Fred Borgmann Posted February 1, 2020 Share #1 Posted February 1, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack the Collector Posted February 2, 2020 Share #2 Posted February 2, 2020 Everyday is a school day in this hobby!Thank you Fred for this bit of knowledge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rakkasan187 Posted February 2, 2020 Share #3 Posted February 2, 2020 Very interesting article.. Thank for you sharing your knowledge with us Leigh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Borgmann Posted February 4, 2020 Author Share #4 Posted February 4, 2020 Thanks guys. Since I collect in the fringe areas like this it is up to me to share my research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rakkasan187 Posted February 6, 2020 Share #5 Posted February 6, 2020 and it is greatly appreciated Fred.. Well done.. Leigh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Borgmann Posted October 6, 2020 Author Share #6 Posted October 6, 2020 I can add three more to the list; Hamburg 1870 for Christmas to the wounded in Hamburgs military hospitals. Kitzingen 1895 and Lichtenfels 1895. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SARGE Posted October 7, 2020 Share #7 Posted October 7, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Borgmann Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share #8 Posted October 7, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Borgmann Posted January 22, 2022 Author Share #9 Posted January 22, 2022 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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