Highest trios or....

[John5813]

All,

Looking back over the MFKO thread, I saw that K A Nerger and Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien received the MFKO, BMJ3, and PlM. I also heard that Dohna-Schlodien received Saxony's St. Heinrich's Order. That's 4 highest states awards for him and 3 for Nerger. Does anyone else have examples of someone else being rewarded in a similar way? I'm interested knight's cross recipients as opposed to senior commanders with GC's etc. I know that this was a rare if almost unheard of occurrance but am interested just the same.

John

[Dave Danner]

Fregattenkapitän Karl August Nerger and Korvettenkapitän Nikolaus Burggraf und Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien are, as far as I know, the only officers to get a clean sweep of the highest strictly military orders of the German states. They each had the Order Pour le Merite from Prussia, the Military Max-Joseph Order from Bavaria, the Military St. Henry Order from Saxony, the Military Merit Order from Württemberg and the Military Karl Friedrich Merit Order from Baden.

Graf Dohna also had the Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz and the Lippe-Detmold pinback Cross for Heroic Deeds.

Nerger rivalled Richthofen for decorations. He also had the Friedrich August Cross 1st and 2nd Class from Oldenburg, the Military Merit Cross 1st and 2nd Class from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, all three Hanseatic Crosses, and about four or five other decorations. An honorary (charakterisierte) Konteradmiral during WW2, he died as a prisoner of war on January 10, 1947 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Richthofen, the most highly decorated aviator, did not receive either Baden's MKFVO or Bavaria's MMJO.

Dave

[W McSwiggan]

In addition to Dave's information, here’s a partial answer to your question from O’Connor’s 7 volumes on the Aviation Awards of Imperial Germany:

Otto Weddigen held the Pour le Merite and the Bavarian Max Joseph as one of only 6 non Bavarians so recognized. He also held the Saxon Military St. Henry Knight’s Cross.

Numerous (19 by my count) pilots held 2 – all but one being some combination of the Pour le Merite and one from either Baden, Wurttemberg, Saxony or Bavaria. Odd man out was the Prinz von Preussen holding one each from Wurttemberg & Saxony – no Pour le Merite.

It would be interesting to see how the grunts did if anyone has information!

[Dave Danner]

Two of the five seems to be the upper limit except in rare cases. While Albert Orders, Zähringen Lions, Friedrich Orders and Bavarian MVOs were relatively widely awarded, the principal military awards tended to be reserved for natives of the state or persons serving in that state's contingents. Even among aviators, this tended to hold true.

Besides Freiherr von Richthofen and Weddigen, the General Staff officer Max Hoffmann was another with at least three states' awards. He had the plM with oakleaves, the MMJO, and the St. Henry Knight and Commander 2nd Class. He's the only ground guy I know of with three states, but he wasn't at the front.

One prominent groundpounder was Erwin Rommel. He had two - the plM and the Württemberg MVO.

Except for Nerger and Graf Dohna, no recipient of the Baden MKFVO received more than one other of the top five awards, and that other was the plM. Recipients of the plM and the MKFVO were: Paul Baader of I.R. 464; Josef Barth of I.R. 30; Friedrich Wilhelm Dernen of Gren.Rgt. 110; the aviators Albert Dossenbach, Hermann Goering and Bruno Loerzer; Julius von Langsdorff of I.R. 184; Ludwig von Preuschen und zu Liebenstein of I.R. 112; Hermann Reinicke of Füsilier-Rgt. 40; Albert Freiherr von Rotberg of Gren.Rgt. 7; and Friedrich Wilhelm Wulff of I.R. 111.

Ernst Freiherr von Forstner of 1. badisches Leibgrenadier-Rgt. 109 sort of had three, but not three different. He had the plM with oakleaves and the MKFVO. Another in that category is Hans von Seeckt. He had the plM with oakleaves and the Bavarian MMJO. Also, Wilhelm Heye had the Württemberg MVO to go with his plM with oaks.

[Dave Danner]

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

As I was looking at different lists and bios trying to find recipients of multiple awards of the highest purely military decorations of the various states, I noticed, as stated above, that lower awards were far more common. But even here, a clean sweep is fairly rare, even for the high profile aviators.

Here is one that came close, though - a captain on the General Staff who managed to get no Prussian plM, Bavarian MMJO, Saxon MSHO, Württemberg MVO or Baden MKFVO. But he did manage to get a Prussian HHO Knight with Swords, Bavarian MVO 4th Class with Swords, Saxon Albert Order Knight 1st Class with Swords and Württemberg Friedrich Order Knight 1st Class with Swords. If only Baden had come through for him! Anhalt did, with the Friedrich Cross. Even Austria did, with the Iron Crown 3rd Class with War Decoration and Swords and the MVK 3rd Class with War Decoration and Swords.

And he stayed a bridesmaid, sort of, with Oakleaves and Swords, but no Diamonds for his RK. He would be Paul Hausser.