Wound Badge Designer?

[chuck]

Daer Fellow Members, 

 

 

 

  I recently came upon a website stating that a Storm Grenadier Paul Kredlow was the designer of the Wound Badge 1914-1918 in the summer of 1917. I've always understood that the designer was unknown. The website cites "Uniform-Markt" which i believe is a commercial publication for military uniforms, and orders that was published from 1934 to 1945.  In addition, and contradicting this claim, I have read in The History of the Iron Cross and Wound Badge by Gordon McGregor (pg. 76) that the question had been raised to the military archive in Potsdam in 1937, and that the reply was that the archive did not know "who the designer of the badge was".

 

www.Heimatsammlung-Essen.de - Wounded Badge

 

 I was wondering if anyone had heard of this previously, or as i am not a German Speaker if they know more of or have the publication source??

 

Regards,

Chuck

[v.Perlet]

Hello chuck,

 

I would say that the only way to confirm this "story" or event is via someone producing original scripts or design sketches that could support this claim.

Another question would also be, as to what kind of design was forwarded by Paul Kredlow or Godet, and as to what degree did it reflect the Woundbadge - approved - introduced by Willi in 1918.

 

The one most viable to confirm this would be company Godet via its archives, respectively:

Bund Deutscher Ordenssammler / Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ordenskunde e.V.

 

https://www.deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-ordenskunde.de/DGOWP/

 

Lots of e-mail addresses on the page and I am quite sure that most if not all can speak English.

 

Regards

v.Perlet

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by v.Perlet

[chuck]

Hi v.Perlet, 

Thank you for your suggestions and the link.  I have contacted the website to enquire if they could provide any further details of the story, or event. The reason i had originally posted this question was in the hope a GMIC member may have already heard of this story and could provide some further insight. Now i will wait and see if i receive a reply from the website.

 

Regards,

Chuck

 

On 30/01/2022 at 02:01, v.Perlet said:

Hello chuck,

 

I would say that the only way to confirm this "story" or event is via someone producing original scripts or design sketches that could support this claim.

Another question would also be, as to what kind of design was forwarded by Paul Kredlow or Godet, and as to what degree did it reflect the Woundbadge - approved - introduced by Willi in 1918.

 

The one most viable to confirm this would be company Godet via its archives, respectively:

Bund Deutscher Ordenssammler / Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ordenskunde e.V.

 

https://www.deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-ordenskunde.de/DGOWP/

 

Lots of e-mail addresses on the page and I am quite sure that most if not all can speak English.

 

Regards

v.Perlet

 

 

[v.Perlet]

Hello Chuck,

 

I will keep my fingers crossed for a speedy and informative reply from Bund Deutscher Ordenssammler

 

Regards

v.Perlet

[BlackcowboyBS]

Please have a look at this link here, it shows an article with an interview of Paul Krecklow. 

Edited February 7, 2022 by BlackcowboyBS

[v.Perlet]

Hello chuck,

 

someone or some people are a lot faster on this topic?

 

have a look on:

 

eBay-Artikelnummer: 203700820280, selling this stuff for 30-40euro

The seller says it is based on the design by Paul Kredlow

 

Regards

v.Perlet

Edited February 9, 2022 by v.Perlet

[chuck]

Hi v.Perlet, 

 

I actually have seen these and thought it was a modern fantasy piece. interesting to know there is some slight history even though it is a fantasy piece.  

 

Regards, 

Chuck 

 

11 hours ago, v.Perlet said:

Hello chuck,

 

someone or some people are a lot faster on this topic?

 

have a look on:

 

eBay-Artikelnummer: 203700820280, selling this stuff for 30-40euro

The seller says it is based on the design by Paul Kredlow

 

Regards

v.Perlet

 

Edited February 9, 2022 by chuck

[BlackcowboyBS]

I have been asked to post the photo of the linked interview with Paul Krecklow as some of you can't open the link. As it is from the long gone magazin unifom market I guess it is okay to post it here.

