Award Criteria for Imperial Awards?

[Brian R]

Are there any references (online etc.) that explain the criteria for the awarding of Imperial German awards. There are so many great descriptions available regarding WWII German Combat, Campaign and Service awards, but what about the various awards of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemburg etc.?

[Rick Research]

You just have to ask here for specific questions, because the General Background would produce as many volumes as a medieval monastery!

[Brian R]

Rick-

Thanks for the response. I guess it's pretty much what I figured.
To start, I'd be interested to know the criteria of the following three medals...

Saxon Albert Order Knight's Cross
Prussian Order of the Red Eagle
Saxe-Meinengen Military Merit Cross 1st Class

Were the awards of the various German states from 1871-1918 generally service awards (as opposed to awards for bravery)? I'm a Third Reich collector who has been bitten REALLY HARD by the Imperial bug over the past year or so so I'm really excited to learn about the various awards of the German Empire.

Brian

[Dave Danner]

With the exception of the three Free and Hanseatic Cities (Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck), all of the German states had one or more orders of knighthood awarded to government officials, nobles, military officers and others. Military awards were for merit, long service, bravery, leadership, etc., and the particular grade of the order depended primarily on the officer's rank.

Typically, there was a medal or cross for NCOs and enlisted personnel and for civil servants whose status wouldn't qualify for an order. These medals and crosses were often associated with a specific order (the "Gold and Silver Merit Medals of the Ducal Saxe-Ernestine House Order" of the three Saxon duchies, for example). Some were separate from any order, though, and served as a general merit medal fo the state. Often, these too came in various grades and rank was the main criterion determining which grade someone received.

Several of the larger states - Prussia (Pour le Merite), Bavaria (Military Order of Max Joseph and Military Merit Order), Saxony (Military Order of Stogieman, sorry St. Henry), Württemberg (Military Merit Order), and Baden (Military Merit Order of Charles Frederick) - had a military-specific order to complement their more generic orders. Many also had a high bravery medal for enlisted soldiers (Prussia's Golden and Silver Military Merit Crosses, Saxony's Gold and Silver Medals of the Military Order of St. Henry, and Baden's Merit Medal of the Military Merit Order of Charles Frederick, for example).

The Prussian Iron Cross fell into another category. This was a military award and was awarded without regard to rank, usually for bravery or war merit. Several states followed Prussia's example and established similar "egalitarian" awards. Among these were Anhalt (Friedrich Cross), Brunswick (War Merit Cross), Hesse (General Honor Decoration "For Bravery"), Lippe-Detmold (War Merit Cross), Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Military Merit Cross), Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Cross for Distinction in War), Oldenburg (Friedrich August Cross), Schaumburg-Lippe (Cross for Loyal Service) and the three Hanseatic Cities (Hanseatic Crosses). Like Prussia's EK, the awards of Brunswick, the two Lippes, the two Mecklenburgs and Oldenburg came in 2 classes, one on a ribbon and the other a pinback cross. As with the EK, receipt of the 2nd class was a prerequisite for teh 1st class.

During World War I, several states in Thuringia - Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Reuss - created pinback crosses, theoretically open to all ranks, as awards for bravery. All required that the recipient already have received the EK.I. Due to the limited numbers awarded, these are the rarities of Imperial German military awards.

This is a basic overview of the awards system. The best source in English of information on numbers awarded and award criteria is probably the late Neal O'Connor's series of books, Aviation Awards of Imperial Germany in World War I and the Men Who Earned Them. There isn't a good comprehensive online source. Although full of gaps and lacking information on criteria, I hope my page at least is helpful for identifying most of the military awards: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/states.htm

Regards,
Dave

[PaulHD]

Hi Brian.

An excellent source on-line is Andreas Schulze-Ising
web site, www.medalnet.net

regards, Paul

[Rick Research]

Specifically:

The Saxon Albert Order was that Kingdom's "basic" award, from which recipients ascended through the levels of awards by rank. Knights 2nd Class were Lieutenants, Kinghts 1st Class were Captains and Majors, Knights 1st with Crown were Captains through Lieutenant Colonels, etc-- or the civilian status equivalents. In peacetime, everybody got these without swords. In wartime, military personnel received swords.

The Red Eagle Order had been Prussia's basic order, the one really senior Captains/Majors got in the 4th Class after 25+ years of slogging (same in the civil service). Andreas Schulze-Ising's site has a good idea of the terrifying number of variations and varieties of this Order. Again, class recieved was directly linked to the person's status, so it is possible to say what level someone had reached from a medal or ribbon bar.

The Saxe-Meiningen Award was their basic award for officers in WW1. Enlisted ranks got the same award-- really a medal-- without the spaces between the cross and medal rim cut out, and without the crown on top the officers' version had. While it WAS awarded to all sorts of "non-natives," it seems to have been the case that a non-Meining-ian would more likely have gotten a Saxe-Ernestine House Order with Swords than one of these. (States always liked to kiss up by giving Outlanders higher stuff than poor hard working natives got! )

In WW1, almost all the local awards were direct EK2 equivalents, which natives usually got as their first award-- though some required having the EK2 before getting anything else...

and THAT is where we get into the Multi-Volumes problem!

[Brian R]

Great info!!

Thanks so much guys!!

Dave- You have helped me understand the general atmosphere in which these awards were bestowed. Given the fact that so many different medals from different sates could be worn at one time, it's nice to know the basic facts. I have visted your website many times without realizing it was created by you. It is a tremendous resource and I will continue to study it.

Rick- Thanks for laying out the specifics on the awards I mentioned above. Now I understand what these medals meant to the states that instituted them. As always, you are a GREAT help. I have read your ribbon article before. Now I can read it again, this time with a better idea of how the whole system worked.

All the best,
Brian