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Moral for today: Don’t sit down to read the PDF of the latest Journal when you actually came here to add more medals to the images database!
Today I added the Order of the Banner of Labour and the Order of Scharnhorst to the East Gernany section of the database.
Added the Battle Order for Merit for the People and Fatherland and the Blücher Order – which was never awarded as it was a wartime only gallantry award and the German Democratic Republic never went to war! Despite that, they made a lot many of which are now ‘in the wild’ and, surprisingly, like many GDR awards exist in pre-1973 precious metal and later plated base metal versions! The design didn’t change, however.
Spent this afternoon tracking down the variants of the Blücher Order and the Blücher Gallantry Medal, neither of which was ever awarded yet exist in both pre-1973 precious metals and later plated base metal versions… but makes them relatively easy to pick up if you collect GDR medals. The East German authorities had quite a stockpile against a future need that thankfully never came to pass. It’s interesting that a communist state chose to have a cross for brave officers and a medal for more junior personnel.
Megan,
I have very few (less than 10) GDR Medals and Badges, but this post really enlightened me and makes me want to acquire a Blucher Gallantry Medal. I looked it up, found a Wikipedia article (and your site… of course), that led me to the Armor Magazine article of 1994. Fascinating history here! Thanks so much.
Dave Rogers
Thank you Dave. I’m not familiar with Armor Magazine or the particular article, what did it have to add?
Anyway, today I have added the East German Order for Military Merit and Medal for Military Merit, both awarded to members of the armed forces (or civilian employees) of other countries for fostering links between the armed forces of different nations. I’ve not yet found what determined whether you got one of the 3 classes of the Order or the single-class medal, though.
Continuing with East Germany, today we have the Medal for Participants in the Armed Struggle of the German Working Class 1918-23 – to get this you had to be active against the rise of militarism during the stated years AND be a staunch anti-fascist during 1933-1945 (and presumably to survive long enough to be awarded the medal!), the Medal for Fighters against Fascism 1933-1945, and the Medal of Hans Beimler, which was awarded to those East Germans who had fought in the Spanish Civil War (on the socialist side, of course).
As I depart on a 2-week cruise next Friday, there won’t be any more updates to the Medal Images Database until the new year. So I shall wish you all a Merry Christmas and a medal-filled New Year and see you on the other side!
Hello Megan
Thanks for you efforts over the last few years. You should be a shoe-in for an OMSA MSM.
Have fun on your cruise.
PS I’ve compiled the legislation defining “most” Commonwealth ODM available – some countries just a couple of pages – Australia 304 A4-size epistles. (And some of them require a dictionary to decipher)! Do you want anything in particular?
Graeme
Thank you, Graeme.
I too collect the original legislation, administrative orders, whatever, that each nation uses to lay out what its ODM should look like & be awarded for, so I’d love to see what you have if you are willing to share. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has just done a MAJOR update of their awards, which I am trying to read before I go away. And I’d only just done their section on here…
Megan,
The Armor Magazine is a US Army Armored Corps publication. In 1994, it published an article about the East German and Soviet Union’s 1980’s planning to take over West Germany. The Blucher Order is mentioned near the end (page 11) and notes the immediate order to mint 8,000 medals on 25 January 1985, assuming they would soon be awarded if the occupation attempt was successful. Fascinating article.
Funny, I was stationed in West Germany for 2-years starting on 2 January 85. East German Soldiers could have been awarded that medal by shooting at me!
Dave Rogers
I’m back!!! Cruise was a bit of a disaster, search ‘Arvia Christmas’ if you want just some of the gory details. Wi-fi so bad I got my money back, just as well there’s a complete set of the JOMSA PDFs on my laptop to keep mr entertained!
Back to East Germany and the Medal of Clara Zetkin. Clara was an early German Communist politician and activist with an interest in women’s rights… but she didn’t like the ‘feminists’ of her time, seeing that any fight for woman’s rights was tied up in the whole socio-economic situation, not something to be viewed in isolation. A trained teacher herself, she was eager to get women out of the house and into the workplace. She died in 1933, but was hailed as a pioneer and heroine in East Germany, hence a medal issued in her name and bearing her likeness.
Today a couple more East German medals: the Medal of Merit of the GDR and the very rare Cosmonaut-Pilot of the GDR – they only had one! This was Lieutenant Colonel Sigmund Jähn who flew a space mission with the Soviet Intercosmos programme, that saw cosmonauts from several Warsaw Pact countries go into space.
It’s that time of the year again! Colonel Khriss Urban has received the latest Medal of Distinction from the Kentucky Colonels and barely takes a moment to admire it before he takes some pictures and sends them to me for the Database. Congratulations and thanks!
Back to East Germany, and the Meritorious Military Pilot and Honour Title of Meritorious Member of National People’s Army awards… there were a whole string of Honour Titles for different uniformed services, so more of those next time!
Finished off the East German Honour Titles – the last two were People’s Policeman and Worker in the Customs Service – and added all 3 classes of the Friedrich Engels Prize as well.
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