Two ribbon bars belonging to Fregattenkapitän Ernst Kunau

[landsknechte]

I've been been working on this one for a couple of months now, having finally sorted out a clerical error in my research that derailed me a bit...

 

 

 

There were only two candidates in the 1918 Naval Ranklist that tick all of the boxes:

 

 

 

Both had been in the Navy long enough to have the 1897 Centenary Medal, with Kunau entering in 1896, and Schulz in 1894. 

 

The Boxer Rebellion ended up being the key.  Theoretically Schulz could have had a steel grade, but I couldn't find a visible connection.  Kunau's entry in the 1908/1909 Deutscher Ordens Almanach omits it, mentioning the RAO4, 1897 Centenary Medal, and the Russian St. Anne Order.  However, the 1901 Naval Ranklist lists him as being on the SMS Fürst Bismarck, which would have warranted a bronze.  

 

 

 

Additionally, Daniel Krause was kind enough to check his database for me.  Kunau lines up nicely while Schulz ended up with additional decorations not present on either bar.

 

Curiously enough, on the eve of the Great War, the two men were co-workers:

 

 

Anyhow, most of what I've got concerning his WWI service comes from the Ehrenrangliste der Kaiserlich Deutschen Marine (1914-18):

 

 

He remained in the Kiel area during the interwar period, and ended up back in uniform in WWII, commanding a banana boat turned troop transport.  His ship (the Pionier) was ferrying troops between Norway and Germany when it was torpedoed by a British sub, less than a week after his 61st birthday.  About 60% of the crew and  passengers survived, however the captain was not among them.