Prussian House of Hohenzollern w/ swords ID?

[Luftm40]

Sadly, the man that would truly know the answer to this question is gone...but is it possible to ID the recipient of this award from the combination of other awards on a medal bar? I know there are some amazing ID stories about Imperial ribbon and medal bars.....

[streptile]

No photos...

[lewjian]

If you read more ID stories you will realize several experts are around here, why not show your bar and hear what they say?

[Luftm40]

I was simply asking what is feasible given the relatively large number of awards of this order in WWI. The bar is part of a vet bring back set that I don't have my hands on yet. I will post pictures in a few days when I do....

[Luftm40]

Here is the HoH. It is a Wagner piece marked W 938 on the bottom arm. I believe this makes it a later WWI issued order. The bar contains an EK2 (medal missing), HoH, Hindenburg Cross and a TR era 25 year civil faithful service cross...My assumption is that the owner served as a junior officer in WWI, then up in to the WWII era as a civil servant. The bar was brought back by a US vet, and I also acquired some of the US items....

[PaulChep]

It depends upon the combination of awards and if the award rolls exist for thoese awards.

[Dave Danner]

If it is just those four medals, then it would not be identifiable. There are simply too many possibilities.

The assumption seems likely. Unfortunately, it could likely apply to hundreds of junior officers. Just from reviewing Education Ministry records, I know of more than a dozen Gymnasiallehrer with this combination. I imagine there could be as many or more Volksschullehrer who also fit the bill, and any number of university professors, for whom I don't have complete records. And that's just one branch of the civil service.

To make it identifiable, absent other information from the original source, you would need some other less common decoration(s) to narrow down the field.

[Luftm40]

Dave, that is what I thought. It is a nice example of this award though. The bar came from an estate sale w/ some other WWII US items. The story was actually that the bar belonged to a family member who immigrated to the US after WWII. I thought it more likely that it was an item brought back as a war trophy by the owner of the US stuff though. That said, I did look the US vet up in Ancestry seeking Germanic surnames in his family tree. His name was LeRoy H. Burke. The only lead I found...and it is pure conjecture...is his middle name. The "H" stands for Hester. This is an odd middle name for a child, and I thought perhaps it was a family surname.

Andy

[Luftm40]

Another family name is Wagner...his second wife's maiden name. Her family possessions would have been mixed w/ his in the estate sale

[Dave Danner]

Wagner is the 8th most common surname in Germany. Hard to narrow down.

Hester is uncommon as a surname, mainly found in Westphalia, but there are also no known recipients of the House Order of Hohenzollern with that name.

[Luftm40]

Well, thanks anyway Dave