Awaloff Repro

[Robin Lumsden]

It seems even the obscure Awaloff Cross is being faked.

[Robin Lumsden]

At least, it looks like a fake to me.

[Robin Lumsden]

Here's a known original which sold recently on eBay.

[Robin Lumsden]

With its ribbon.

[Nick]

Awaloff Cross ?

You are going to have to enlighten me on this one, it looks like a cross between the Order of St John and the SS ?

[Guest Rick Research]

"Prince" Bermont-Avalov (actually a former Tsarist bandmaster, if I recall correctly), raised a White Russian "army" in the Baltic which fought alongside the Germans in 1919-20.

I wouldn't touch that first one with a 10 meter pole, either.

Actually, the CORRECT ribbon on the second one shown is a bit of recycling. It was also the war-services ribbon of the Austrian Order of Malta--

thinking of which, THIS atypically South German style WW1 Bremen veteran's circa 1935 ribbon bar is probably much more likely the Bermont-Avalov Cross than the Austrian Malta!!! animal

[Stogieman]

I have a question..... were there not different grades of this cross, or was it strictly a Neck Order? I'm not saying the one Robin shows is legit.. but my initial impression is this would have been (1) a medal bar piece, not neck order..

(2) A spangen-stuch strictly for the medal bar??

The number struck in the back looks remarkably correct for other Friekorps pieces I have seen, but I'm pretty thin on experience in some of this stuff "between the wars".

[Robin Lumsden]

As far as I know, there were at least 2 variants of this thing, with and without swords, both neck badges. Going purely from memory, Awaloff fled to Denmark around 1920, which is when he founded his 'Order' and dished it out to those who had fought with him against the Reds in the Baltic. The entire German Iron Division had come under his command the year before, so many Germans would have qualified for the award. I've only ever seen one for sale (the eBay one above) which was part of a large Freikorps group, including miniatures, which sold individually for mega-bucks. Awaloff Crosses are shown in Huesken's and Niemann's references, the latter having a third 'variant' of the cross with swords shown at the top of this thread. It's interesting that when Awaloff created his 'Order', he used stock ribbon as already described above. However, the cross at the top has a different style ribbon, with the Imperial Russian colours on one side and the Imperial German colours on the other, which would make sense.

I do not like the cross at the top of the thread.......but could it possibly be original???

[Robin Lumsden]

This link tells the story of Awaloff's Order.........

http://www2.prestel.co.uk/church/selfstyle/ddm.htm

[landsknechte]

I happened across this a little while back:

--Chris

[landsknechte]

Other than mine and the bar that Rick posted, these are the only two examples that I have ever seen in ribbon bar form:

...one that was up on Manion's a while back...

...and one that's currently up on eBay being sold by a seller that I've been burnt by...

[landsknechte]

...and last but not least, a photo of one of the grades of the Austrian decoration from which the ribbon is "borrowed":

[Robin Lumsden]

What about the ribbon on the cross at the top of this thread? The one with the Russian and German colours?

Has anyone ever seen that ribbon before??

[Robin Lumsden]

I have a question..... were there not different grades of this cross, or was it strictly a Neck Order? I'm not saying the one Robin shows is legit.. but my initial impression is this would have been (1) a medal bar piece, not neck order..

(2) A spangen-stuch strictly for the medal bar??

The number struck in the back looks remarkably correct for other Friekorps pieces I have seen, but I'm pretty thin on experience in some of this stuff "between the wars".

←

My initial reaction about the one at the top was that it's fake. But now I wonder if it could be something from the 30s or even later as Awaloff and his self-instituted little 'Order' seems to have gone on for decades after the end of the Freikorps. Presumably, he could have had later ones made.

There were apparently various grades of the 'Order', some for Germans and some for Russians. What differentiated the two, I don't know. It may have been the ribbon, perhaps.

Edited May 18, 2005 by Robin Lumsden

[Robin Lumsden]

The cross at the top of this thread sold today on eBay for 380 Euros, or ?260. Apparently, it is definitely a fake, and one of a series of good quality copy Freikorps awards coming out of Hanover. The seller admitted that the skull had been broken off and reattached.

Out of interest, here's Awaloff himself, wearing a white version of the cross.......

[Robin Lumsden]

And here is Leutnant Raben, of the Iron Division's air squadron, wearing the black breast cross above his German awards. He is in the garb of the Russian-German Army of the West, which Awaloff commanded, and which adopted the Iron Division when the latter was disowned by the German government in 1919.

[Robin Lumsden]

The commander of the Iron Division, Major Josef Bischoff, wore his German uniform throughout the Baltic campaign.

[Robin Lumsden]

Here he is with a couple of comrades in Latvia in 1919.

[Robin Lumsden]

And here are his unit flags.

[HeikoGrusdat]

just some more pics of Awaloff brest crosses...

Heiko

[HeikoGrusdat]

and one more.... beautiful pieces!!!

[Tamosius]

Where I can buy these fake awards?

[Robin Lumsden]

The fake ones appear regularly on eBay.de

[nesredep]

Hello!

Interesting tread.

All the best

Nesredep

[saschaw]

Here is my one, one a W?rttemberger NCO's bar, isn't it?