Saxe-Altenburg Medal Bar Medal Information

[GODISHIGH]

Hello, some questions about the bar and medals

Were the Austrian and Hungarian commemorative medals given to all soldiers who were members of the Central Powers or to soldiers who fought in or specifically for Austria-Hungary?

Seeing that the recipient was awarded the Saxe-Altenburg Bravery Medal and has no other specific Duchy/Kingdom awards I would that mean he was a Saxe-Altenburg Duchy citizen?

Would the swords device on the Austrian medal mean he fought in Austria or with the Austrian army?

Thanks
John

[scottplen]

I think they had to apply for the Austrian and Bulgarian medals they were commemorative . 
he would be a native from Saxe-Altenberg . 
here is one I have with no commemoratives but an Austrian Silver bravery medal .
Only about 2300 war medal Altenberg 

bravery medals . Now we both need to find early one ! 

Edited July 23, 2022 by scottplen

[Dave Danner]

There is no connection between where one served and whether one had the Austrian, Bulgarian and/or Hungarian war commemorative medals. As scottplen says above, you simply applied for them. Some applied for all three, some for none, and some for a combination of them.

 

2300 is what Nimmergut gave for one version (late war zinc). There were about 15000 awards according to Stijn David's research.

 

The Bravery Medal was mainly awarded to Saxe-Altenburg citizens or to members of Saxe-Altenburg contingents.

 

The main one of these was Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 153, which accounts for over 5000 awards. There were also Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 36 with about 500 awards and Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 264 with about 300 awards. A number of other units also received upwards of 100 or more medals, but these would have been mostly to Altenburg natives in those units. These include IR 184, IR 361, RIR 66, RIR 231, LIR 93 and Landsturm-Infanterie-Bataillon Altenburg IV/6.