L@@K-- Rated XX L@@K

[Guest Rick Research]

You guys are SUCH perverts!

From THIS, all that follows---

Yes, it is true. I am starting to "fade" from wearing the ring too much, but I am thus enabled to see the unseen, and to dissipate the blurs and smudges of the Shadow World mere humans cannot see.

[Guest Rick Research]

He was indeed rated for the XX, the Prussian "LD1"

Max Graf von P?ckler (Hey! Neato! A Count!), of Landwehrbezirk Schweidnitz , Rittmeister der Garde-Landwehr Kavallerie I (well, at least it was GUARD) was authorized this at Breslau on 20 September 1897.

One NON about these is at least they were signed by the Army Corps Commander

[Guest Rick Research]

and that would be this'm...

"Bernhard (then) Erbprinz von (Sachsen-) Meiningen" (1851-1928)

the guy whose reigning monarch initial "B" would bedeck Saxe-Meiningen's WW1 awards...

and who happened to be the Kaiser's brother-in-law.

Of course, NOBODY was more obscure and underdecorated than Landwehr officers

[Guest Rick Research]

Don't have an 1897, so let's check up on Max in my 1890 Rank List...

yup, there he is.

Hey! Wait a minute!!!!

SEVEN years before his "20" and where's his "LD2?" Dood's got no LD2!!!

And

Red Eagle 4 and Saxon Albert-Knight 1st (ohhhhkay)... but what's with all these "um Hals" necky THINGS?

[Guest Rick Research]

Fast forward to my next issue, 1902:

Hey now!!!!! WhatwhatwhatWHAT??? Just L@@K at all that stuff draped all over him!

What WAS this dood?

Surely a diplomat? An ambassador?

[Guest Rick Research]

Righto! Let's cut to the chase and check this guy out in the 1908-09 Orders Almanac annnnnnd

Max was

(drumroll, puhleeez)

An "Over-Kitchen-Master"!!!!

Cookies? Soups? Sooooooooouffles?

"Your Excellency" for THAT????????

[Guest Rick Research]

1914:

still cookin'....

[Guest Rick Research]

OK, let's try the 1914 "Wer Ist's?"

(THANKS GLENN!!!!!! )

Oh!

Simultaneously BARON von Groditz

AND he was a "Really Secret Rat," too!

Almost as good as a Grand Exalted Poohbah!

That MUST mean (wait for it!)

[Guest Rick Research]

TADAAAH!!!!! And who says Landwehr officers can't be found during the war!?

I give you...

The Court And State Handbook, 1917!

[Guest Rick Research]

OK, that was just a ploy for sympathy and/or pity.

THAT is the sort of thing (multiply by 1 gazillion pages, and all in microscopic Martin Luther typeface) that wizards of the arcane and obscure must deal with on a daily basis...

is it any wonder we turn out this way?

But I digress!

Max, Count von P?ckler wassssssssss

(drumrolls puhleez)

the KAISER'S Over-Kitchen-Master!!!!

WuuuuuuuuuuuEeeeee!!!!

An Imperial Household Lounge Lizard!

"My compliments to the chef... and for that fellow over there in the full cavalry parade dress wearing the tall paper hat-- this sash and star!"

[Guest Rick Research]

And here we have a combination of That Which Is Knowable from the unlikely combination (ain't this yar Internet thang sumthin fine?) of the Mormon Church online and our own Glenn's Continental Branch of the Arcane & Forgotten Library:

"Maximilian Erdmann Karl Eduard Graf von P?ckler, was born 23 October 1851 in Breslau and died 21 May 1921 at Rogau. Herr auf Rogau-Rosenau and Marxdorf, Kreis Schweidnitz and Herr auf Grunau, Kreis Nimptsch. Royal Prussian "Oberk?chenmeister", Excellency, Major a.D. and Hofmarschall a.D., "Landes?ltester" and Rechtsritter of the Johanniter Order. Married 3 Feb 1894 {{after a mysterious 1891 divorce to which neither I nor the CoLDS can find the other spouse's name--RR}} in Berlin to Helene Gr?fin von der Schulenburg born at ?ste on 18 December 1866 and died at Breslau on 26 January 1927. "Palastdame" to the then Empress and Queen Auguste Viktoria of Prussia.

His son, Wilhelm August Viktor Erdmann Karl Hermann Ernst Graf von P?ckler, born 22 November 1901 at Rogau was killed in action in the East on the 16th of August 1941 not far short of his fortieth birthday as a Feldwebel (Res.-Off.-Anw?rter) in a Panzer-Regiment. Owner of family estates at Schedlau and Groditz, Kreis Falkenberg in Upper Silesia, he married Hedwig (Hedda) vom dem Knesebeck at L?wenbruch on the 19th of July 1924 and was the father of three daughters and a son."

and from reserve officers and Stammliste info from Glenn:

"Graf P?ckler was originally a regular officer as his original patent was 21.11.70. A quick cross reference of that patent date in the 1871 V?llst?ndige Anciennet?ts-Liste shows that our man was a originally a Seconde-Lieutenant in Leib-K?rassier-Regiments Gro?er Kurf?rst Nr. 1. By 1879 he was the senior Seconde-Lieutenant in his regiment and attending the War Academy Course. He was promoted to Premier-Lieutenant on 13.1.81. By 1884 he is shown with the Garde du Corps and attached for service with the General Staff so presumably passed the Kriegsakademie Course well enough.

