Gunzenhausen show finds

[Dave Danner]

I went to the Gunzenhausen collectors' show for the first time last weekend. There was a lot of interesting stuff to see, but probably much better was the opportunity to meet up with various forum members and fellow collectors - Paul Chepurko, Christian L, Claudio Ortelli, etc. I know I've forgotten a few user names, too. Good food and good conversation, though. Plus, again, all the stuff to ogle at the show.

I only picked up five items, a book (a nice copy of the Ehrenrangliste), 2 single medals and 2 medal bars.

Here is the first medal bar, a nice 4-place medal bar to a Saxon lieutenant who started out as an officer candidate. He would have gotten the silver Friedrich August Medal as an NCO-equivalent and the Albrecht Order Knight 2nd Class with Swords as a lieutenant. What made this bar especially attractive was the fact that I already had a matching ribbon bar.

[Dave Danner]

Here is the reverse, with the tailor's tag from Dresden. The Albrecht Order is also marked "S" for Scharffenberg of Dresden.

[Dave Danner]

This was a matching ribbon bar I found at a show several years ago. It is not necessarily "the" matching ribbon bar, as this combination of medals is not unusual for a Saxon officer candidate turned lieutenant.

[Dave Danner]

The second medal bar I found was a last minute purchase just as I was leaving the show. It is also a 4-medal bar, with the Iron Cross 2nd Class, Bavarian Military Merit Order 4th Class with Crown and Swords, Württemberg Friedrich Order Knight 2nd Class with Swords, and Honor Cross for Combatants.

I thought it was a nice looking bar and the price was relatively good. But on reflection, I realized it was more than nice looking: this grade of the Bavarian order was typically awarded to captains while this grade of the Württemberg order was awarded to lieutenants. So it was possible that this one went to one of the smaller number of Bavarian lieutenants who received the 4th Class with Crown and Swords. I figured that with the Württemberg order, I might be able to narrow it down to a dozen or a handful of possible recipients.

When I went through the lists, though, I found not a handful, but only one match: Leutnant der Reserve Heinrich Fichtbauer. He received the Bavarian Military Merit Order 4th Class with Crown and Swords on 15 November 1917 and the Württemberg Friedrich Order Knight 2nd Class with Swords on 31 December 1917.

Googling the name, I found that Heinrich Fichtbauer was from the 19th Bavarian Infantry Regiment and was severely injured on 28 May 1918 in a plane crash where he was the pilot. His observer was killed. They were serving with a Bavarian aviation unit, Fliegerabteilung (A) 286b.

Paul Chepurko helped me with the research and we think he is our likely match. There might be a Friedrich Order recipient out there we missed, as Bavarian sources are incomplete for recipients of non-Bavarian decorations. But for now Lt.d.R. Fichtbauer is a tentative match.

[Don D.]

Looks like a couple of good candidates for the Fightingman thread. Nice bars.

[regular122]

Dave,

A pilot's bar. Wow!! What good fortune and it shows all of us the value of research. Seems like it may even be possible to find out the history of who shot him down, given the date match and the FFA unit. Congrats on a great find. Steve

[Steve Campbell]

Here is the reverse, with the tailor's tag from Dresden. The Albrecht Order is also marked "S" for Scharffenberg of Dresden.

That "S" on the Albrect Order, would that be the same maker as an "S" marked Iron Cross second class?

[Dave Danner]

That "S" on the Albrect Order, would that be the same maker as an "S" marked Iron Cross second class?

The "S" on an EK stands for, I think, Heinrich Schneider of Dresden.

[Steve Campbell]

Thanks Dave!

[Dave Danner]

Here is one of the two single medals I got at the show, the Silver Merit Medal with Swords (Silberne Verdienstmedaille mit Schwertern) of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern (Fürstlich Hohenzollernscher Hausorden). This was the typical enlisted award for soldiers from Hohenzollern, especially those in Füsilier-Regiment Fürst Karl Anton von Hohenzollern (Hohenzollernsches) Nr. 40.

[Dave Danner]

Well, the Bavarian bar above would appear not to be that of Heinrich Fichtbauer. He apparently also received the House Order of Hohenzollern from Prussia.

That leaves only one other known match: Ernst Ritter von Müller. All the others (and there were only two of them) with the two orders also had other decorations such as the Bavarian jubilee medal.

Ernst Ritter von Müller was an Oberleutnant der Reserve with the 18th Bavarian Infantry Regiment. He received the Bavarian Military Merit Order 4th Class with Crown on 5 March 1917 and the Württemberg Friedrich Order Knight 2nd Class with Swords on 22 January 1916. He received the Military Order of Max Joseph, Bavaria's highest military award, on 21 August 1916 and was ennobled on 11 October 1916. It was customary to wear the Military Order of Max Joseph as a buttonhole medal rather than on the medal bar (see, for example, this picture of Franz Ritter von Epp), which would explain its absence on the medal bar.

[Mike Dwyer]

All very, very nice, Dave! You did well.