Finnish awards to Germans, 1918

[Rick Research]

Here is a rather loose thread. For other Finnish awards, see the International Forums threads, but this will be for awards and documents to GERMANS.

First up, an award document for the 1918 Finnish Medal of Liberty 2nd Class (bronze) to a member of the Saxon Karabiner Regiment:



The German forces in Finland in 1918 were a motley assortment of small units split off from the lower Baltic. The staff was originally numbered "12th Landwehr Division," but that apparently didn't sound martial enough, so the assorted units (which had NOT been under the original 12th LD) were hastily renamed the "Ostsee" ("Baltic") Division under Generalmajor Ru"diger Graf von der Goltz (1865-1930). His "signature" here is a stamp.

This was the ONLY Saxon unit in Finland.

[ 29 October 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]

[Rick Research]

This nice group came from the collection of the late British medals author and researcher, Col. C.M. Dodkins, DSO, OBE in 1991. He bought it from an English auction house in the early 1960s--and unfortunately glued a number of sticky labels and the auction listing on the back. Different times...



The owner was G. Graf von Bernstorff of Oldenburg Dragoner Regiment 19. Born about 1887/8, in the army 1906/7-1920: Leutnant 16.8.07 vorp., Oberleutnant 27.1.15, Rittmeister 25.11.16, and demobilized with that rank.

However, like most German officers who "resigned" to enter Finnish service, he received a bump up in rank, and was a Major (Majurri) in 1918, commanding the 2nd Rifles Regiment (II. Ja"aka"ri Rykmenti)--a mixture of Finns formerly volunteers in the German 27th Ja"ger Battalion, Finns who had not been in German military service, German cadre personnel, and Swedish volunteers.

This unit's main accomplishment was the liberation of the Swedish-Finnish city of Tammerfors/Tampere in fighting 28 March to 6 April 1918.

Notice that the ribbon on the Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty 2nd Class here is incorrect--what has been used as an approximation is the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Order of the Griffin ribbon. Apparently the German outfitter could not get the correct ribbon and this was "close enough." The mounting precedence indicates that this bar was made up after the 1938 Austrian Anschluss since the Austro-Hungarian Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with War Decoration is worn before the WWI Honor Cross, as a "German state" award.

This style of "flat bottom" bar is fairly uncommon, but is a type being massively faked nowadays since it is easier to make than the normal bunched/folded bottom Prussian parade mounted ones.

[ 29 October 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]

[eric]

Very nice!
Thanks for the excellent read. I have encountered similar types of medal bars from time to time. What is their relative rarity compared to medal bars with Freikorps awards?

[Rick Research]

Hard to say. Finnish awards are certainly harder to find than Turkish ones--fewer men involved, for a much shorter time period.

But most Freikorps awards were pinback badges, so that--and the 1934 wearing ban--cuts way down on finding any on medal bars.

[Dave Danner]

I know I've posted this before in the International Militaria thread, but since it's relevant and may have been missed:



Dave

[Rick Research]

Yup, yours isn't on the right ribbon either.

Which tells us SOMETHING about the size of the "aftermarket" on 1918 Finnish awards in Germany, doesn't it? Not enough business to keep all the varieties "in stock."

[knutssonm]

I got a simmilar award document to the one Rick posted. Its for a 1st class medal of liberty to a Gerfr. Paul Franke, 2 comp. Jaeger-batl. 4. The only thing that differs from Rick's doc is (obviosly) the printed unit and the border frame, probably due to this being the higher grade.
Seems a bit strange to me that this Finnish award was given by the German commander to the German troups, should this not have been done by the Finnish authorities?

[Rick Research]

It was probably easier for the Finnish authorities to tell the Germans that they could do all that paperwork!

I have a Medal of Liberty 2nd Class document that was given to a private who had been shipped home wounded, with other paperwork including that he finally got his 1918 Independence War Campaign Medal in 1935 by sending back all the documentation he had to the Finnish Military Attache. I'll get this posted in here too as we go along. (He was a pianist in East Berlin after WW2 and I always imagine him in the orchestra during the climax of Alfred Hitchcock's Julie Andrews espionage movie "Torn Curtain"...)

For a 1918 Silver Medal of Liberty and the Independence medal on a bar, see the thread here in Imperial started as "Silesian Eagles."

Some things just can't be fit neatly into only one place.