Having served as the adjutant of the 1. Garde-Kavallerie-Brigade from 8 April 1884 until 1 May 1885 by 1886 he is the senior Premier-Lieutenant in the Garde du Corps. Promoted to Rittmeister on the 11.2.86 he commanded 10. Companie of the GdC until appointed On 16 August 1887 to command of the Leib-Companie. On the 1st of August 1888 he was seconded to the court and retired on the 1st of September 1888 with the uniform of the Garde du Corps thus beginning his second career. Strangely enough his Rittmeister's Patent in the Reserve Dienstaltersliste is shown as 11.2.96 but this must be a mistake since he had been a squadron commander since at least 86/87. He was promoted to char. Major on 12.12.01."

Rogau church, BTW, was where the poet warrior of Prussia's war of liberation against Napoleon, Theodor K?rner, raised the L?tzow J?gers' standard of revolt

and made of PRUSSIA a world power--with all that would mean for the next 150 years.

We hope you have enjoyed this tale.

[Stogieman]

Well that is some tale! This is the group you mentioned to me last week?

[Guest Rick Research]

Eez no a "group" eez a "single."

Some questions remain:

1) Why did he only get his XX in 1897 if he had been a regular officer 1870-88-- and never got an LD2?

2) who was the Mysterious Divorced First Wife of 1891--and why was he kept on at Court after that?

3) why didn't ALL the Kaiser's dinner guests, luncheon pals and breakfast companions shower baubles upon the Excellent Count of the Cuisine?

4) where IS all the rest of his stuff, that one forlorn (but immaculately preserved and so we can only assume IS all the rest) document was tossed aside as unwanted from?

5) how much (with postage) did the Good Ricky pay, just to be able to make this story my own and amuse you'uns?

6) what kind of WW1 decorations to the Over-Kitchen-Master actually GET? He could hardly have been given Xs to all those sashes and stars as if he was a Corps Commander instead of a Marshal of the Menu!!!

[Mike Dwyer]

Hey, chefs and lounge lizards are important too! Somebody has to keep all those royals happy! Remember the guy that was posted awhile back with the huge chest-full of medals and he was the station master of the Berlin train station?

Wow, what a service record, Garde du Corps, then palace kitchen master! That's exactly the type of guy I would have wanted to have been had I lived and served back then!

Why thank you, your majesty, yes, yes, I did make the creme brulee myslef, and, oh, thank you for the grand collar to the Exalted Order of the Myopic Eagle of Pottsylvania!

(Although I bet he wasn't a chef and did no cooking, he was just the administrator in charge of the kitchen!)

Edited April 26, 2006 by Mike Dwyer

[Stogieman]

It'shereby official.......

Rick Research is a PAPER-PERVERT!

[Daniel Murphy]

Rick,

You continue to amaze us by always pulling that proverbial rabbit out of the hat. Great job. I was thinking the same as Mike, with that station masters story just recently posted, "Hmm, whose kitchen master would you have to be to be showered with decorations?".

Dan Murphy

[David Gregory]

Excellent analysis of a single document!

I wonder if there is any connection between Oberk?chenmeister Graf von P?ckler and F?rst P?ckler ice cream?

[Mike Dwyer]

Excellent analysis of a single document!

I wonder if there is any connection between Oberk?chenmeister Graf von P?ckler and F?rst P?ckler ice cream?

Don't know if they're any relation, but I found two different F?rst P?ckler titles:

1. F?rst von P?ckler und Limpurg, a title of the Holy Roman Empire

2. (probably the more likely one) Herman Ludwig Heinrich F?rst von P?ckler-Muskau, military officer and famous landscape gardener.

[Guest Rick Research]

Prince P?ckler ice cream??? "P?ck" and ICE CREAM shouldn't be in the same sentence!!!! (I went to school with a guy whose dairy family made ice cream-- they experimented and got terrific color from beets and tobacco... but the FLAVORS were.... oooooooooog.)

The families are related, but split well back. Interesting to note that ALL of them were apparently peculiar and not exactly clich? "Junkers!"

[MattGibbs]

They had interesting family ties to royalty too.

Princess Karolina Reuss a descendant of King Heinrich I von Weida by King Heinrich 5th of Reuss married Graf Karl von P?ckler-Burghauss, Freiherr von Groditz, son of Graf Erdmann von P?ckler, Freiherr von Groditz and Gr?fin Anna von Maltzan, Freiin zu Wartenberg und Penzlin Born 9 July 1817 in Tannhausen and Died 1 July 1899. Bet its the same family somewhere along the line as you say.

As for WW2 ancestors there was a Puckler-Burghauss who was an SS General. He's buried in Brno.

I wonder if P?ckler Freiherr v.Groditz, Hermann Graf v., geboren 1798, General und Oberstallmeister was his father?

Interesting family!

Regards

Matt Gibbs

[Guest Rick Research]

Research, like The Road, goes ever on.

Inspector Javert, eat your heart out.

This evening's 5:40 PM mail, on the eve of our second snow storm of the winter of 2007/2008, brought in the 1918 Prussian Court and State Handbook, copied to CD by our own Paul C as part of his next research bundle project.

[Guest Rick Research]

fast forward-- relatively speaking-- to 1918. And here is Count P?ckler's day job on the Council of Old Doods for Silesia

[Guest Rick Research]

And, entering the fifth year of the Great War, after 47 years of selfless service

(Waiter! Waiter! Cordon bleu! Ze souffl?! She is ruin!)

what had the third most PERSONAL of Services To The All-Highest Warlord gotten him?

ONE steenken medal. That's right.

An icky yucky zinky Prussian Red Cross Medal 3rd Class.

And yet even here, an informaional crumb is tossed us. He made "?" (surely an inappropropiate symbol for the Imperial Kitchen Master! ) Really Secret Rat on 22 March 1911.