lippe detmold Extremly rare document group of the last commander of Detmold´s last army / Major Hermann Kellner II

[Solomon]

Hi gents,

inspired by the medalbar with 1866 campaign medal Lippe-Detmold, I just showed, I would like to share with you a extremely rare document-group I recently added to my collection:

Hermann Kellner was born in Detmold on 23rd May 1823 as the 2nd son of Amtaccessor Karl Friedrich Kellner.

Document 1 “birth document”

On 26th April 1842 he became a student („Volontär“) at the Divisionsschule in Münster/Westfalia.
His classmates were Eduard Pustkuchen (his uniform is shown in the museum of local history in Detmold) and Carl Großkopf (later commander of Torgau).

Document 2 letter of acceptance at the school and an introduction of his duties (and rights).

On 10th December he was promoted from a Volontär to Portepee-Fähnrich.

„Serenissimus haben höchstgnädigst geruht, in Hinsicht der eingegangenen guten Zeugnisse, den bisherigen Volontair Hermann Kellner zum Portepeefähnrich zu ernennen,
worüber demselben die erforderliche Urkunde von mir übersandt werden wird….“

Kellner II served as Lippischer Füsilier, the only bataillon of Lippe-Detmold and ruled by the prince of Lippe-Detmold.
The Lippische Füsiliere („Das lippische Kontingent“) was already fighting against Napoleon together with the Prussians.

Document 3 Promotion

Prince Leopold promoted Herrmann Kellner II on 15th October 1844 to „Seconde-Lieutnant.

„ Wir (Leopold) urkunden hiermit, daß Wir den Portepeefähnrich Hermann Kellner zum Seconde-Lieutnant in unserem Militair-Corps gnädigst ernannt haben.
Wir erwarten von Ihm Treue gegen uns, Gehorsam gegen seinen Vorgesetzen, strenge Befolgung der Gesetze im Allgemeinen, insbesondere den bestehenden und
künftigen Militair-Verordnungen im Dienst-Reglement, Ordnung, Fleiß ….“


Document 4 Promotion to Seconde-Lieutnant

Document 4a Congratulation for becoming Seconde-Lieutnant

Picture 4b Drawing showing him in the uniform as Seconde-Lieutnant

 

On 27th February 1849 Kellner II was promoted by prince Leopold to a Premier-Lieutnant.
Document 5 Promotion to Premier-Lieutnant

Document 6 a and b letters from the frontline (war against the Danish) , sent on 10th July 1849 to his brother Karl

And finally on 10th May 1859 Kellner II was promoted to a Hauptmann and Kompanie-Chef (chief of the company).

Document 7 Promotion to Hauptmann

Document 7a Information of the Fürstlich Lippischen Militair-Kolloquium , that his salary will be adjusted according to his promotion.

On 7th  December 1861 prince Leopold agreed tot he marriage of Kellner II with Marie Niemeyer.
Document 8 Agreement

Picture 8a with his wife and son
Kellner is wearing the uniform as Premier-Lieutnant.
The picture was taken between  middle of 1862 and March 1863.

On 19th April 1866 Kellner II awarded the long servce cross for 25 years Lippe-Detmold.
Original text oft he document:
Nachdem Sie unter Berücksichtigung das als Kriegsjahr doppelt zu rechnende Jahr 1849 nunmehr 25 Jahre in
Meinem Militär-Corps treu gedient haben, habe ich Ihnen Mein Dienstauszeichnungskreuz verliehen.
Dasselbe erfolgt nebst dem dazu gehörigen Bande hierfür.
Detmold, den 19. April 1866
Leopold, PFEL.

…As war-service in the year 1849 has to be counted double, you served now 25 years in my Militär-Corps and therefor I award you with my long service cross and the referring ribbon.

Kellner was one of only 16 (!!!) officers, awarded with this long service cross for 25 years, which was donated on 11^th June 1859 by prince Leopold.

After the integration of the Lippsche Füsiliere into the Prussian army in 1867, only one additional cross was awarded.
All other awarded the Prussian version.

Document 9 Award document for the long-service cross 25 years Lippe-Detmold

On 15th August 1866  Leopold promoted Kellner II to a Major and commander of Lippe-Detmold´s small army.
His predessor was Major and commander Carl Rohdewald, who was killed in the battle at Kissingen on 10th July 1866.

Document 10 Promotion to Major and commander

On 20th September 1866 Kellner II awarded as  „Führer des Fürstlich Lippischen Füssilierbataillons" (leader of the bataillon of the Lippischen Füsiliere) the Prussian order of the crown  3^rd class with swords .

