A brave fellow from Hamburg

[M Hunter]

Gentlemen,

As you may be aware by now i simpley to collect medal and ribbon bars with anything from the Hanseatic States. Today i received the centre piece of my ribbon bar collection (Gen.Lt. Dittmar's medal bar being the centre-piece of my medal bar collection... )...after a little searching through my ribbon book (Medal Ribbons & Orders of Imperial Germany & Austria; D.G.Neville) i am sure i have the combination named correctly.

-Prussian Iron Cross 2nd Class

-Hamburg Hanseatic Cross

-Prussian Life Saving Medal

-Hamburg Fire Brigade Medal

-Prussian Centenary 1797-1897 Medal

I have NEVER seen this Hamburg Fire ribbon before anywhere....did a quick search here and found nothing from Hamburg. When i first got the bar i thought it was a Hesse Long Service ribbon, but it didn't quite look like the picture in the book or like any of the pictures i seen on the internet....but then i saw the white trimming on the edges of the ribbon... which made me look again!

By any chance would anyone have a picture of this medal?

I hope you like it!

Best wishes

Matt

Edited March 31, 2010 by M Hunter

[M Hunter]

This can be found on page 46 of the above mentioned book....apologies about the glare... :whistle:

[M Hunter]

This bar also came with this 3-place ribbon bar. Perhaps they belonged to the same person?

[M Hunter]

And the reverse. The 5-place metal backing is marked "DRP".

[HeikoGrusdat]

Hi Matt,

first of all.... it is not the ribbon for a Hamburg fire service medal on your bar - the only Hamburg fire medal with that ribbon is for the big fire in the city in the year 1842 - impossible for your bar of course

But now the good news.....if both bars belong to one person the 3place bar is from during ww1 and the 5 place bar is from ca. 1925-1933 What you have there is the very rare ribbon bar of a supernatural Hamburg livesaver !!! Because it is the ribbon of the Hamburg livesaving medal 1918-33 in combination with the livesaving medal of prussia freestate (awarded since 1925) - in this combination very rare and never seen on a ribbon bar before (by me....)

good find

cheers

Heiko

[M Hunter]

Heiko,

You have truely mmade my day!!! This ribbon bar is even more special than i first thought! What resources did you use to establish that this is the Hamburg Life Saving Medal? My book does not give pictures of all the ribbons in use for this period.

Also any assistance in obtaining a picture of this medal for this thread would be greatly appreciated.

My thanks

Matt

[P.F.]

Also any assistance in obtaining a picture of this medal for this thread would be greatly appreciated.

My thanks

Matt

Matt,

Here is a picture of the Hamburg Life Saving Medal. A very impressive and rare ribbon bar you have aquired. Congratulations!

Kind regards

Pierce

Edited April 1, 2010 by luftkreig

[HeikoGrusdat]

Hi Matt,

here is a picture of the Hamburg livesaving medal....

[HeikoGrusdat]

Oh sorry , did not see the post of Pierce...

Matt , you need two things for solving these riddles...... some good books and a hot running brain

First.....check the ribbon , this ribbon was indeed the ribbon for some kind of fire medal , as I said for the big fire in the city from 1842 - BUT - this cannot match your 1915+ ribbon bar. Now , check the other possible medals for this ribbon - there is only one - the 1918+ livesaving medal....

now comes the brain.... IF both ribbon bars belong to one person you can clearly see what he has got first (on the 3place bar) : his regular military service around 1897 to get the Centenar medal and his war service during ww1 to get EK2 and Hamburg hanseatic cross.

That makes it shure that the two additional ribbons came later.... the ribbon for the prussian live saving medal is clear but it was not on the wartime bar so it MUST BE a award from prussia freestate 1920s to 1930s and that closes the circle to the 1920s-1930s livesaving medal from Hamburg - he must have got both livesaving medals for the same thing and it must have been a bit spectacular because 2 "states" decorated him for that....

These are my thoughts on that..........coming back to the books you asked , in this case I only used the Nimmergut OEK and the matching Bänderkatalog (the ribbons catalogue).

cheers

Heiko

[avadski]

So you have a bar that you will keep for your lifetime

Maybe this would be dumb but...is it an Octopus on the lifesaving medal? :blush:

[militaria0815]

Maybe this would be dumb but...is it an Octopus on the lifesaving medal?

Yes it is.

[Ulsterman]

...and the good news is that it may be traceable! Hamburgs' lifesaving awards are I believe are on a list somewhere. I remember seeing in the Journal of Lifesaving medals several years back an article on these city medals and seeing some sort of Hamburg roster. there can not have been many of the 1920s municipal life saving medals around. Anyone able to call the city's municipal department and find out if the archives have a list? Maybe the Hamburg chapte still exists.

[M Hunter]

My thanks to Pierce and Heiko for providing pictures and information!

...and the good news is that it may be traceable! Hamburgs' lifesaving awards are I believe are on a list somewhere. I remember seeing in the Journal of Lifesaving medals several years back an article on these city medals and seeing some sort of Hamburg roster. there can not have been many of the 1920s municipal life saving medals around. Anyone able to call the city's municipal department and find out if the archives have a list? Maybe the Hamburg chapte still exists.

Ulsterman, this is very good news. I suspected this medal to be rarely awarded, but never thought it could be ID-able! Thank you for bringing this information to light.

If anyone can help with the above mentioned list i would be truely indebted to them!

My best to all

Matt

[Ulsterman]

well, the Hamburg chapter of the DVRG is on facebook! Perhaps they have a historian.