 

 

[v.Perlet]

Hello BlackcowboyBS

 

thanks a lot! interesting read.

 

Have you or anyone else ever seen or noticed a "Mattweisses (matt-white) Verwundetetnabzeichen"? before reading this article? it should be very rare

but it is being offered for more or less the same $ as a black one.

 

Or is Mattweis just another name for Silver?

 

 

Regards

v.Perlet

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by v.Perlet

[saschaw]

1 hour ago, v.Perlet said:

Or is Mattweis just another name for Silver?

Actually, the Prussian(!) „Abzeichen für Verwundete“ was instituted by Wilhelm II. on March 3rd, 1918 in three grades: schwarz, mattweiß and mattgelb. You will not find any official document that mentions a badge in Silber or Gold until 1939. These terms, probably used colloquially before, were only used for the 1939 reinstitution.

 

See Hinze, Dietmar: Das preußische Verwundetenabzeichen von 1918. Anmerkungen zu seiner Stiftung vor 100 Jahren. In: Orden und Ehrenzeichen. Das Magazin für Freude der Phaleristik. Heft 114 vom April 2018. p. 62–80.

[v.Perlet]

Hello saschaw,

 

thanks for that info - I never realized that, since I only possess one in black and I can't recall seeing those "official" descriptions on seller sites or e.g. evilbay when referring to this medal of WW1.

 

Could any manufacturer or goldsmith create what ever versions they liked after November 1918?

Eisen gold plated. Blech coated silver etc. or see e.g. Kaiserreich Verwundetenabzeichen gold 14 18 durchbrochen.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/265454013211?hash=item3dce4acb1b:g:zYwAAOSwt2phufX8

 

BTW, who created the Durchbrochene version and why?

 

Regards

v.Perlet

Edited February 10, 2022 by v.Perlet

[chuck]

Hi V.Perlet, 

 

The 1914/18 wound badge was widely produced by many companies in all three versions Black, Matt White and Matt Gold after the end of the 1st World War. I know of several Companies such as Godet, Assmann, Otto Schickle, Wilhelm Deumer, and Pual Meybauer that all produced badges commercially with various backing devices.  Most companies did not mark their badges so that it is not so easy to identify manufacturers.

 

As for your second question, i have never heard of who produced the first design and why. I would also like to know who may have been the designed and when as it was not an officially produced badge. 

 

 

Regards, 

Chuck  

 

P.S. I think this would make fascinating article as their is a general lack of good books.

[v.Perlet]

Hello Chuck,

 

that several manufacturers were involved is clear to me. My question was more as to adhering to given standards in regards to coating versions and the substance of the core-material. - which I believe was only Eisen/iron.

 

If you say 'first design" you got me confused a bit, since I thought the closed version is the one that Willi approved in March 1918 - was it the Durchbrochene version then?

 

Regards

v.Perlet

[chuck]

a mistake in typing i had meant open design.

 

i have also read iron was the original material, but commercial versions were made of many different metals.

 

Regards

Chuck

[chuck]

 

On 11/02/2022 at 02:10, v.Perlet said:

Hello Chuck,

 

that several manufacturers were involved is clear to me. My question was more as to adhering to given standards in regards to coating versions and the substance of the core-material. - which I believe was only Eisen/iron.

 

If you say 'first design" you got me confused a bit, since I thought the closed version is the one that Willi approved in March 1918 - was it the Durchbrochene version then?

 

Regards

v.Perlet

Hi  v.Perelt,

In accordance with the implementation regulations for the Wound Badge "The Badge is of Iron" Cited  from For Valour, pg 68, Gordon McGregor.

Regards, 

Chuck

[v.Perlet]

Thanks chuck,

 

I noticed that almost all offered Wound Badges show all kinds of other materials.

Therefore my thought is as to only one of iron would actually be authentic.

