For Research 7x Ribbon Bar: Bavarian aviator w/ Anhalt & Brunswick

[landsknechte]

I'm in the process of trying to recompile my notes on my collection after a long "leave of abscence" from collecting, and I'm realizing just how darn rusty I am at this... Anyhow, I've got a few bars here that I'd like to throw out there for the collective wisdom of the group. Any sort of insights that you guys could share would be greatly appreciated. :beer:

[M Hunter]

Photos?

[landsknechte]

I thought I had attached the image to the original post. Thanks for catching that.

[M Hunter]

Firstly a very nice ribbon bar I think.

What colour are the eagles? I see one silver and one gold but they should be the other way about if so.

As the crown and sword device is gold in colour does that represent the Bavarian MVK and not the MVO meaning that this was an NCO's ribbon bar?

[saschaw]

Gold crown and sword device on Bavarian MVO/MVK ribbon stands either for the 3rd class of the order, which is unlikely here, as it went to high officers (ca. Obersts), or for the 1st class of the merit cross, which is as unlikely ... I think we have an Unteroffizier, who wanted to have his device for 3rd class rather in gold than in bronze.

So he was a NCO in WW1, but probably an officer in the "Third Reich" Luftwaffe.

Nice bar!

[landsknechte]

What colour are the eagles? I see one silver and one gold but they should be the other way about if so

The first one is silver, and the second one is gold. The odd thing is that the silver one appears to have the silver color literally painted on - you can see the brush marks where it was painted apparently after installation. I rather suspect that it was monkeyed with post war.

Gold crown and sword device on Bavarian MVO/MVK ribbon stands either for the 3rd class of the order, which is unlikely here, as it went to high officers (ca. Obersts), or for the 1st class of the merit cross, which is as unlikely ... I think we have an Unteroffizier, who wanted to have his device for 3rd class rather in gold than in bronze.

So he was a NCO in WW1, but probably an officer in the "Third Reich" Luftwaffe.

Nice bar!

If both of the long service devices are actually gold, I would suspect that this guy remained on in some capacity in the Weimar era (police maybe?) and then returned to the Luftwaffe.

The BMVK1XmKr could probably be ruled in or out pretty easily. There were, I believe, only like 117 or so of that grade awarded. Alternately, I'm wondering if this might be an example of someone who may have even been a low ranking officer in WWI, who then rose up the ladder in WWII - "adjusting" the grade of his MVO to reflect his current rank, versus the rank he had when he was awarded it.

[saschaw]

Alternately, I'm wondering if this might be an example of someone who may have even been a low ranking officer in WWI, who then rose up the ladder in WWII - "adjusting" the grade of his MVO to reflect his current rank, versus the rank he had when he was awarded it.

No way to know, if people made what they felt to do. Göring did upgrade his Zähringer Lion order from BZ3bX to BZ3bXE...

If our man was a junior officer, his Bavarian MVO would have been a BMV4X, or in very rare cases, a BMV4XKr. "Private upgrading" from BMV4X to BMV3XKr would have been very, very cheeky... but nothing's impossible!

Edited September 3, 2012 by saschaw