Is this a F.A.M & Balten- Kreuz Ribbon bar

[Bill Gracie]

Ribbon Bar;

[Bill Gracie]

I have confirmed the bar it is a Balten-Kreuz.

This now raises another question, what was it awarded for and is it displayed in the right order?

Bill

[Rick Research]

Awarded in 1919 for a hopeless attempt at holding on in Latvia. It is NOT in the correct order-- but then it very rarely ever is! Nice pre-WW2 swords, looks like a minty "Ugly" (that is, period non-regulation) bar.

There were something like 20,000 Baltic Crosses awarded. Originally intended as a ribboned award that would be worn on a medal bar, most ended up being "fashionable" as pinbacks, with a ribbon worn only on ribbon bars since there was nothing to suspend on a full medals bar.

This was one of three Freikorps awards recognized as official decorations by both Nazi Germany and the Federal Republic, the other two being the 1919 and 1921 Silesian eagles and the 1919 Bremen Iron Roland. All the other Freikorps awards were banned in the mid 1930s.

[Bill Gracie]

G'day Rick,

I knew I could rely on your knowledge. I knew that it was a Baltic cross but didn't know the history behind it.

Btw, this bar cost me $5.00

Regards,
Bill

[Dez H]

Hello all

Looks like you got a sweet deal there Bill.
I apologise for steering this chat off topic but I have a “stupid question for the day.” Why were nearly all the Freikorps awards banned from being worn under the Third Reich? Is this for the same reasons that many of the veteran’s awards and division medals were also banned and the Hindenburg Cross was introduced? However I have seen many Medal bars/ribbon bars which feature say the Austrian/Hungarian commemorative awards but also the Hindenburg cross. I realise that these are probably two questions rolled into one but are they related? Thanks in advance.


Regards

Dez

[Rick Research]

Bill-- $5 A or $5 U.S. ? Either way, it's been long years since I found a bar for under $2 per ribbon!

Dez-- the other Freikorps awards were banned because they were created by private initiative, each unit "inventing" their own awards. The Silesian Eagle had Army Corps authorization, and the Bremen and Baltic awards were sanctioned by governmental authority-- even though in the case of the Baltic, they Ceased To Be (like the "Dead Parrot Sketch" ) soon thereafter.

The Hungarian, Austrian, and Bulgarian WW1 Commemorative Medals were also official State awards. Oddly enough the Austrians had two strange ones of their own-- their 1919 Kärnten Crosses for border fighting with Yugoslavia WERE sanctioned (don't know enough about them to say why-- might make a good new thread if anybody has any of them-- I sold mine when I "retired" from Austrian collecting), and the Province of Tyrol WWI Commemorative Medal, created by the provincial government, survived Anschluss by two years, last being still awarded in... 1940!

But all of those had "official" creation rather than private initiative behind them, like all those other veterans awards.

[WNickel]

he wear his Baltic cross....

I have only one bar with the Baltic cross...