Document 11 Award document

Edited March 21, 2016 by Solomon

[Solomon]

The picture was taken between September 1866 and December 1869, most probably between 1866 and 1867.

On the medalbar you can see:

- Prussian order of the crown 3rd class with swords

But….what the hell is wrong here??? Is it a wearing mistake, as the order should be worn normally at the black-white combatant ribbon ???

No…everything is correct here…Kellner II wears the order at the light blue ribbon for foreigners! In 1866 (before the Lippe-Detmold army was integrated into the Prussian army) he was a foreigner to Prussia.

- military merit medal Lippe-Detmold (awarded on  30th March 1863)
Unfortunately this document is missing in the group…
- long service cross for 25 years Lippe-Detmold
- campaign-medal 1866 Lippe-Detmold
Unfortunately this document is also missing in the group…
The intersting point here is, that commander Kellner II awarded his soldiers with the campaign medal, while he and the other officers got it directly from prince Lippe-Detmold.

Picture 11a shows Major Kellner II

Kellner II retired on 23rd December 1867. He was the one, negotiating with the Prussian about the integration of the small army of Lippe-Detmold into the Prussian army.
He was also allowed to wear his uniform after his retirement.

Document 12: Retirement

On 5th November 1869 Kellner II awarded as Major a.D. the common house-order Lippe-Detmold & Schaumburg-Lippe 1st class (with the crown).
He was No. 13 of the list out of 64 awards in total.

Document  13: Award document for the common house order 1st class Detmold & Schaumburg

Document 13a Consigment of the documents

Document 14 a and b = statutes of the common house-order, version from 25th October 1869.

 

In this document group there are also a lot of letters to his parents, exercises he had to do during his time as a student and the application for becoming a student, written by his father in 1842 in several versions.
There are also a lot of letters of relatives etc…too much to show and less interesting.

I hope you liked this deep look into the military history of the small principal Lippe-Detmold until 1867.

Best regards
Roman

Edited March 21, 2016 by Solomon

[Gerd Becker]

Wonderful group, Roman. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chris Boonzaier]

That is really fantastic!

So the Detmold Regiments wnet into the 1870 war without a Commander of their own?

[Solomon]

No, not really.

Until 1867 Lippe-Detmold had his own independant "army", the last leader was Kellner II. It was a bataillon with around 400 soldiers and officers. It was trained and paid by the principal.

Kellner II negotiated with Prussian in these soldiers were integrated in the Prussian army ( 6. Westfälisches Infanterie-Regiment No.55 ).

So in 1870 / 71 the Lippe soldiers were ruled by the Prussians (and were awarded with Prussian orders like the long service awards). That makes for example this long service cross Lippe-Detmold (officially awarded only until 1867) extremely rare.

Until 1867 these Lippe soldiers were officially "foreigners" for the Prussians, e.g. like the Bavarians.

[speedytop]

Hi Roman,

that is a dream for a collector of military history!

Uwe

[Claudius]

Wonderful document group! 

I really like how the Crown Order in on a light blue ribbon for foreigners!  A great observation.

[Solomon]

Yes, unfortunately it wasn´t my observation, but another collector gave me this hint, when I showed the photo.
I was much more focussed on the Lippe documents, when I bought all the paper and didn´t recognize the speciality about the the crown order.

By the way another collector shared the number of awards:
211 crown order 3rd class with swords were awarded for 1866.
This figure includes also the ones for foreigners, which was logically much lower!

[Claudius]

On ‎3‎/‎26‎/‎2016 at 12:22, Solomon said:

By the way another collector shared the number of awards:
211 crown order 3rd class with swords were awarded for 1866.
This figure includes also the ones for foreigners, which was logically much lower!

[Stogieman]

Very nice to see a group that has not been broken up, especially with these very rare documents.

[Solomon]

On 29.3.2016 at 16:44, Stogieman said:

Very nice to see a group that has not been broken up, especially with these very rare documents.

You are unfortunately only partly right.

This group came via a dealer for antiques directly from the family. The dealer knew that beside the documents also Kellner II´s uniform, cased epaulettes (!) and saber were still existing.
When the old lady (granddaughter of Kellner II) passed away, the equipment was immediately sold and only the documents "survived" as a group.

So the uniform and epaulettes (also extremely rare, because only worn in that way until 1867) are still somewhere around.
I´m pretty sure, that the epaulettes (cased) were sold by Weitze a few years ago.

Greetings
Roman