My God, it is full of errors!

[webr55]

Gentlemen,

a considerable amount of our ID research is based on the 1924 Reichsheer ranklist. We usually take for granted that those putting together and proof-reading the ranklists had to be - being German - very accurate! However, especially Rick already pointed to some errors.

Now I wanted to know how good the list really is: I compared award entries on five pages to those in the 1932 RL, presuming, of course, that errors had been corrected by then and no new ones inserted! This is just a small sample, and I only compared a couple of random entries, but the result is staggering: Twelve major mistakes on five pages:

p. 141:

Hptm Glokke, missing a Hamburg Hanseatic Cross

Hptm Förster, missing a Saxe-Meiningen Cross

p. 144:

Hptm Brosch, erroneously given a LS

Hptm Behschnitt, ?R2K should read ?R4K

p. 145:

Hptm Heinrici, missing a Saxe-Coburg medalX

Hptm v. Kleist, missing a Life-Saving medal (THIS one might have been awarded later)

Hptm v. Chappuis, missing a Wound Badge

p. 146:

Hptm Stimmel, missing an SA3aX

Hptm Wolff, missing an SE3X

p. 147:

Hptm Wagner, missing a Wound Badge

Hptm v. Studnitz, EK2 should read EK1

Hptm Otto, missing a HE3X

I think the upshot of this is: Always compare 1924 entries to later ones!

Edited November 11, 2017 by webr55

[Guest Rick Research]

Yup. I missed identifying an admiral's ribbon bar because there was a glitch with his entry in the 1926 Reichsmarine that WAS corrected in 1931-- only I never thought to compare both.

It's all part of what makes the "certainly identifiable" not necessarily so.

In 1928, for instance, a number of officers "disappear" from the army Lists for 2-3 years...

off for illegal aviation training at Lipetsk in the Soviet Union.

They then magically reappear in 1930 or 1931 with seniorities amazingly intact and no mention of what happened.

Bottom line is that it takes comparing multiple issues of multiple years, and all in microscopic Gothic typeface with mysterious "hieroglyphics" awards squiggles. It is no wonder that occasionally eyes glaze over, minds wander...

and answers that ARE there get pages turned past by Human Error.

It's not an easy life, but somebody's got to do it.