The pre-war uniform of Autur Gestering

[Paul C]

Autur Gestering was commissioned a Lt der Reserve in the Bayern Army, IR 1, on May 23, 1903. He was promoted in Oberlt on December 11, 1911 and obtained the rank of Hauptmann some time after the start of the war. On July 16, 1915 Hauptmann der Reserve Inf. Rgt. 1 was awarded the BVO4bX. Since he is reserve it is not possible to track the balance of the service in WWI as the Prussian Honor Ranklists does not list reserve officers. The tunic of Gestering is a correct Bayern tunic with Brandenburg cuffs and straps for shoulder boards. The tunic has loops for a 2 medal medal bar and they medal are the bayern Jubellee and Bayern 2 class lonmg service decoration. When I purchased the tunic it came with incorrect Hauptmann boards to a officer the 11th IR. How do I know this tunic belonged to Gestering and where did I get his service information? The service information came from the Byaern Military Handbook. And the tunic is named!

[Paul C]

Label

[Les]

Paul,

The Bavarian Army Museum at Ingoldstadt has the military records of most if not all who served in the Bavarian Army. If you send a nice letter enquiring about how you can get a record search done and an offer to pay for the cost of having the files checked, that might get the ball rolling. The "Prussians" will try to tell you their records were destroyed during a bombing raid during the war. The Bavarians aren't able to rely on any such story, so instead you have to contend with their bureaucratic system to get information...which if the guy served during the TR era can be difficult to get at times.

The fact that he was a reserve officer doesn't make any difference, because as an officer who was part of the Bavarian Army, any files on him should be at Ingoldstadt.

On the other hand, if you can coax one of our fellow forum members living in Germany to stop off there and ask if they could check Gerstering's file....?

Les

[Paul C]

Les, Thanks for the info. I visited the Bayern Army Museum last October. I will write a letter and see what I can find out. Thanks.

[Guest Rick Research]

25 years ago in my heyday (hey, it's been a long downhill, OK?), those records were at the Kriegsarchiv in Munich. At the time, due to some peculiar nitpicking quirk of German/Bavarian law, they cheerfully and readily sent me anything on any REGULAR officers, but stated categorically that reserve officers' records could NOT be released to the general public.

Post-unification, it is my understanding that so many guilty consciences are out there hiding having been DDR Stasi informers that retroactively and for the entire country, including the former "West," increased restrictions have been put in place on records which have NOTHING to do with the ex-"East."

I haven't tried any research in 20 years, so don't know how much is true in '06.

[Paul C]

I see what I can find out from the Bayern Armee Museum. I wonder what else is out there in the collecting world that belonged to Gestering. The tunic is in such nice condition that it must have been well cared for.