Austria-Hungary Imperial Austrian Military Merit Cross

[Elmar Lang]

It's an interesting piece indeed (hopefully not a piece from which the KD was filed away...). We can consider it as a "Vorlagestück", since this class, as said, was never awarded. Most of the pieces remained, shortly after WW1 were melted in order to obtain precious metals.

Some pieces of such non-awarded types (both 1st and 2nd classes) survived the post-war emergencies and now are highly appreciated from collectors.

E.L.

[pinpon590]

Hi !

And the box for the cross, by V.Mayer´s Söhne :

:love:

[Elmar Lang]

_{A very fine wartime set indeed.}

_{Best wishes,}

_E.L.

[Deruelle]

Hi everybody,

I read with great interrest this topic and I learn a lot.

But one thing is missing, you don't speak about this medal on ribbon bar.

Here is some from my collection about german ribbon bar with austrian ribbon.

[Deruelle]

.../...

[Deruelle]

.../...

[Deruelle]

.../...

[Deruelle]

.../...

[Deruelle]

So I have 5 kind of wreath to represente the ÖM3K, don't hesitate to post yours

Christophe

[Elmar Lang]

An interesting addition to this thread.

The laurel wreath attached to the ribbon means the "Kriegsdekoration" and is a device we typically see on German Bandspangen.

Best wishes,

E.L.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Elmar Lang

[Iver]

..here 3 Bandspangen of MVK... On the top - 2 times awarded...

[Deruelle]

Very nice devices, congrats

Christophe

[Deruelle]

Hi,

Here is my little cross with its original box. Have a look.

Christophe

[Deruelle]

the box

[Deruelle]

jeweler's hallmark on the box

[Deruelle]

the medal

[Deruelle]

the back of the medal

Christophe

[Farkas]

Hi Gents

just found this great thread ...,

I'm hopefully going to be the proud owner of my first 'cross for military merit'.

I have just taken a chance on a bar containing this. I've not received it yet so still sweating on whether it is going to be as expected.

any obvious problems Gents??

tony

 

[Christian1962]

On ‎09‎.‎10‎.‎2011 at 22:03, Iver said:

..there was no II. Class MVK without War Decoration awarded as far as I know..

Only one award is known to

Feldmarschallleutnant d.R. Karl Edler von Strasser, commander of the Militärakademie Wr. Neustadt

on  19.12.1915 [PVBL. 215/1915]

But Strasser already owned MVK III./KD therefore he would have worn an MVK II./KD III.

Following the Personalverordnungsblatt für das k.u.k. Heer (Landwehr and Honved included) there were (minimum number) awards:

MVK II./KD: 166 (until establishing the swords, some swords awarded later to them)

MVK II./KD/Schw.: 147 (after establishing the swords)

An interesting detail: GdK Fürst Schönburg-Hartenstein was awarded MVK II./KD on 20.4.1915 and MVK III./KD/Schw. on 1.9.1918. Therefore he would have worn MVK II./KD/ and "Schwerter niederen Grades"

Not included: k.u.k. Kriegsmarine (if there were any?) and awards by Heller-Kommission after WW1.

And very important: not included awards to foreigners (they were not published in PVBl.).

Regards

Christian

Here a MVK II./KD/Schw. nied. Grades

Edited October 15, 2017 by Christian1962

[Christian1962]

Here a late war case for MVK III/KD/Schw. from Köchert, Wien:

 

Here a nice example for a "Kleine Dekoration zum MVK II./KD/Schw. with luxury case and owners inscription on backside:

 

And a "Kleine Dekoration zum MVK I./KD/Schw."

 

And a MVK III./KD/Schw. three times awarded.

Only 11 awards  from 22.7.1918 to 1.10.1918 in the k.u.k. Armee, k.k. Landwehr and k.u. Honved! 

Edited October 15, 2017 by Christian1962

[cimbineus]

10 hours ago, Farkas said:

Hi Gents

just found this great thread ...,

I'm hopefully going to be the proud owner of my first 'cross for military merit'.

I have just taken a chance on a bar containing this. I've not received it yet so still sweating on whether it is going to be as expected.

any obvious problems Gents??

tony

 

Hi Tony,

This is a nice Friedrich Rothe piece. I cannot see any obvious problems in these pictures.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here is a picture with three similar cases but different producers.

And one more picture, perhaps a bit artistic composition with two Rothe & Neffe pieces.

Regards,

cimbineus

[Christian1962]

And an MVK III./KD 2nd time award.

Just 77 awards in WW1 (k.u.k. Heer, k.k. Landwehr and k.u. Honved):

[Farkas]

10 hours ago, cimbineus said:

Hi Tony,

This is a nice Friedrich Rothe piece. I cannot see any obvious problems in these pictures.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here is a picture with three similar cases but different producers.

And one more picture, perhaps a bit artistic composition with two Rothe & Neffe pieces.

Regards,

cimbineus

Hi cimbineus 

thanks for the maker ID - much appreciated

and

and loving for the pics of your own. Fantastic.

tony

[laurentius]

Dear fellow collectors

I think it has become time for me to make some contributions here. Firstly here is my Military Merit Cross 3rd class with wardecoration with a miniature for the cross 1.st class attached. Secondly my small bar with an Iron cross 2nd class and a MCC 3rd class, also with wardecoration. Both my crosses are manufactered by ´FR´, Rothe from Vienna.

Kind regards

[Farkas]

Hi Gents

i just got this one with a nice bar I bought, it has a nice little extra loop so i’m not taking it off the trifold....

here are a couple of pics

id enjoy opinions on originality and of course another makers id if possible please gents?!?

 

Hope you like

tony

 

PS

i posted the first i asked about last time in the German awards section because of the bar so here it is again....

 

On 24/10/2017 at 23:50, Farkas said:

Hi Gents

My new bar... 

Austro Hungarian is my first love so I couldn't resist this.

possibly.... this is glaringly wrong to you more knowledgeable Gents.

Would an MM cross be awarded without lower level bravery awards first?

don't spare my feelings if you have doubts - I genuinely would rather hear your thoughts Gents.

i won't lie... i paid out 250 plus post for this. Think it was a bit cheap? And I didn't know enough about it either, not enough to justify getting it - but - it didn't stop me, and, with mixed emotions I did...

You Gents know the feeling??

that "gulp" feeling...??

---////------/--

So when it turned up I wanted to know :

was EK maker marked? Looked too crisp and new.

was the Military Merit Cross genuine ?

was the bar good quality ? 

Was the bar original?

and if so had the original medals been swapped out?

And so on

and so on !!

and then so on!

-------

Some pics first then my thoughts on it....

 

---/----/-//-----

to me, the quality of the medal mounting/bar is top notch. ( hope not too good?)  it is so rigid still. The folds do not move. It's thick, padded, uv negative and just a few stitches snapped to rear.

I can't get to the ring of the MM cross without stressing the ribbon and cannot see how the award isn't original to the bar.

Fellow Gent cimbineus has told me that at first glance this MM Cross looks good, a Friedrich Rothe made example.

I had to (had to!) check the EK ring. It was tricky to prise the ribbon of the Iron Cross from the ring. I was relieved to see a mark (800?) (silver) I  haven't poked any further yet... The ring is blackened, in contrast to the medal which now appears to have been cleaned, rather than new. The ring is small though - not the size I have on others or personally seen before..  that worries me slightly - should it? I hope to hear its because it's on a later bar and not period ww1 issue!? Or other similarly reassuring reason!.

So Gents

after my longest worded post ever (usually 3 words) I hope you like....

tony

 

*************

Musketier Kessler

Inf Regt 400

2 komp

*************