Medal of Liberty 2nd Class to Fritz Spegelberg a machinegunner private (Schütze) in 1.M.G./Reserve Jäger Bataillon 3. The document was made out to him in July 1918 as "formerly in..." per May 1918, because he had been wounded and evacuated back to Germany, where he briefly served in the Berlin SiPo in 1919:
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Spigelberg had been wounded and evacuated back home. In 1919 he was briefly a member of the Berlin SiPo, before settling on a career as a pianist ( I also have a Soviet Occupation free bus travel pass for him as an "artiste").
In 1935 he returned the document above to the Finnish Military Attaché and finally got the actual Medal of Liberty (17 years late!) as well as the 1918 War of Independence Medal and document, as this cover letter shows-- -
Having done some research, I can provide some additional details.
In 1918, the Finnish High Command issued a total of 1239 Crosses of Liberty to Germans (various grades), and 3505 Medals of Liberty of both classes. Additionally, the Ostsee-Division requisitioned a number of crosses and medals to be distributed in Germany. The breakdown of awards requisitioned:
3 CoL 1st Class
59 CoL 2nd Class
344 CoL 3rd Class
83 CoL 4th Class
13130 MoL 1st & 2nd Class
Most of these Ostsee-Division medals were handed out in 1919; the remaining were handed out sporadically during the twenties and thirties. It proved fortunate that the recipients were immediately given a piece of ribbon, as the actual delivery took so long.Comment
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Wow! I had no idea so few Crosses of Liberty were given out--it seems like every single German officer got one! I have a strange group to a medical officer who got a 3rd Class in July 1918--though he was not entitled to the War of Independence campaign medal--"over" in May 1918 before he arrived!Comment
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I made a mistake, by the way. There were only 2266 Medals of Liberty given to Germans in 1918.
How many officers are there in a division? Damned if I can remember (I'm just a corporal, you know). 1700-odd crosses handed out in total, that's gotta be a significant proportion.
Now that I'm writing this, might as well quote the national breakdown of the whole 1918 issue.
Finns: 7957 CoL, 15345 MoL
Germans: 1239 CoL, 2266 MoL
Swedes: 473 CoL, 920 MoL
Other: 49 CoL, 62 MoL
Other category includes people from the following countries:
Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Austria and Switzerland.Comment
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