 

Regards

v.Perlet

[chuck]

Gentlemen,

 

My first attempt at a translation of old German script. Corrections are most welcome from the forum welcome.

 

Who Invented the Wound Badge?

 

For months the management of the "UM" has been trying to follow the original idea of the German wounded badge. Unfortunately, the officials of the former Prussian Ministry of War still give the files of the military department in Aufichluiz (clothing department?) about who presented the wounded badge during the world war. 

We were lucky by chance

One day a customer sold a wounded badge in a Berlin suburb, and in the trades quarter each customer asked casually: 
"Do you also know, Herr Wels, that this wounded badge was made?"

The owner of the Geichaf didn't say it, but he was happy to tell me and said: That belongs in a trade journal, in the "Uniform Market." 
The "UM" connected with the gentlemen in question. It is Mr. Paul Krecklow in Throm, district of Teltow. 

----- our first meeting ----- Mr. Krecklow handed over a very extensive manuscript for naming, his war experience:
Paul Krecklow, born in 1893, belonged to the "Storm Grenadiers" in the World War I, the Army Storm Battalion, which particularly often faced death, and currently the 1st Company Storm Battalion 2 v. Grave. When the battalion was founded, Krecklow, who had previously served with the Zehr Infantry Regiment, had volunteered. On the wide front and in Italy, the battalion was deployed to the burning atmosphere of the battles. 

In his war memoirs, which were described and unfortunately not yet printed, Krecklow had already written the Abichuitt "How the Wound Badge was Made". But we wanted to be more specific about the facts of the matter, and so we made an appointment again with Mr. Krecklow for Thursday of last week. 

If you were wounded," Mr. Krecklow said, "and after recovering to ----- a new regiment, you ----- were regarded as a 'Reuling'. I was therefore excited by the thought of finding a symbol that identified the front-line sampler, who had already been wounded, as such. I'm thinking about it in the base quarters, and I hastily drew a sketch showing a steel helmet surrounded by oak leaves with swords drawn. I formulated the proposal to issue a black 
wound badge for one or two wounds, a silver one for three or four wounds, and a gold wound badge for five or more wounds. 

I was wounded three times then. As a Berliner, I knew the Godet firm in Charlotten street, Berlin. Then, in the late summer of 1917, I received my draft (a kind of difficult sketch) with explanations, and I asked the company to forward the proposal to the relevant authority. Then one day I was donated to the clerk Karl Sunnemann (today mayor of the city of Oldensdorf, district of Holzminden) from the company bureau to Sergeant Lautenichsager (unfortunately I haven't found his address yet). I was told that I had contacted an authority without 
following the official channels, and I was handed a letter from the internal department of the Breutz War Ministry to read, which had roughly the following content: "The proposal for the creation of the wounded badge has also been accepted; it has been forwarded." The letter ends with a Dance. In the Anichlutz, I was once again thrown into a conversation about this matter by the company commander, Oberleutnant Kuhnow - now Major (E) in Berlin. - on this subject. - The wounded badge was donated by AKO on March 3rd, 1918." 

Paul Krecklow has been duly discharged from military service. In business relations he had to overcome difficulties because of his national sentiment. After his commercial existence he was unemployed for years because of his righteous national sentiment. He made his way through life faithfully and well-behaved:  He worked on construction sites, delivered bathroom goods for a long time, was an extra in films, helped build the Reich autobahn and today is a material distributor at Daimler-Benz A.G. - In the spring of 1918 he lost the matt white wounded badge.  

We are also happy to talk about this remarkable suggestion for the creation of a German Wound Badge because we have not yet shed any light on the preliminary question so far back. After all, a duplication of the idea is also conceivable. In any case, Paul Krecklow has a share in the idea, especially since his preliminary report corresponded exactly to the previous version, and it would be desirable for the history of the wounded badge to be reproduced completely  so that it can be documented in the army archives.

 

 

Regards, 

Chuck