Content - Richard Lundström
Layout - Sebastian Bianchi 

 

This "Luftwaffe" Major may not have been a Luftwaffe officer… at all. Meinhard Rosenmüller (1883- ) was the famous Max Immelmann's WW1 squadron leader. Rosenmüller retired as a brevet Major after WW1, and if he was not a Luftwaffe reserve officer, has-fairly typically-simply taken "permission to wear uniform of an air force Major, retired" from 1920-and updated his uniform! The ribbon bar shows: Iron Cross, Saxon St. Henry Order(-Knight), Saxon Civil Merit Order(-Knight 1st) with Swords, Saxon Albert Order (-Knight 1st) with Swords, Saxon Albert Order(-Knight 2nd) with swords, possibly a Hamburg Hanseatic Cross, an unidentifiable award with Swords, WW1 Honor Cross with Swords, Austro-Hungarian Military Merit Cross 3rd with War Decoration, a Bulgarian WW! bravery Order, and the Turkish War Medal. Because he did NOT have a post-WW1 regular military career, only incomplete details are available on his awards from WW1, based on the Saint Henry recipients' citations book and Neal O'Connor's "Aviation Awards" volumes. MH

 

 

Here is another photo where it may SEEM that the "wrong" awards are being worn on the wrong uniform: the first two ribbon on this Zollsekretär's tunic are clearly double Wehrmacht Long Service Awards, no doubt 12 and 4 Years Service Medals.  The last ribbon is unclear, but may be the Customs Long Service Cross.  What are these army or navy awards doing on here? Twelve year career enlistees from the Reichswehr were trained for civil service jobs after they would be leaving the military.  For those few whose discharge fell between October 1936 (when the Wehrmacht Long Service awards were first bestowed) and the end of 1938, transfer at equivalent rank into an organization like the Customs Service was still possible. RN

 

 

On the other hand, this overage junior naval reserve officer would certainly seem to have way too many long service awards-FOUR, in fact.

 

 

This bar is: 1914 EK2, WW1 Honor Cross with Swords, NSDAP 15 Years Service Cross, NSDAP 10 Years Service Cross, a "generic" blue long service, and a Third Reich 25 (or 40?) Years Loyal Service Cross for the civil service.  The crosses for uniformed Nazi Party organization service were all worn together, making three of THOSE possible.  Service before 1933 counted double, and was often subject to "creative accounting" in claiming "full time" status for often unpaid and really part time Party activists.  Given the political situation during Weimar, it is rather unlikely that a civil servant under the Republic could have been an active, "full time" Nazi. With documented cases like last SA-Stabschef Schepmann and SS Brigadeführer Graf, who received civil service crosses they "should have" received, having been dismissed from their positions, one would imagine similar "double-or rather TRIPLE-dipping" was going on here.  The plain blue ribbon probably indicates some Imperial military long service award, whether XII or IX Years Service Medals or the Reserve-Landwehr Medal is impossible to tell. As a member of the Wehrmacht, this Nazi reserve officer SHOULD have updated an old Imperial long service (of course, the Reserve-Landwehr Cross and Medal had NO Third Reich equivalents, and so continued in wear) to "current" Wehrmacht versions. Perhaps he realized that FIVE long service ribbons would have been … just too much!

  

 

This extremely well decorated former Imperial military officer, serving as a Reichs Labor Service Major (Arbeitsführer) is wearing a 13 ribbon south German style bar that makes identifying most of the awards difficult.  But note, in 8th position, the dark ribbon just over the shoulder side above his tunic button-the short-lived 1940 R.A.D. insignia on his Long Service Medal.  Why such a useful device was almost immediately banned is a mystery.  Regarding the 1939 KVK ribbon from his second buttonhole-worn there, there was no way to tell if it was the type with or without swords.  Unlike some WW1 awards, swords were never allowed worn on this method of KVK ribbon wear, only if on the ribbon bar.  The R.A.D. Bergmütze is also of interest here. RN