Unknown badge

[medalnet]

Does anybody know what this is? It came together with Ernst Kempfer's medal bar and badges. He was an observer during WWI:

...and here his other decorations:

[Guest Rick Research]

I cannot read the maker's marks, but if it was made in Kassel--

the Fieseler ("Storch?") Aircraft Company perhaps... an employee badge?

[Wild Card]

Andreas,

Could this be an early version of what became the Lufthansa logo?

[medalnet]

I should have mention the inscription:

C.Poellath

Schrobenhausen

on the badge and the needle attachement.

[Daniel Murphy]

Andreas,

Perhaps it is a squadron pin. I have a turkish aviators pin that is very similar to yours in size and pinback, but was made in Switzerland by Hugenin Freres. They are rare and I think a few units may have picked this habit up from captured flyers who often wore similar items. Here is mine, it is about 20mm.

Dan Murphy

[medalnet]

That is a thought. Well, I will get a book where ihe is mentioned as well. Maybe this will shead some light on the badge. At least finding out in which squadron he flew.

[Guest Rick Research]

I have never seen or heard of German flying unit pins during or after WW1 for 1914-18 veterans.

Neal O'Connor shows Kempfer as an "Oberleutnant" in his list of HHO3X winners, no date of award, and only unit shown as Feld-Flieger Abteilung 9. He's not shown as an aviation recipient of the Hamburg Hanseatic Cross, so may have gotten that earlier in some ground unit. There was NO regular officer in the army or Marines with this name, nor any pre-war reserve officer, so he must have been a circa 1914-15 war date Leutnant der Reserve and been charakterisiert Oberleutnant dR aD.

The published HHO3X roll shows his Order gazetted in the Milit?r-Wochenblatt of 20 November 1917 as "Lt dR Ernst Kempfer, Flieger."

I'll have a flip through the aviation casualty list, but since there is no INDEX ad the wounded are shown chronologically, sifting through the entire war on the off chance he was wounded in air rather than ground combat is quite time consuming.

NOT wounded in an aviation unit in 1917 or 1918.

Any of you google surfing folks been able to turn up a Fieseler Company logo? That would still be my first bet.

[Stogieman]

Hi Andreas, a photo/scan of the back of the Obsevrer Badge?

[medalnet]

Dear Rick,

thanks for the detailed information. I just got this stuff as well as the bar posted in the other thread from the family. Nobody there new whos is whos, but the only other person is Johann Richard wilhelm Fuhr, Major a.D. He was actually listed in the 1914 Rankliste as Zeug-Hauptmann of the Grossherzoglich Mecklenburgische Invaliden abteilung in Schwerin and is shown in the list with Crown Order 4, Red Eagle Order 4 as well as the Long Service Cross. Due to him passing away in 1937 and having been promoted already during the War to Zeug-Major a.D. with his retirement I have to asume that the wound badge is Kempfer's.

Here the reverse of the observers badge:

[attachmentid=32019]

A classic C.E.Junker Berlin Halfmoon 800 marked piece

Edited March 26, 2006 by medalnet

[Stogieman]

Exactly..... and one more example for my "real" files. Thanks!

[medalnet]

This seems to be the Fieseler logo from 1930:

..and here he is himself:

thanks to:

Wikipedia

Edited March 26, 2006 by medalnet

[Rick]

I'll have a flip through the aviation casualty list, but since there is no INDEX and the wounded are shown chronologically, sifting through the entire war on the off chance he was wounded in air rather than ground combat is quite time consuming.

Oh, boo-hoo . You have no idea how hard it was to even include this list. R.

[Guest Rick Research]

"Oh, boo-hoo . You have no idea how hard it was to even include this list. R."

Glad you did, though. Wish it was in alphabetical rather than chronological order.

[Naxos]

Does anybody know what this is? It came together with Ernst Kempfer's medal bar

Albatros Werke GmbH

[medalnet]

Albatros Werke GmbH

That would be very interesting. Early marketing !!!? Like: "I can only shoot down enemy aircraft flying an Albatros fighter plane !!!"

