Engraved EK1 opinions.

[PaulChep]

I checked the 1926 Prussian Honor Ranklist and I find no officer by that name.

[Rick Research]

Ah, IF...


I have never seen Vizefeldwebel abbreviated "Vz. Fw."

Ever.

The engraving style sure doesn't look like anything say pre-1930s I've ever seen. "Handwriting" script rather than hollow outline block letters was the norm. This looks a lot like the "WW2" engraving so often seen on "SS" items.

No NCO that I'm aware of got more than an EK2 for China. Officers (at least in combatant arms) all seem to have gotten EK1s, apparently as a consolation prize for 5 years in comfortable Japanese internment (quite the opposite of WW2 guests of the Emperor) and indeed,

all returning 1920 POWs got their EKs in... 1920.

The year "Vizefeldwebel" ceased to be a rank. Was "Vz. Fw. Rammling" DISCHARGED as a Vizefeldwebel in 1920? That would then have made him a GEFREITER or at best an UNTEROFFIZIER... in "1914."

Even LESS likely to have gotten a 1920 EK1 for the 1914 siege.

If he was a Vizefeldwebel in 1914... he would have been either a Feldwebel aD or a Leutnant aD, based on how much service time he had in-- and with a typical 6 years to reach that rank in 1914, that would indeed have made him a Weimar bumped-out-as-Leutnant ex-career NCO. "Ltn." Rammling, not "Vz. Fw."

I'm not a fan of undocumented engraving. Too many unanswered questions, but that's just me. In my sad experience, too many collectors aren't interested in answers, because they don't care about questions.

In the end, it comes down simply to every single buyer's own opinion-- and what that is based on.