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If the mound of end-of-academic-year marking wasn’t enough, the Robertson home TV system went on the blink. Various bits and bobs acquired, a lot of poking around behind the stack, and (fingers crossed) it is behaving again.
OK to more important things… East Germany and the vast array of “Honour Titles for Meritorious Worker in…” has started with energy workers, iron workers, and workers in the chemical industry. Plenty more to come. I’ve been reading an article that said whatever else the German Democratic Republic ran short of, it always had plenty of medals!
And a real treat from Greg Harris, the Bavarian Royal Merit Order of St Michael – a first class set of sash badge and star. no less! Thank you Greg – who else wants to share the pride and joys of their collections? Just send the photos to me and they will appear – credited to you, of course – in the Images Database.
More “Honour Titles for Meritorious Workers” – these ones in metal industries, light and food industries, and cpmmunal and accommodation services. There are plenty more to come so if your trade hasn’t shown up yet, don’t despair!
Too many papers to grade, but it is almost over! In the meantime a couple more Honour Titles for Meritorious Workers, this time in Construction and Transportation.
The Grading Monster has been slain (until the next time)!
Today’s additions are yet more Honour Titles for Meritorious Workers in various industries – this time railroad workers, sailors, and posts & telecomms workers. Have I posted one for your particular trade yet? There are more to come…
More Honour Titles for Meritorious Workers, todays are for Communal Farmers and for Workers in Agriculture and Forsetry. Both established on the same day (28 April 1977) they are unusual in that the annual award limit was 100 between the two of them, rather than each having their own limit.
And then, a real treat. the Bavarian Order of St. Anna, instituted in 1783 by the widow of Elector Maximilian III. Joseph, one Maria Anna Sophie, being conferred upon the daughters of the Bavarian Catholic nobility. In order to receive the Order and enter the convent of St. Anna in Munich, the unmarried applicant had to be eighteen years of age and be able to prove at least sixteen noble ancestors. However, the number of noble ancestors was later altered to eight. Beginning in 1808, Protestant women were accepted, and in 1841, foreigners were also accepted in the Order… although these didn’t presumably enter the convent! This was provided by Greg Harris, it’s apparently a new addition to his collection. Thank you for sharing, Greg!
Yet more East German Honour Titles, this time for workers in the water industry, plant and animal breeders, and veterinarians. And yes, there are more to come. Both the breeders and the veterinarians awards were established very early, so have more than one version as they began to standardise what the Honour Titles ought to look like.
More Honour Titles for Meritorious Workers… this time for those in trade, finance, and planning – formulating plans for developmenmt of the socialist paradise, that is, not town planning/zoning! And, yes, there are still more to come…
An interesting one this week, it appears that although workers in the Foreign Policy Service were initially thought worthy of an Honour Title in 1979 they never actually got around to awarding it to anybody. Various trial specimens have been seen in the wild, however, and I have put up a couple for you. I also added one of the older Honour Titles, that for Teachers which dates back to 1949 (as a certificate) with the medal added a couple of years later. The next up in the Honour Title for Lecturers and, being one myself, I’d like to find an image of it. So far unsuccessful, maybe next time.
In other news, it’s been announced that the UK will have a Humanitarian Service Medal for issue to those who render aid in disasters, be they man-made or natural. They have only released a picture of the reverse as yet, with vague references to the obverse bearing the head of the monarch. It seems that King Charles III, known as being fond of the details, is taking his time deciding what he wants on his medals! Meanwhile all the various long service medals that ought to be awarded are mounting up…
The next East German Honour Title I’ve added today is one close to my own heart, that for Meritorious University Lecturers (as I is one!). The other one today is the Honour Title of Meritorious Medical Doctor, which was instituted in 1949 and went through FIVE variations during its lifetime. This award was said to have been instituted to slow the departure of qualified medical practitioners to the west by providing perks and incentives for them to remain in East Germany.
And another new UK medal has been announced… this one is the Nuclear Test Medal, for military, civilian, and overseas staff and personnel who participated in Britain’s nuclear testing programme in the 1950s and 1960s. This has a rather gaudy ribbon and at last we have a medal obverse with King Charles III on it, albeit rather disappointing – it’s not a good likeness (coins already released are far more like him) and it’s facing the wrong way! In the UK, the direction in which the monarch faces alternates between reigns, but this one has him facing to the right, same as the late Queen Elizabeth II.
As soon as I get decent images of both this and the Humanitarian Service Medal I talked about last week, they will go up in the United Kingdom section of the database.
Hello Megan
I could be wrong (it’s happened before) but I thought that the direction of “monarch facing” applied only to stamps and coins.
Re the two new UK medals. I’m still awaiting an answer from the UK Cabinet Office regarding warrants etc. Still waiting for an answer……………..
Graeme
Hi Graeme. Let’s see… George VI faced left, so did George V… but that was a hic-cough due to the short reign of Edward VIII. Before him, Edward VII faced right. Victoria faced left.
Two more East German Meritorious… medals today, for Heath Workers and (believe it or not) Lawyers. And there are still more to come.
Well, we’ve reached the end of the “Honour Title for Meritorious Worker in…” with the rather dodgy Meritorious People’s Controller. This was awarded to good workers in an organisation that checked that workers and farmers were all doing what they ought to be doing.
Moving on, there’s a series of Prizes, again for different areas of endeavour. Today I’ve added the Architecture Prize and the Design Prize… in the latter case, although I have found out what it looks like I cannot find a single image of the beast. Anyone seen it?
Today I’ve added three more State Prizes (they had quite a few of those as well), the Art Prize (general artistic endeavour), the Johannes R. Becher Prize (poetry), and the Lessing Prize (for playwrights and literary critics).
I have the week off. so some more may appear later if I don’t get sidetracked too much…
Now added the first two medals of King Charles III’s reign – the Nuclear Test Medal and the Humanitarian Medal.
Back to the German Democratc Republic and a couple more prizes – the Heinrich Heine Prize and the Heinrich Greif Prize. The first was awarded for poetry and long-form journalism, the second for film and TV work. It can get quite fascinating reading about the people after whom the prizes were named.
Heinrich Heine was a 19th centuary poet and journalist who had a vision of a united social-democratic Europe and happened to be a friend of both Karl Marx (to whom he was related) and Friedrich Engels, while Heinrich Greif was an actor who worked in theatre and film in both Germany and Russia… and had communist leanings.
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