Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin

[VerKuilen Ager]

I just stumbled across this nice museum site today. They have a decent collection of about 300 old Imperial awards (mostly; there is a smattering of Eastern Bloc pieces thrown in). Go to the link below and then click on "katalog" to see the holdings. Click through the numbered menu across the top to get more pages of goodies. Click on the picture of any item and you get an enlargement and some brief data on that particular piece, including maker marks. Perhaps best of all, this catalog is available in print for just DM6 (plus whatever the postage would amount to. Order 2 copies so you have one to drool on.

www.dhm.de/magazine/orden/index.htm

While you're on this site, don't miss the other displays. They are very strong on period German posters, and also have segments on uniforms (Napolean's hat!), bios of Germans of interest, and lots more. I'd recommend going to "home", then to the "site map" and working from there since the English menu is not yet complete.

[Dave Danner]

Catalog item nr. 50, another entry into the "how many doo-dads can we fit on a Prussian Order" contest:

<img src="http://www.dhm.de/magazine/orden/bilder/gross/085g.jpg">
<img src="http://www.dhm.de/magazine/orden/bilder/gross/086g.jpg">
Crown Order, 1st Class - Neck badge and breast star with swords, swords on ring, enamel ribbon of the Order of the Red Eagle, oakleaves, and 50-year jubilee number!

[PaulChep]

Is that piece for real! It just does not seem right.

[Dave Danner]

Some of the images appear to be photos, others not; they are images from the various catalogs the museum has. From reading the background, it seems to me that large amounts of stuff have been lost or stolen over the years (Napoleon's orders having been taken by the Russians at the end of WW2, for example). Has anyone actually been to the museum and seen if the current collection matches the catalog?

[VerKuilen Ager]

There's a "softness" in some of the photos because they were very skillfully lit and probably shot close up with a view camera, which can have that effect. Also, I suspect that all the site's pics were scanned from the printed catalog, rather than from the original transparencies. This is obvious in the black and whites and from the moire picked up in others. Moving down from a 150+ line photo to 72 dpi on your monitor also has a degrading effect. A close look at the two examples reveals a puncture in the ribbon in the upper left. The second item was probably bumped at some point and the bottom ferrule slightly bent. Look close and you can see the somewhat irregular tarnishing of the silver star (at least it's clear on my 19" monitor). So, for what it's worth, I think all the items are photos.

[Daniel Krause]

Hi,

I´ve been very often in the museum. Unfortunately the orders are not shown in a permanent exhibition, only sometimes in special occasions. It is the surviving part of the old collection of the prussian Arsenal. They collected military stuff from their greatest generals and also from the kings and princes.
Dave Danner is right. But a lot of orders were stolen by a employee after WW2 and sold. He has stolen orders for around 500.000 DM!

Greetings

Daniel