHER “SUSPECTS.”

Normally it took about 9 years for a Veterinarian 2nd Lieutenant to be commissioned and anywhere from 12 to 15 for an Ordnance 2nd Lieutenant.

The double long service awards would only be correct for a military official who was also a reserve officer, qualifying for one active duty award and the other as a SLD1 or SLD2. There was no such person possible. That leaves the “usual” October 1936 misinterpretation of the NEW Wehrmacht awards being worn in pairs retroactively—and incorrectly—wearer-interpreted to “justify” something like an XXV and IX being worn together… which again suggests a career path with long years in the NCO ranks before being commissioned, rather than a Beamter/dR officer.

Fröhlich or Wickleder seem the best prospects given their discharge ranks. This is a purely COMBATANT combination—no overaged desk rider here.

*** The SOLE reserve officer listed in the Saxon 1914 Rank List with a sFAM and MEZ2 was Leutnant dL-Feldart (30.04.08) Fritz Eckstein. Bizarrely, he was not listed UNTIL the 1914 edition, and I am unable to find him in one of the other royal armies. Presumably he was Jewish and there was something freakishly normal for those days going on there with social discrimination. Eckstein was born in Leipzig 28 November 1881 and killed in action over Compiègne on 8 March 1918 as a Hauptmann dL and observer in Bombenstaffel 6 of Bogohl 5. He received a SA3bX with Feldflieger Abteilung 60 as Oberleutnant dL, but no SV3bX.