What medal has this Major ?

[ChristerD]

Hi, this is a new purchase, A WH Major with Woundbadge in silver, EK 1
Silesian Eagle 1st class and ? What has he on the chess ???
With a broad ribbon ?



He has a quite long ribbon bar, but I suppose the pic is to blurry to rec any of the awards..

All the best from The only ? Imperialist in Sweden
Christer

[ChristerD]

And another WH Major with ribbon bar

And here is another unknown Major with ?
EK II, HEK, Lybeck Cross? two long service and ? Austria ? Hungary?

If they only could have written a NAME on the backside !!!!
It would have same us 50 + years later a lot of searching.... (but I have to admit , that the search is a lot of fun...)

Christer

[Robin Lumsden]

Hi, this is a new purchase, A WH Major with Woundbadge in silver, EK 1
Silesian Eagle 1st class and ? What has he on the chess ???
With a broad ribbon ?



He has a quite long ribbon bar, but I suppose the pic is to blurry to rec any of the awards..

All the best from The only ? Imperialist in Sweden
Christer

That's the Bavarian Military Max-Josef Order. A VERY high award which conferred a knighthood on the recipient, and entitled him to use the term 'Ritter von' as part of his name. Examples include Eduard Schleich, who became Eduard Ritter von Schleich, and Franz Epp, who became Franz Ritter von Epp.

[ChristerD]

Major Ritter von.......



Thanks Robin!

So that was it , I scratched my head but I couldn´t find a match.
Maybe this could lead to a name to this so far unknown officer?

Now I have to start looking for Max Joseph Awardees!

Thanks again,
Christer

[Rick Research]

Don't worry-- I have all the Max Joseph biographies. He was a Major der RESERVE or der LANDWEHR there-- two levels of piping. The Silesian Eagle 1 should be enough to identify him, even though all we see is the top of his nose!

The Oberstleutnant in the second photo-- third ribbon on his ribbon bar is the BALTIC CROSS from 1919.

[Rick Research]

I'm baaaaack:

OK, I could only find TWO Max Joseph knights with Silesian service entered--

Ludwig Ritter von Finsterlin (born 1895, alive 1966), who had at least two wounds in WW1, stormed the Annaberg with Freikorps Oberland in 1921, and won a German Cross in Gold in 1942 as... Major der Reserve (dR since 1936) BUT he was INFANTRY, and this officer has DARK piping.

So that leads me to believe the Top Of The Nose belongs to

Eduard Ritter von Hollidt, born 10 May 1886, died 7 September 1965 in Duisburg, a career FIELD ARTILLERY officer who served with GRENZSCHUTZ OST 1919-1921, retired after a single year as Polizei-Major in Wesel 1922, and was back in WW2 as an artillery Oberst.

He was wounded FIVE times in WW1-- so that would be a GOLD wound badge. Two years in Silesia would certainly have qualified him for the Silesian Eagle 1st Class (6 months duty) BUT

I cannot confirm whether Ritter von Hollidt was a 1930s RESERVE officer, or was recalled during the war z.V., since all his bio says is "Oberstleutnant" 1941 and "Oberst" in 1943. He served in Poland 1939, Norway 1940, and in France on Channel coast occupation 1942-43. He ended his war as artillery commander of the 54th Army Corps, captured by Canadian forces and held as POW until 1947.

So I'm fairly certain the nose belongs to Ritter von Hollidt-- but only a CLEAR shot of the ribbons could confirm that or suggest somebody else. There may have been somebody among the Knights whose Silesian Freikorps service was less obvious.

But Hollidt is my best informed guess. More if others don't come up as candidates.

[ChristerD]

Wow !

I am speachless (and that dosn´t happend often says my wife....)
Rick , you are the king of dectectivs !
I will try to get a better shot of the ribbons but the angle of the foto makes it difficult.

And the other Major has been in the Baltic, I LOVE theese old pics when they start to talk to you.

1000 Thanks Rick , if there was a "search for mystery ribbon" competition
in the olympics I would bet my money on you!!!

All the best from Sweden
Christer