Of Red Eagles

[McCulloh]

Excuse what are sure to be basic questions: but I lack OConners' book and can't find it for love or money.
Recentley on ebay there was a very nice bar (# 1174087334) auctioned off which included not only a noncom EK2 but also a "peacetime" red eagle 4th and a Crown Order 4th.
1. Who got the Red Adler MEDAL. What rank? Why? When?
2. In an article in the BDOS Journal #64 by Dr. Saurwald, he displays a Red Eagle 2nd as an "original" that has the brest shield colors reversed. That is, instead of the black being in the upper right and lower left shield quarters-well, it's reversed. I can find no other illustration of this anywhere else in any other reference I have.
What am I missing here? Is Saurwalds' article showing a reversed photo or were the 2nd classes really reversed?
Thanks,
JeMc

[Rick Research]

I hope Sam's bar has gone to a deserving home. I deserved it, but am still paying off Soviet heresies....

Red Eagle Order medal was given to NCOs, and after (I forget exactly) about 1900/1905 was rarely given to native Prussians (who got the General Decoration medal in silver instead), but only to NON-Prussians. Ditto with the Crown Order medal. REOM and COM were given out to Court flunkies and the like, whereas GenDec was usually earned by about 12-18 years service--though Karl Do"nitz got one for something as a naval cadet! A lot of WWI naval Warrant Officers had pre-1905-ish REOMs and COMs.

I have never seen ANY Red Eagle Order with the shield quartering reversed. Must have been somebody dyslexic!

You just starting your "day" now, Jeff? Ending mine.

[ 13 August 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]

[McCulloh]

Nope:
New baby is fussy Rick: Yawn.
I am hoping a look at the computer screen with medals on it will calm her down.
So, was the REO medal and/or Crown Order Medal a gallantry award?
When you say non-Prussians do you mean Germans or Foreignrs etc?
The bar was nice. Sure you can't trace it with the peacetime ribbons? Interesting that it doesn't have a LS medal on it, yet both awards and obviously to a medico. The saxon award is interesting too.
Jeff

[Rick Research]

REOM and COM were never given for bravery, never any provision for "with swords" like the classes of the Orders themselves. Colonial gallantry awards used the Military Decorations 1st and 2nd Classes and a couple of Gold Military Merit Crosses.

The "non-Prussian" was to other German states' citizens as well as foreigners. Von Hessenthal and Schreiber report "tedious" enquiries into the how/why/when were fruitless--apparently just bacame "customary" without more rigid statutory limits.

I think Sam's bar owner was probably a higher civil servant, equivalent of a Regierungsrat (Major) or Oberregierungsrat (Lieutenant Colonel) type. Pre-WWI Red Cross awardswere given almost entirely to NON medical/Red Cross types--more for donations etc than grubby nursing care.

[ 14 August 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]