It still strikes me that the manufacturer of this badge is Poellath in Schrobenhausen, BAVARIA. Why would Albatros, being situated in Johannistal by Berlin, outsource in China, pardon, Bavaria?

Edited April 11, 2006 by medalnet

[Stogieman]

Well, my guess Andreas would be "He who can supply quality at the best price"? Economics is economics after all! ;>)

[medalnet]

Well, my guess Andreas would be "He who can supply quality at the best price"? Economics is economics after all! ;>)

Correct, but Prussia and Bavaria were never to close....one would assume that this kind of work would go the patriotic way.

[Naxos]

Correct, but Prussia and Bavaria were never to close....one would assume that this kind of work would go the patriotic way.

The badge depicts an Albatros bird.

My opinion is not that Albatros GmbH had the badge ordered, but that former pilots and observers of single and double seater Albatros biplanes wore them.

[Wild Card]

[bIt still strikes me that the manufacturer of this badge is Poellath in Schrobenhausen, BAVARIA. Why would Albatros, being situated in Johannistal by Berlin, outsource in China, pardon, Bavaria?

China? China! I'm telling Sascha what you said!

[medalnet]

...and here after a long wait the man himself:

[attachmentid=37623]

[medalnet]

The picture above did actually come from a book printed in 1939: "Wir jagten den Feind" (we hunted the enemy), written by Hans Brzenk. He lists several fighter aces with his biographical data in the back of the book. This is the part for Ernst Kepmfer:

Geb. December 16, 1894 in Mainz. He went as volunteer to the infantry to war in 1914 right after his Abitur and after finishing with middle school in Wittenberg, the cadets corps Wahlstadt and Realgymnasium in Berlin-Lichterfelde. He took part in those battles in Flandern as being part of the I.R. 57, also with the Landwehr-Ersatz-Regiment 1 and later with the I.R. 382 in battles at Metz (Priester- and Alliywald) being a Platoon-(Zug-) and later Brigade(Kompanie) leader, finally as Leader of a mine-thrower-brigade (Abteilung).

He was promoted to be officer in 1915, and reported to the airforce late 1916. After 7 weeks of school he was send to the Flieger-Erstazabteilung Breslau and Grossenhain being an Observer during the summer of 1916 at Armee-flugpark 1 Fliegerabteilung 9. He then took part in battles over the Somme, in Lorraine and during the battle in Champagne and in Verdun mostly as long range observer.

At Verdun he was shot down and was wounded severely late autumn of 1917: Skull and jaw was broken. He recovered during the winter of 1917 in Fea Altenburg and reported back in spring of 1918 to his old commodore who had been promoted to Gruppenf?hrer of Flieger 21 in the meantime. He was then Fliegerverbindungsoffizier and later Adjutant and joined in the advancement battles towards Armentiers, the break through battle in the west and all retreats until the end of the war. He later fought with several Freikorps in the home country.

Medals: Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class, House Order of Hohenzollern, Observers Badge, and others.

He studied political economics after the war and joined the "Deutsche Presse" (a newspaper) as volunteer. Being the editor later on he worked with the College Organization "German Art" on the magazine "Das junge Deutschland" and became editor and general manager of the newspaper "Ringen des Deutschtum". Branded as a "v?lkisch" editor he did not find a reasonable position and changed jobs to become a book dealer after the depression (Inflation). He also worked as editor of a labor camp paper but is now director of one of the leading publishing houses.

The mentioning of his freicorps activity lead me to believe that the unknown badge must be a Freikorps badge.

[Glenn J]

I would not have thought that Kempfer was such a rare name but after much searching I eventually came across the only example of the name so far that I have been able to trace and given the date and regiment is most probabably our man:

Offizieraspirant Kempfer's commission as a Leutnant der Reserve of Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 57 was gazetted on the 20th of March 1915 with a Patent of seniority as such from the 22nd of March 1915. The use of the term Offizieraspirant denoted an individual attending a reserve officer course at one of the large training centres such as Warthelager, Elsenborn, Lockstedt, Sennelager or Munster. It therefore does not sound like he was ever a graduate of the cadet corps.

Regards

Glenn