Translation assistance?

[landsknechte]

On a lark, I emailed the Bavarian Hauptstaatsarchiv to see if they had anything on the owner of an ID'ed ribbon bar in my collection.

Rather unexpectedly, this letter arrived in the mail:

Along with it is a wealth of information. Unfortunately, I can barely make any of it out. My German is bad enough, and then you toss in some Sutterlin, and I'm completely useless:

#1

#2

#3

#4

Could anyone be so kind as to help me make heads or tails of this?

Thanks,

--Chris

[Guest Rick Research]

Whoa, dood! Movie screen size scans do NOT do it on monitor screen size... monitor screen. "Bigger" is nice but GARGANTUAN is not!!!

Let me know when I don't have to scroll across the universe one letter at a time!

[landsknechte]

Assuming you're set for 1024 x 768, these ought to work. Let me know if you're working on an itty-bittier monitor, and I'll adjust accordingly.

[landsknechte]

#2

[landsknechte]

#3

[landsknechte]

#4

Better?

[Guest Rick Research]

"Assuming you're set for 1024 x 768"

Would be assuming WRONG. I have a 19 inch flat screen and what I see is

[attachmentid=32113]

Yes, I can read these. But it is much easier for me to SEE AN ENTIRE SENTENCE and remember what it is to type than scribble pages of notes and wonder if I've jumped a line or left a line out.

If YOU can see the entire scans without scrolling left, right, up, down, and sideways, great. I can't.

I don't have a widescreen TV home entertainment center.

He was born 13 February 1882 in Kleinseebach, Bezirksamt Erlangen, Mittelfranken, Bavaria. Realschule graduate, son of Paul/Paulus (died 5.6.14) and Maria. One says he was 1.68 M tall, another 1.65.5 M!

1.10.99 One Year Volunteer Bav. Inf Rgt 19

1.4.00 Gefreiter

2.8.00 supernumerary Unteroffizier

1.10.00 Unteroffizier (dR ?)

1.12.05 Sergeant (dR ?)

9.9.08 Vizefeldwebel (he signed as "dL I") and Intendantursekret?r-Anw?rter

8.4.11 Intendantur-Di?tar (initial "Lt" level)

8.1.12 #3 Leutnant der Reserve in Bav. Inf Rgt 21

15.4.16 no # Oberleutnant dR Bav. Inf Rgt 21

[landsknechte]

Wow. Got home and realized just how odd the settings on the [shared] computer that I use at work actually are. Anyhow, let's try this one on...

Edited March 26, 2006 by landsknechte

[landsknechte]

[landsknechte]

[landsknechte]

[Ulsterman]

Bloody hell! This is GREAT stuff! I did not know the Bavarian archives gave out this level of detail!

[Guest Rick Research]

Well, they never did in the Good Old Days on reserve officers, but this is all what would have been found in the Auszug aus der Kriegsrangliste of a regular officer.

That's what's MISSING here (which would give his wartime day by day assignments and award dates) from this civilian-end stuff. I suspect the holdings are divided and the two branches of the same building don't talk to each other.

The KRIEGSARCHIV should certainly have his Auszug.

His father was listed as a something-owner, but simply can't read what that one word says. Too chicken scratched and skippy.

Received a Readiness Certificate 2.8.00 which was presumably for suitability as a Reserve Officer Aspirant though it doesn't say.

He pulled some hard long peacetime training call ups--

15 July to 3 November 1908 with Bav Inf Rgt 21

11.4-8.5.12 Training Course with II Bav Army Corps and then right into 9.5. to 5 June with BIR 21 again.

1913 is crossed out and replaced only by "from 30.8. 56 days exercise" with BIR 21

1914 is scribbled "released from exercises." (HA!)

And that's the gist except for correspondce file numbers and rather cryptic remarks with codings that apparently refere-- before the Great War-- to anticipated landwehr status as up to 1927.

[Ulsterman]

Interesting file, do I read correctlt that his son is born almost 10 months to the day after his marriage, but then #1 son dissapears by 1914, when daughter (Irmintrude?) arrives.

[landsknechte]

That's what's MISSING here (which would give his wartime day by day assignments and award dates) from this civilian-end stuff. I suspect the holdings are divided and the two branches of the same building don't talk to each other.

The KRIEGSARCHIV should certainly have his Auszug.

To pull an ancient thread out of the depths of the ether, I've finally got a moment of sanity again in my life, and I'd like to go back in and see what could be dug up. Any suggestions how to go about contacting the Kriegsarchiv and requesting this info, especially given my mediocre grasp of the German language.

[webr55]

I think his father was "Anwesenbesitzer" in the first doc, i.e., the owner of some estate. The second doc calls him "Privatier" indicating he had retired by then.

His son Hans obviously died as a child.