Bavarian Militärverdienstkreuz on photo

[D_Dutch]

Hello everybody,

I am trying to recreate a brave officer's ribbon bar but I am having trouble with the second ribbon from the left. It is the Bayerische Militärverdienstkreuz mit der Krone und Schwertern but I have no idea which class. I looked through the Kriegsstammrollen from the Bavarian soldiers from the First World War on Ancestry.de but was not able to find him so that also didn't help in finding out which class the medal was.

Would it in any way be possible to find out which class of the award he is wearing by the photograph? And help will be much appreciated.

The full portrait.



Close-up of the ribbon bar.



Photograph from the First World War.

[Valter Gorenc]

It's probably bavarian Military merit cross with swords only (no crown) - he's not an officer on WW1 pic (yet) - are these pipings for one-year wolunteer? In this case, he could become officer later, and officers got Military merit order (not cross).

[D_Dutch]

It's probably bavarian Military merit cross with swords only (no crown) - he's not an officer on WW1 pic (yet) - are these pipings for one-year wolunteer? In this case, he could become officer later, and officers got Military merit order (not cross).

Hello,

Thank you very much for your help! I thought I saw some sort of shadow above the swords on the ribbon so I thought it could be the crown. I have his award document for the Hungarian Commemorative Medal and it listed him as an Unteroffizier der Kraftfahrtruppe. I have almost no knowledge about shoulderboard pipings etc. so I have unfortunately no idea if they could be for a one-year volunteer. I guess I shall have to write to the Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchiv again as they were able to find two entries for the soldier in the Kriegsstammrollen, but did not really want to help me.

The grouping contained two further First World War photographs of the soldier;

[Valter Gorenc]

Yes, I saw that shadow too and couldn't decide if it''s crown or not. Actually, it could be both, especially taking into account that he was later promoted to Unteroffizier (as Unteroffizier, he could wear either MMK 3rd class with or without crown, or 2nd class - the ribbon would be the same and from BW pic you can't decipher the color of swords). By these two pics, I'd say he's enlisted (but they can be from earlier period).