Schwarzburg silver medal for merit in war

[Frosch]

My interest in the iron cross and its 1914-1918 equivalents from the other German states stems from the desire to collect representative examples of the awards as given to the soldiers whose Militärpässe I have in my documents collection. I always try to acquire complete groups, but unfortunately most seem to be split up and I often have only the Militärpass together with the Soldbuch and sometimes also the award documents.

One of the less common awards is the silver medal for merit in war bestowed by Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt und Sondershausen. I have only one Militärpass with an entry for this award and have been looking for the medal for some time.

The soldier in question is Gefreiter Otto Chemnitz, who was born in Rudolstadt on 21 May 1895 and worked as an agricultural labourer. He was recruited into infantry regiment 96 in May 1915 and joined 10. Kompagnie 7. Thüringisches Infanterie-Regiment 96 as part of 83. Infanterie-Brigade, 38. Infanterie-Division while the unit was fighting in the sector between the Oise and Aisne in October of the same year. Except for a brief period of service with Infanterie-Pionier-Kompagnie 38 from June to September 1916, he remained with the regiment throughout the bitter fighting for Hill 304 at Verdun and the fighting for the Somme, including at Grandcourt, until he fell ill at the end of October 1916. After recovering in hospital in Germany, he returned to France in January 1917 and was assigned to 9. Kompagnie Infanterie-Regiment 467, part of 239. Infanterie-Brigade, 239. Infantry-Division in the Champagne sector. He remained with this unit throughout the fighting in Flanders in 1917 and the Spring offensive and the battles on the Western Front until he fell ill with dysentery and was sent to hospital in August 1918. He was discharged from service in December 1918 and awarded the EK II on 21 September 1917 and the Fürstlich Schwarzburgische Verdienst-Medaille in Silber on 6 December 1917.

Here are his Gefreiter promotion and award entries:

[Frosch]

Description and obverse

Hessenthal und Schreiber describe the medal as follows:

First instituted on 21 October 1870 in Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and on 14 April 1871 in Schwarzburg-Sondershausen for the 1870/71 war, the medal “for merit in the face of the enemy for military personnel from the rank of Feldwebel and below” was awarded once more in modified form from the outbreak of war by decrees of 21 August 1914 and 1 January 1916 by Prince Günther von Schwarzburg. It was primarily awarded to citizens of both principalities. The medal was bestowed on the ribbon of the honour cross for merit “in the face of the enemy” or on the “blue ribbon”. The latter was for military personnel who did not have the opportunity to distinguish themselves in the face of the enemy, but who had deserved well of merit in war by means of specially loyal and conscientious performance of duty, particularly at base and as part of the occupying troops.

At the militaria show in Reichertshofen yesterday I found two examples of the medal on offer. One was a silvered version in Kriegsmetall in poor condition, the other was dirty and tarnished and appeared to be made of silver. After negotiating prices with the dealers, I finally got the solid silver version for the same price asked for the silvered one.

I had always assumed that the side with the monogram and date was the obverse. According to Hessenthal und Schreiber it is the reverse. Here is the medal on the ribbon for combatants with the obverse side shown. The VERDIENST IM KRIEGE inscription is surrounded by a laurel wreath:

[Frosch]

Reverse

The reverse features a princely crown with the double “G” monogram and 1914:

[Frosch]

Silver content

A close-up of the silver content stamped next to the ring:

[Frosch]

Manufacturer?

The number 50 is stamped in the same way on the other side of the ring. Does anyone know what this means? Could it be a manufacturer code?

[Frosch]

Backgroung info on Schwarzburg and questions

The 1920 edition of Meyers Handlexikon contains the following brief information on Schwarzburg, its history and the Thuringian free state of Schwarzburg in 1919:

Schwarzburg:
D. (Dom = cathedral?) and castle in Rudolstadt, in the Schwarzatal valley, at the foot of Trippstein mountain, 486 meters above sea level – Of the house of Schwarzburg, which had existed since the 12th century, only the Schwarzburg-Arnstadt (later Sondershausen) and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt lines remained in 1584, imperial principality in 1754, united in 1909 by Prince Günther von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, who abdicated in 1918. Both Schwarzburg principalities were merged to become a free state in 1919.

