Major Friedrich Schmoller Jäger-Regiment zu Pferde Nr. 5

[Glenn J]

What to do when even the Prussian Rangliste could be wrong? Daniel Krause and I were looking at this one the other day. Captioned as Major Schmoller in Jäger-Regiment zu Pferde Nr. 5 in Joachim Hilsenbeck's "Deutsche Offiziershelme" Band 2. Ok, lets check him out and a quick check in the Army List to confirm shows said Herr Schmoller from 1910 onwards as the recipient of a Bavarian Saint Michaels 4th Class. Hmmm!! And still shown with a BM4a in Jäger-Regiment zu Pferde Nr. 13 in 1914. Presumably Major Schmoller did not bother ever reading the thing! After trawling the Militär-Wochenblätter of 1909 with no success, fortunately I found that he was in fact granted the permission to wear the Bavarian Military Merit Order 4th Class as gazetted in the 1 January 1910 MWB. Friedrich Schmoller eventually commanded Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 13 and retired as an Oberstleutnant.

Glenn

Edited September 15, 2013 by Glenn J

[arb]

Glenn,

So, should it have been listed as the BM4b (without the crown)?

Andy

[Dave Danner]

Schmoller was awarded the BMV4 on 18 June 1909, although it was not published by the Bavarian Kriegsministerium until 25 September 1909.

Schmoller's award was at the same time as then-Lt. Frisch in the same regiment, shown immediately after Schmoller in the MWB excerpt which Glenn attached. Frisch, who remained in DR 7 and was promoted to OLt. on 27.1.10, is correctly shown in the 1910 rank list with the BMV4. Schmoller was transferred to JRzP 5 and the error already shows up there, where the 1910 rank list has him with KO4 and BM4a.

At the same time that Schmoller and Frisch were awarded the BMV4, Major Freiherr von Broich of DR 7 was awarded the BM3. That is also correctly shown in the rank list. Freiherr v. Broich already had the BMV3, so I suppose he was awarded the St. Michael since he wasn't senior enough to get a crown to the BMV3.

Did the publishers of the rank list rely on the units themselves to provide updated information? I suppose when Rittm. Schmoller arrived at JRzP 5, someone misread his file and wrote BM instead of BMV.

[Glenn J]

Andy,

So, should it have been listed as the BM4b (without the crown)?

The pre-war Ranglisten used the abbreviation BMV4 for awards without the crown and BMV4mKr for awards with the crown. The abbreviation BM is for the Michael.

Glenn

[Guest Rick Research]

Yet another "Historical-Record-Clerical-Error" Research Gnomes have to tidy up after!

For readers who may regard this as nit-picking over trivia--this is the sort of error that can--and does--throw off correct identification of anonymous medal bars or photographs. That is precisely WHY we ALWAYS go through as many sources as possible to make sure that the long dead Official record Keepers did not screw up.

Good catch!

[Dave Danner]

This seems to often be a problem for reserve and Landwehr officers. Here, for example, are three separate entries for Lorenz von Krosigk from various sources. He was a Hptm.d.R. in HR 10. He earned his LD1 sometime after the DOA came out, which the rank list reflects, but his Crown Order doesn't show up. His entry in the Reich handbook shows the Crown Order, but omits the LD1.