Identifying the unidentified

Boy oh boy–I have a candidate now but that is all it is a candidate. From the war Ministry.

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This came from the 1910s Saxon list and would have been before he received the crown order.

There has got to be a better way. You can check his rank and look at that list but that will not tell you the year. Are these things indexed by decoration in any way?

This has been a good exercise just to familiarize myself a little with the list. I still could not find a picture of the SpMV2 but based on the abbreviations in the Prussian list this was a very short list.

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There has to be a better way than paging through all of these lists. Way too long…
 
:bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

Well done Joe! Non other than Major Hermann Schulz of the Saxon War Ministry.

There has got to be a better way. You can check his rank and look at that list but that will not tell you the year. Are these things indexed by decoration in any way?
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with practice, one gets a feel for the time period and actually, the Saxon lists are the easiest to work with as they contain an incorporated seniority list with all decorations including foreign. The Bavarians have a similar list in their Militär-Handbuch but the later editions only have Bavarian decorations; you have to look through the actual body of the army list under unit to find all the decorations listed. The Prussians are the worst. Their seniority lists do not list any decorations.

My own thinking on this one:

1. Contingent:

a. Clearly Saxon as he has an Albrechts Orden in first place on the medal bar.
b. Saxon helmet plate!

2. Unit:

a. No Saxon cuff but a Swedish cuff.
b. Only two types therefore would wear serrated litzen and Swedish cuffs and a white Haarbusch in the Saxon contingent - War Ministry or General Staff.

3. Time frame:

a. No EK2 70 or Centenary Medal.
b. Therefore very late 19th but most probably early 20th century

I still could not find a picture of the SpMV2
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?? I posted a picture just above.

Fast forward to 1912 and Major Schulz has his KO3 and is now commanding FAR 64:

Schulz64.jpg

Oberstleutnant Hermann Schulz was killed in action as the commander of FAR 12 on 7 September 1914.

Regards
Glenn
 
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That is proof positive that even a Blind pig can find an acorn every once in a while. You have taken me far but I have very very far to go. I saw your picture of the award but when I did my searches I could not find one.

This took some time… It would have been absolutely impossible without all of your guidance. Thank you.
 
Glennj said:
below2.jpg
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Beautiful photo!!!
 
Joe,

This took some time… It would have been absolutely impossible without all of your guidance. Thank you.
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ah, Herr Oberst, you sell yourself short. You homed in straight away that he was a Saxon War Ministry or General Staff officer. And that is most of the battle with this game: If you can identify the uniform and one or two distinctive decorations, you don't have to wade through hundreds of pages of army lists. In the case of Major Schulz above, it really is a quick scan at the War Ministry and Higher formations pages over a few years (about ten pages at most per year).

Regards
Glenn
 
Thank you Glenn,

However in order to be more correct I will need more confidence. You are correct that I was able to determine rank and war ministry but that I had 2 problems really 3. I did not know which list to start with and was lucky to start with the correct one. But it was shear luck. when I found it was missing a medal that shook my confidence so I double checked myself and went through a huge amount of pages finally discovering the listing by rank. In the Saxon list that was a real dream. I then remembered your lesson about the missing medals and the timing so I had a candidate. Lastly, try though I may I could not find a picture online to match his Spanish decoration so I was a little but wandering until you came to my rescue. I am not quite ready to fly by myself yet but with your help it is getting better! 8-[ 8-[
 
After a break, I was trawling through the portrait folder on my hard disk and came across this unnamed gentleman. He is a little blurry as I have increased the size of the rather small image I had but all his decorations are unobscured and fairly easy to identify. Has anyone any thoughts on this chap?

Regards
Glenn

1902.jpg
 
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Right, all shall be revealed on this gentleman. As Chris correctly points out this Bavarian officer is a veteran of the Franco-German War as clearly shown by the 1870 Iron Cross 2nd Class and the wearing by a non Prussian of the Kaiser Wilhelm Commemorative Medal of 1897.

He is not wearing a Bavarian Jubilee Medal of 1905 so we have a time frame of 1897-1905. So, with a Württemberg Friedrich Order Commander's Cross and a Saxon Albrecht Order Officer's Cross, his unique combination of awards identifies our man as Oberst (later Generalmajor) Maximilian Poli, the Regimental Commander of 4. Infanterie-Regiment König Wilhelm von Württemberg (that accounts for the Friedrich Order) between 1901 and 1903. This photograph predates his 23 May 1902 award of the Prussian Red Eagle Order 3rd Class.

Regards
Glenn
 
This distinguished looking chap's portrait appears on page 165 of Reiner Herrmann's "Militärische Kopfbedeckungen der Kaiserzeit" and is captioned as an Offizier (Adjutant) des Königlich Sächsischen Karabinier-Regiments. Bit of a problem there as he is clearly an officer of the Garde-Reiter-Regiment (1. Schweres Regiment); The Carabinier-Regiment (still spelt that way at the time of this photograph) had black facings whereas the Reiter-Regiment had white as seen here.

Our Adjutant is none other than the later Generalleutnant Adolf Freiherr von Stralenheim, ultimately the commandant of Dresden. He is shown here as a Rittmeister and adjutant to the Saxon War Minister in 1879/1880 shortly before returning to his regiment to command the 4th Squadron. Along the way, Baron von Stralenheim commanded Husaren-Regiment Nr. 18 and the 1. Kavallerie-Brigade before retiring in 1904.

Although a wee bit blurry, note the Saxon Albrecht's Order Knight's Cross with Swords in first place, the Bavarian Saint Michael in the centre and the Russian Saint Stanislaus peeking out at the end. Taken sometime after his 23 September 1879 award of the Prussian Read Eagle 4 (in third place) and his return to his regiment early in 1880.

GRR.jpg

Stralenheim_bar.jpg

Stralenheim.jpg
 
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I recently identified one of Joe's magnificent specimens on flickr: One Oberst Otto v. Schwerin of Königin-Regiment Königin (Pommersches) Nr. 2

https://flic.kr/p/bBUftL

Last week I came across another shot of the colonel (later General) in all his finest and of course this time with his decorations on display on the breastplate.

Schwerin Otto Graf KR 2.jpg

Regards
Glenn
 
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Joe,

indeed. Although this photograph of Baron Uslar-Gleichen is about ten years later. Of particular note are the Baron's Hannoverian Ernst August Order Knight's Cross and the Langensalza Medal.

Regards
Glenn
 
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