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German Franco-Prussian War Related Local Medals


Fred Borgmann
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Fred Borgmann
German Franco-Prussian War Related Local Medals
By Fred J Borgmann
Veterans are pretty much the same all over the world. Most of them whether draftees or volunteers had honorable intentions. Just as universal is the gratitude felt by the civilian populations for their boys in uniform. Often this gratitude is expressed in the form of locally issued medals given to the returning veterans after a war. In the United States locally issued medals peaked after the First World War. In Germany the situation was similar but delayed. The German States and the later united Germany issued large numbers of medals to their troops starting after their “War of Liberation” against Napoleon which was followed by the “Wars of Unification” culminating with the Franco-Prussian War. Just collecting the officially issued medals of the German States for those wars is a major project. With very few exceptions, local issued medals for those wars were not issued to German veterans until 1895-96 on the 25th anniversary of the battle of Sedan and again in 1910 on the 40th anniversary. This burst of patriotism created a vast and often confusing field of medals that still remains virtually unrecognized and uncharted. The confusion stems from the many medals issued to honor the Franco Prussian War anniversaries that were not intended just for the actual war veterans. A collector of the medals will need to be able to read German to tell which are veteran’s medals and which are just patriotic medals. Veterans medals usually include the words Gewidmet, Ihren or Seinen in the inscriptions. Therefore I have compiled a trial listing of these locally issued German veterans medals. Most of this listing has been gleaned from German numismatic auction catalogs over the last forty years. Interestingly the German catalogers do not use a special category for these medals but usually just list them in a medals section by town names along all other medals regardless of theme though some times the medals are listed under the heading of war and peace.
German Local Medals to Franco Prussian War Veterans
( A Trial Listing )
? = does not actually have a “for veterans” type statement on medal which would include the words Gewidmet, Ihren or Seinen in the inscriptions.
* = I own one.
This listing does not include war anniversary celebration and monument medals.
Arlen 1895
Baden-Baden 1896 looped *
Bad Kissingen 1895 *
Bavaria 1895
Brehna 1895
Bremen 1895 *
Brunswick Inf. Regt. No 92 1895
Crimmitschau 1895, two types; only one is definitely for vets.
Dusseldorf 1895 *
Erlangen 1895
Fischen 1895 *
Garmisch 1895 *
Gundelfingen 1896
Halle a.S. 1895 *
Hanau 1895-1896
Hochst a/Main 1895/96
Holzkirchen 1896
Ingolstadt 1895 *
Konstanz 1895 *
Laufen 1895 *
Leisnig 1895 *
Letschin 1910 *
Lindau 1895
Oberstdorf 1896*
Pappenheim 1895
Perlach 1896 *
Plattling 1895
Pless 1895/96
Poppenhausen 1896 Veterans Assoc. issue *
Rudesheim 1895 *
Rothenbach 1895 *
Saarbrucken 1871 school children’s medal *
St.Georgen (Bav.) 1895
Schleswig-Holstein 1870/71 gold medal for helping widows and orphans
Schoneck 1895 vets issue? *
Schopfheim 1895
Thumringen 1895
Thurnau 1895 *
Uberlingen 1895 *
Viechtach 1910 *
Vilich (now Beuel) 1895 *
Waldsassen 1895
Weil 1896 *
Witten 1895 *
Did I miss one or are you unsure of a medal you have? Please share it with us, thank you.

 

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  • 8 months later...
Fred Borgmann

I can add three more to the list; Hamburg 1870 for Christmas to the wounded in Hamburgs military hospitals. Kitzingen 1895 and Lichtenfels 1895. 

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Super information!  I love veteran stuff but there always seems to be no end to the medal variations.  I collect US and CS veteran items but never got into the convention badges because there is no end to them.  

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Fred Borgmann

Thanks Sarge!  The Amer. Legion once bought a restaurant here in my small town that had lots of display cases on the walls.  I tried to convince them that Amer. Leg. convention badges would make a very interesting display topic.  That was 20-30 years ago  when the badges were cheap but sadly, they just flipped the place. 

