Named Austrian MVK

[Ed_Haynes]

Years ago, in a junk box from a European auction, I picked up a nice, mounted Austrian-Hungarian Militar Verdienstkreuz 3. klasse mit der Kriegsdecoration.

See:


http://faculty.winthrop.edu/haynese/.../eds/ed01.html

It is named on the reverse: "INDIA.MAGENTA / GM.REISCHACH".

From what I have been able to accomplish since I put the above-cited web page up (back in 1997), I now know he is PROBABLY:

Sigmund Reischach (SIGM. REISCHACH) who was awarded the cross in the battle field of CANDIA (near Magenta). I have also been TOLD OF a photograph of Reischach wearing this cross (right over a button of his uniform, thats why its so damaged). But I have not seen it.

I had thought he was: Carl Freiherr von Reiscnach - Major-General (1865), Grand Cross of the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle (1865), K.u.K wirklicher geheimer Rath, Kaemmerer, Vorsteher der Kammer seiner kaiserl koenigl Hoheit des Feldmarschall-Lieutenant Erzherzogs Franz Karl (in Wien [1865]). But that now seems not to be so.

Does ANYONE have ANY clues for me!

Thanks, and please,

Ed Haynes

PS- I do have some suspicions what the deal is here, but for the moment, I am playing (yes, playing!) dumb.

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Ed,

I have a problem with this cross. It looks like a WW1 piece, not like one from the 19th century.
The old ones had no white enamel on the crossarms.

Best regards

Daniel

[Glenn2438]

Ed,

well one thing is certain: It is not the cross of Generalmajor Carl Freiherr von Reischach. He did not have a Military Merit
Cross as anyone reading the 1865 Schematismus would discover.

There are only two officers listed in the 1859 Schematismus (published in December of that year and after the battle of
Magenta) with the name of Reischach who were recipients of the MVK. Both were awarded them in 1849 and not for
the battle of Magenta in 1859.

Feldmarschall-Lieutenant Sigmund Freiherr Reischach won his MVK as the commanding officer of Infantry Regiment
Number 7 following the campaigns of 1848/49. Incidentally he was also the recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Military
Order of Maria Theresia also won for the battle of Montanara in 1848. He died as a Feldzeugmeister in 1878.

As Daniel remarks, it does appear to be a later model MVK.

Regards
Glenn

[stogieman]

Keep it simple!

No Austrian Jeweler ever handpainted that lettering!