Mystery Doctor Partially Identified (Finally !)

[Paul C]

This interesting display of awards on an elderly civilian Freikorps fighter (!) has long defied identification. But being the Inspector Javert of German medal bars and ribbon bars, I have FINALLY hunted him down and found some data.

Here is his entry from the 1914 Prussian/Württemberg Army Rank List showing

Stabsarzt dL I Dr. Bresler in Landwehr Bezirk Glogau with LD1, SA3a, EH3(a), and SJ3.

[Paul C]

At that time he had an ÖFJ3 which obviously has been removed and returned for his wartime ÖFJ2K.

The only clue was a Kreuzberg O/S photographer’s stamp on back, which threw off my efforts at finding him.

Dr. Bresler indeed served most of his NOMINAL Reserve and Landwehr career under control of LWB Kreuzberg—to 1909 (when all he had was an LD2 1904/5 replaced by that LD1 1906/7—indicating truly minimal “active” reserve duty before completing two decades of purely calendar time in uniform. He added his ÖFJ3 1909/10, and his SA3a and SJ3 1913/14.

So… was his EH3a (as it turns out)—at least according to the OFFICIAL annual Rank Lists, which only shows the Ernestine in 1914. YET…

He received it (from Meiningen) on 20 January 1911 as Oberarzt (senior physician, not the military rank of a surgeon 1st Lt) at the Provinzial Heil- u- Pflegeanstalt in Lüben. Yet the May 1911 edition of the Rank List did not record it. Nor did the 1912 or 1913 editions!!!!

Dr. Bresler had no first name entered on the Ernestine Roll. He did not appear in the Orders Almanac nor Austrian vanity press listings of Franz Josef Order recipients before the Great War. There was nothing on him in 1915 or the first half of 1916 in Prussia’s Militär-Wochenblätter. He did not appear in the 1935 Wer Ist’s.

So I have nothing at all else on him. Any help would be most appreciated!!!!

Thanks to Paul for posting this since I am not online. Rick Research

[HeikoGrusdat]

Great pic + a good research job Paul !!! Congrats !!! :beer:

[Glenn J]

Paul,

Oberstabsarzt d.L. I: (28.11.14) Dr. Johannes Wilhelm Richard Bresler, serving with Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 4.

Stabsarzt d.L I: 16.5.05

Practiced in Kraschnitz, Kreis Militsch in Silesia.

Regards

Glenn

[Ulsterman]

That explains the Silesian eagle. I wonder what type of EK2 he got.

[kapten_windu]

hey, a crescent! is that a Turkish medal?

tell us more about this...

[Kev in Deva]

The Medal with the crescent is a Turkish Red Crescent award.

The Red Crescent being Turkey's version of the Red Cross.

Kevin in Deva. :beer:

[Claudius]

..being the Inspector Javert of German medal bars and ribbon bars, I have FINALLY hunted him down and found some data.

Inspector Javert?....nah, I think of Rick more as a Sandman from Logan's Run.

Congratulations Rick. It's great that you could catch this "Runner".