Unusual Eismeer / Edelweiss Pair - Any Help Please!

[TobyR]

Hi Everybody,

This weekend I acquired an interesting parcel of two items: an Eismeer Front Medal and an edelweiss badge.

Whilst I am familiar with the edelweiss badge (although not overly) I have never seen one like this. It has a ski pushed between the badge and the backing cloth. The ski looks well made and not something put together during a lull in operations. The whole badge is also suspended by a piece of leather. Is the ski indicative of ski-ing proficiency? Who would have made this?

And next, is the Eismeer medal. I have to say that I have never seen one of these before. As per the edelweiss, this too is suspended by a piece of leather.

Can anybody give me any info about these two pieces. Presumably they are related, since they both incorporate the Edelweiss motif. Has anybody seen anything similar?

For the record the person I acquired them off, bought them in the 80's from a local 'antiques' fair.

Thanks for any help.

Cheers,
Toby.

[TobyR]

And here's the reverse:

PS The edelweiss is on a dark-green backing cloth.

[djpool]

Hello Toby,


The badge with the skis denotes its for someone in a ski jagerunit. This was obviousily made by the individual to wear as a watch fob token, because of the leather strap. Production made versions as well as field made examples were also worn as a cap badge. The Eismeer front badge is a watch fob token given to the individual by the unit for his participation in a certain campaign, sporting event etc. I think this badge was given by the 5th Mountain Div. The ski jager badge appears to be a original example of soldier art. There are decent copies of the Eismeer badge out there but this looks like a good one.Hope this helps, Jim

[GJR100]

Hi Toby,

On the Edelweiss medal:
I agree with Jim in that it was made by the owner for personal wear as a watch fob token. The Edelweiss is the standard Gebirgsjaeger Edelweiss used on the Bergmuetze. The dark green backing denotes Austrian origin, although I've read it also may denote 1st Mountain Division (I favour the Austrian explanation). The ski is just a personal touch may be to show he was a expert skier.

On the Eismeer-medal:
These came in two versions: a silver coloured one and the more bronze one like yours. There are copies of these on the market, but these can be easily detected by their lack of detail (up till now that is). Jim is right in this as well, as it being a remembrance 'medal' for anticipation in some event. In this case being at the Eismeerfront during the denoted period.

I've added two pictures of similar medals.
The first being a non-wearable medallion on Christmas on the Eismeerfront in 1942.

[GJR100]

The Eismeerfront medal you've shown is the one most encountered.

The second picture I've attached is for the period 1943-1944 and is non-reversible.



Greetings,
Bart

Ps. If you ever want to part from the Edelweiss/Ski item, please remember me ....

[Philippe]

Hello Bart and all,

Very interesting informations about Eismeer Front medals. I didn't know about the last one Bart show us (1943-1944 non-reversible)

Here was mine:



Happy collecting !



Philippe
www.majorplm.com