Schwarzburg: Free state in Thuringia which evolved in 1919 from two principalities:
1) Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, drained by the River Saale together with the rivers Ilm and Wipper, 941 square kilometers and 100,700 inhabitants. Capital Rudolstadt. State colours: blue, white. 2) Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, drained by the rivers Ilm and Wipper, 862 square kilometers and 89,000 inhabitants. Capital Sondershausen. State colours: blue, white. In both Schwarzburg principalities agriculture, cattle breeding, forestry, mining, industry (quarrying, soils, timber, clothing).

Does anyone have any information the number of bestowals for this award? Does anyone have an example of the award document? Was this award given to enlisted men only?

/David

[Rick Research]

Nice shot of the silver mark on the rim! The only one I ever had, and sold years ago was mounted so tightly in a medal bar I never had a clue there would be such an unusual mark!

Thge "50" is a mis-struck "950"-- you can see the upright line of the "9"

[Mike Huxley]

A really nice find David A very hard to find early issue with that silver mark. Here's a pic of my cased award!! Pics ex Stogie.

[Dave Danner]

Despite the fact that the award rolls are apparently intact and in the archives in Rudolstadt, none of my reference sources seems to have the numbers awarded. Klietmann, Hessenthal & Schreiber, and O'Connor all say it was awarded to the ranks of Feldwebel and below; apparently senior NCOs were eligible for the 4th class of the Fürstlich Schwarzburgisches Ehrenkreuz, the house order of the two Schwarzburg principalities.

The medal came in silver, silvered bronze and silvered zinc. I have three examples of this medal, but none in silver. Here is the ribbon and medal bars that would correspond to your Gefreiter's awards:





Depending on the expense, finding the medal bars like this, rather than the loose medals alone, which match your Wehrpasses might be a good direction for collecting.

Dave

[stogieman]

Here's one!

Here's the one I have...

[Frosch]

Obverse/reverse sides?

Despite the fact that the award rolls are apparently intact and in the archives in Rudolstadt, none of my reference sources seems to have the numbers awarded. Klietmann, Hessenthal & Schreiber, and O'Connor all say it was awarded to the ranks of Feldwebel and below; apparently senior NCOs were eligible for the 4th class of the Fürstlich Schwarzburgisches Ehrenkreuz, the house order of the two Schwarzburg principalities.

The medal came in silver, silvered bronze and silvered zinc. I have three examples of this medal, but none in silver. Here is the ribbon and medal bars that would correspond to your Gefreiter's awards:


Depending on the expense, finding the medal bars like this, rather than the loose medals alone, which match your Wehrpasses might be a good direction for collecting.

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for showing those ribbon and medal bars. Indeed, my original plan was to stick with representative ribbon and medal bars in configurations that match the entries in my documents. For most typical combinations this is not difficult, or too expensive, to accomplish.

However, like you and a few others, I have succumbed to the "iron cross equivalent" addiction and now have a few medals, both loose and on bars, for which I don't have a Militärpass or Soldbuch with the relevant entry (yet). In fact, of the 24 German states, there are only 6 for which I don't have an EK 1 or 2 equivalent.

While I might never find some of the rarer pinback EK 1 equivalents, I hope to find most, if not all of the EK 2 equivalents both as loose medals as well as on bars. My aim, for the time being, is not to find every variant of every award in mint condition, but at least one good example of the EK 2 equivalent (although some states do not really have an exact EK equivalent) for each state.

This had never been my intention, but after trawling through some of the old threads and looking at what I already had, I realised that it wouldn't take much to achieve.

The individual soldiers and their personal stories reflected by their service records, letters home, award certificates and photographs and related documents are still my primary interest. For me, the actual awards are just the topping.

According to Hessenthal und Schreiber, the other examples shown on the bars all seem to be mounted with the reverse side shown. Is the information provided by H&S correct or was it common practice to mount the medals incorrectly?

Does anyone have an award document for this medal?

/David

[Dave Danner]

The medal came in silver, silvered bronze and silvered zinc. I have three examples of this medal, but none in silver.

Apparently, that's not all. Uwe Bretzendorfer has one in silvered iron - he states that it is magnetic.

[JensF.]

Here is the version in silver plated bronze: