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
