ostpreussen Hindenburg medallion

[all1knew]

Hello all,

Can anyone please tell me exactly what this table medal was for?

William Kramer

[all1knew]

2

[vellocino]

IMHO. A celebration of the victory over the Russians by East Prussia in Tannenberg in 1914.
The battle of Tannenberg took place in the area south of Allenstein in East Prussia from 26 August to 30 August 1914 between German and Russian armies. The German side was 153.000 man, the Russian side 191,000 soldiers in the field. Ended with the victory of the German troops and the dismantling of the Russian forces invading the southern East Prussia.
Here it is another rendition of your medal slightly different.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Hindenburg-Er...-/310805598714
Hope it helps,
Vellocino

[all1knew]

Thank you so much, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I really like this one, its very detailed!

William Kramer

[avensis2000]

IMHO. A celebration of the victory over the Russians by East Prussia in Tannenberg in 1914.
The battle of Tannenberg took place in the area south of Allenstein in East Prussia from 26 August to 30 August 1914 between German and Russian armies. The German side was 153.000 man, the Russian side 191,000 soldiers in the field. Ended with the victory of the German troops and the dismantling of the Russian forces invading the southern East Prussia.
Here it is another rendition of your medal slightly different.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Hindenburg-Er...-/310805598714
Hope it helps,
Vellocino

I agree. Actually it sounds even more impressive battle achievement like this: (based on 1935 published book I am currently reading)

Hindenburg's 8th Army was fighting against considrably bigger army in East-Prussia. . He had only 196'000 men instantly to use, and at the same time there was 504'000 Russian invaders in East-Prussia.

Hindenburg concentrated 166'000 men against 200'000 men and and destroyed the russian army in that battle pretty completely. 50'000 russian soldiers lost their lives, and 92'000 were captured/surrended (including 13 russian generals) + 350 cannons were captured. Russian Gen Samsonov managed to escape but committed suicide due to embarrassing total beat-out.

About 3 weeks later Hindenburg beat Gen. Rennenkampf's army at Masuarian lakes area, capturing 45'000 men and 150 cannons. According to Russians their total loss was 100'000 men. This was 10th-15th September)

It's said in these east-Prussian battles Russians lost about 250'000 men and if count the wounded men too, it was about 25% of the whole Russian forces. At the same time, Germans lost "only" 37'000 men so it was quite a succesful battle - medal deserved.

[streptile]

ostpreussen Hindenburg medallion

Great heroic likeness of Hindenburg on that medal.

Tannenberg sealed Hindenburg's reputation as a commander. It was his greatest achievement and a gigantic memorial was built to commemorate the victory. Later the Nazis made good propaganda use of this memorial, staging multiple ceremonies there including Hindenburg's burial.



By the way the real battle took place near but not in Tannenberg, but it was named The Battle of Tannenberg in an attempt to expunge the shame of the Teutonic Knights' ignominious defeat at the first Battle of Tannenberg, AKA Grunwald, I think in the 15th C.

[avensis2000]

Great heroic likeness of Hindenburg on that medal.

By the way the real battle took place near but not in Tannenberg, but it was named The Battle of Tannenberg in an attempt to expunge the shame of the Teutonic Knight's ignominious defeat at the first Battle of Tannenberg, AKA Grunwald, I think in the 15th C.

Yep, it was 15th July, 1410 when german knights suffered overwhelming defeat against Polish and Lithuanian troops. Nothing I know of that, but it was mentioned of course in the book too.