Medal Bars

[pzrwest]

Some have seen these two medal bars before but I thought I would repost them here in this new section. These medals belong to my good friend and comrade Edgar's father. Edgar himself is a ww2 uboot vet. These medals were awarded to Edgar's father Willy Anton Schmidt. He served in ww1 and then when ww2 came along he was called back to service and was involved with the West Wall. Here are the pics of the medal bars

Here are pics of the individual medal bars
Obverse:


Reverse:

[pzrwest]

Since the takeing of these pictures we have tracked down what the second medal on the first medal bar is. It is an Altenburg-Saxony medal equivelent to the EK2.
The long service medal on the first bar has a blue ribbon but has faded over the years. I have thought about turning over that ribbon but was told best to leave the medal bar intact un-altered, which I am doing. Edgar promised these medals along with some other items of his father upon Edgars passing but I said I would rather have them before he passed away than after since when I received the items he would no longer be here.

[pzrwest]

Here is a picture of the set of minatures that go along with the medal bars. The ww1 EK2 miniature is missing from the bar Edgar had removed it and had it made into a necklace for his son Volker but it was stolen. I would like to find another miniature EK2 to replace the stolen one

[pzrwest]

And finally here are a cpl pictures of Edgar's father Willy Anton Schmidt
the first is of Willy when he first joined the German army he belonged to the 16th regiment from Altenburg-Saxony.

The next two pictures are of the obverse and reverse of a piture of Willy when he was an nco with the 133rd construction Battalion 3rd company taken in 1915. You will note he has a reporting book tucked into the front of his tunic so I'm assumeing he was a der Spiess


Willy ended ww1 as a leutnant. I also have his shoulder boards, sword knot, and his cap cockades

[leicanthrope]

The first medal bar looks to be perfectly legit, and a good match to the chain and the ribbon bar in one of the photographs. However, I've got my doubts about the second bar. Quite frankly, it doesn't make a lick of sense and it flies in the face of the regulations of the period. I can't explain where it came from, but I doubt it has anything to do with the rest of the group. (Strange things happen. I found ribbon bars belonging to vets who served in the PTO in amongst my grandfathers effects when he passed away. He was a bomber mechanic in England.)

1. The first medal is an unofficial WWI commemorative medal that could not have legally been worn on a uniform after 1934.
2. The second medal is a long service medal for civil service, it's logical enough that if he was awarded that sometime after the first medal bar was created that he would have worn that in the place of the 12 year long service medal on the first bar as seen on the miniature chain.
3. The red and white ribbon actually belongs to an Austrian WWI commemorative which was available upon application to any German soldier who fought in WWI during the 1920's (1928, I think). It's got the wrong medal on there. Can't quite figure out where that 15 year long service came from, as we know that he only had a 12 year long service medal in/after 1934 when the Hindenburg Cross was created. The first bar has to date to post-1934 because of that medal.
4. If these were two different bars belonging to the same person from different points in history (which is unlikely regardless of the decorations present, because most people would have transfered the medals to a new bar when they were awarded something new), there's no logical reason why he would omit his Iron Cross and the Saxon bravery medal in the second one. The Hungarian WWI commemorative would have most likely been on there as well.
5. The second bar is obviously post-1939, given the West Wall Medal. If it had belonged to a WWI vet as indicated by the decorations on each end of it, there would have been a Hindenburg Cross on there as well. I have never seen a WWII era bar to a WWI vet that omitted the Hindenburg Cross.

[Steinmetz]

Hi Harold

The second medal is from the Duchy of Saxe-Altenberg, and it is known as the Bravery Medal (created 1915 for bravery to NCO's and other ranks). Ribbon is actually light green/white.

The fourth medal along is indeed the 12 year long service medal (for Prussia) and the ribbon would have originally been solid cornflower blue (prolly just faded with age).

The last one is indeed Austro-Hungarian, its their WWI veterens medal.

Hope this helps. I collect Imperial German medals etc as much as the Third Reich

[pzrwest]

Both medal bars are original as I received them from Willy's son Edgar. Why he had two different types of medal bars made up I can't say. Yes the long service medal on the first bar has a blue ribbon just it's badly faded, if I lift up the edge you can see the bright blue color of the ribbon.

[Feldpostobersekretär]

Interesting bars.
He wouldn't be the first to prize his Imperial service more highly than those 3rd Reich johnnies Plenty of evidence of that around, imperial and even commemorative WW1 service being worn before others in disregard to the late 30's regulations, which a lot of vets and others did not agree with. Come on, the War Merit Cross Second class, coming before the Prussian Life saving medal? You're 'avin' a laugh mate.
ttfn!