Kaiserlicher Oberpostdirektors Heinrich Johannes Halke

[Daniel Cole]

I found this nice civilian grouping for sale once but unfortunately I couldn’t afford to purchase the group. I do however have the RAO 4 Urkunde listed below. (Rick you can shoot me for breaking the group, I was a neophyte and didn’t know better). The two other RAO docs are still listed on the web page of Andre Huesken. As for the others They are now elsewhere. Perhaps Huesken knows?

What I wanted to show after my confession, is that there are other sources for information that you may not be aware of. Halke was a senior Cliff Clavin. I wrote the Bundes Post Museum and they sent me photocopies of his Postal Ranglists! I had no idea there was such a thing.

While working last year in Dresden, I tried to track down Halke, but without success. I know he’s there, I just couldn’t find him.

Here are the decorations from the for sale Grouping and a couple of scans of what the Post office provided. Remember the Post office for future reaserch. They might come through for you too if your dealing with a civilian mailman.





Prussia:
Bestallung zum Ober-Postrath
Red Eagle Order 4.class January 18. 1886
Red Eagle Order 3.class with the bow January 18. 1892 OU Wilhelm
Red Eagle Order 2.class with oak leaf 18. Januar 1903 OU Wilhelm with sending letter

Oldenburg:
Wearing allowance for the Honor-Commanders Cross of the House and Merit Order of Herzog Peter-Friedrich-Ludwig Dezember 31. 1886

Mecklenburg-Schwerin:
Commanders cross of the Order of the Griffin März 28. 1900 OU Johann Albrecht in original envelope

Kingdom of Saxony:
Commanders Cross 2.class of the Saxony Order of Albert April 16. 1890 OU Albert
Commanders Cross 1.class of the Saxony Order of Albert March 25. 1907 OU Friedrich August III.

If someone wants to reassemble the grouping I'll help contribute to that cause. Its a good one.

Cheers,
Dan Cole

[Rick Research]

Wow. The scribbly handwritten page with his parents, death date, wife's birth and death and their daughter's marriage are NOT what I'd expect to find in a bureaucratic archive--not that I had ever heard of the Post Museum!

From the 1908 German Orders Almanac I can add: in addition to his 1870 EK2, he also (obviously) had the 70/71 War Medal and 1897. But he also had one of the 1866 Campaign Crosses to. He was a Premierleutnant/Oberleutnant der landwehr aD.

He was living, funnily enough, at Postplatz 2, Dresden, in retirement in 1908!

I have seen info on parents and wives in Kriegsranglisten-Auszuge for career officers (where they exist, and where you are allowed to see them: "having" and "access" are sadly 2 different things!), but the level of detail found on the handwritten Curriculum Vitae and/or genealogical sheet above is rarely found except in one of the pre-WWI issues of "Wer Ist's?"