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  • 1 year later...
Fred Borgmann

German Local Medal Estimates
By Fred J. Borgmann

The wars of German Unification culminating with the Franco Prussian War ending in 1871 are the most important wars in German History.  After each of these wars the German States issued medals to their returning veterans.  Twenty-five and forty years later many local communities of the now unified Germany issued commemoration medals to their veterans of these wars.   Very little research or cataloging of these medals has been done as of this time (Jan., 2022).  Nothing has been done to determine how many of the local medals were issued.
    Back in the 1980’s Louis Small came up with a formula based on the 1920 United States Census to estimate how many of each of the locally issued WWI service medals were made.  Small’s system worked fairly well the main problem being that many of a location’s veterans lived outside for the city limits and were not counted by the census for that location but still received medals.
    When trying a similar system for the German medals I did not have a census to rely on. For German population statistics I used the following sources:  
Baedekers Travel Guides for Germany 1906-1913.
Rand McNally Atlas 1890.
Meyer’s Konversations Llexikon 1897.
Encyclopedia Britannica 1904.
Webster’s Geographical Dictionary 1977.
Google.
    The population target years for me were 1875-1910. This works since the German population is fairly stable and not nearly as mobile as the Americans are for example. When only modern population numbers could be found 2003- I divided the population number in half to approximate what the population would have been in 1890 based on my observations of the German growth rate.  German Population numbers for Dusseldorf included numbers for civilian and military populations which indicated that 8% of the population was in uniform.
What follows here is a list of the medals I know to exist with population figures and an estimated number of veterans eligible to receive one of the listed medals.

Most medals actually have a “for veterans” type statement on medal which would include the words Gewidmet, Ihren or Seinen in the inscriptions. 
This listing does not include war anniversary celebration and monument medals.

Arlen 1895    Population ?      Medals est.  ?
Baden-Baden 1896 looped *  Population  10,000    Medals est.  800
Bad Kissingen 1895 *   Population  3,471   Medals est.  278
Bavaria 1895   Population  4,863,450    Medals est.  389,076
Brehna 1895    Population 2002     Medals est.  160
Bremen 1895 *   Population 111,039     Medals est. 8,883 
Brunswick Inf. Regt. No 92  1895
Crimmitschau 1895, two types; one for vets.  Population 17,649  Medals est. 1412 
Dusseldorf 1895 *  Population  80,695    Medals est.  6,455

Erlangen 1895   Population 13,597     Medals est. 1,088 
Fischen 1895 *   Population  1,500    Medals est.  120
Garmisch 1895 *   Population 2,700     Medals est.  216
Gundelfingen 1896   Population  2,830    Medals est.  226
Halle a.S. 1895 *   Population 60,503     Medals est.  4,840
Hamburg 1870 Christmas medal to wounded in Hamburg’s military hospitals.*
Hanau 1895-1896   Population  22,269    Medals est. 1,781 
Hochst a/Main 1895/96   Population  1,900    Medals est. 152 
Holzkirchen 1896   Population 8,265     Medals est.  66
Ingolstadt 1895 *   Population 14,485     Medals est.  1,159
Kitzingen 1895 *   Population 6,393     Medals est.  511
Konstanz 1895 *   Population 10,061     Medals est.  805
Laufen 1895 *   Population 1,737     Medals est.  139
Leisnig 1895 *   Population  7,944    Medals est. 635 
Letschin 1910 *   Population 3,140     Medals est.  251
Lichtenfels 1895 *   Population 2,959     Medals est.  237  
Lindau 1895   Population 1,057     Medals est.  85
Minden 1879 (date unclear) Next of kin ? *   Population 17,869  Medals est. 1,429
Oberstdorf 1896*   Population 2,500     Medals est.  200
Pappenheim 1895   Population  1,748    Medals est.  140
Perlach 1896 *  now part of Munich
Plattling  1895   Population 6,312     Medals est.  505
Pless 1895/96   Population  4,132    Medals est.  330  (population of  Pless greatly reduced by  2008)
Poppenhausen 1896 Veterans Assoc. issue *
Rudesheim 1895 *   Population  4,772      Medals est. 382 
Rothenbach 1895 *   Population  450    Medals est.  36
Saarbrucken 1871 school children’s medal *
St.Georgen (Bav.) 1895   Population  3,520      Medals est.  282
Schleswig-Holstein 1870/71 gold medal for helping widows and orphans
Schoneck 1895 vets issue? *   Population 4,700     Medals est.  376
Schopfheim 1895   Population  3,828    Medals est.  306
Thumringen 1895   Population in 1834: 329     Medals est.  26
Thurnau 1895 *   Population  1,300    Medals est.  104
Uberlingen 1895 *   Population 4,400     Medals est.  352
Viechtach 1910 *   Population 2,100     Medals est.  168
Vilich (now Beuel) 1895 * now part of Bonn
Waldsassen 1895   Population 3,605     Medals est.  288
Weil  1896 *   Population  14,862    Medals est.  1189
Witten 1895 *   Population 37,400     Medals est. 2992 
Zwiesel 1895 *   Population 4,000     Medals est.  320

Zwiesel 27647_x9070_g.jpg

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