German coins and military medals WWI/ WWII

This is a patch that I have not researched yet.

 

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I had no idea either. I looked it up, one is for sale for $595US
Its a ReichsOberabschnittsleiter Collar Patch I think it signified a political rank in a district /Gau
Learned something!

 

The Third Reich Military Medals seem to be popular and go for really astronomical prices in auctions. I would say its threefold, some collect them for their looks/ others for the investment/ most for the historical aspects. These where awards for valour. On the otherhand, no one would collect memorabilia from the GESTAPO/ other sinister police formations, or any group that commited crimes against humanity. Its like, I love Roman coinage/ military history, even though they where a very brutal regime that enslaved millions/ had hundreds of thousands torn apart by wild animals in the arenas, presecuted and murdered same number of Christians. Even today, the Communist regime in China, has a worse human rights record then Josef Stalin, who was responsible for 50 Million deaths in the USSR.

 

AV 15 Rupieh 1916-T Tabora Mint
Deutsches Ostafrika

Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck aka "The Bush Fox"

Like the WW2 Desert Fox, the WWI exploits of Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck are legendary. During the 1914-18 period in Africa vs the British, the "Bush Fox" defeated the vastly superior enemy forces time after time, remained undefeated. He finally surrendered after the November Armistice. He did this with a few thousand native "Askaris" soldiers plus a hundred German officers. He died in 1983.

 

I disagree with the claim that they're somehow better looking than other ones, but that's really just my preference and I can't fault other people for not liking the color blue over red. I do scratch my head when I see things like people saying "I elevated my collection by buying a nazi coin".

I don't personally subscribe to such a relativism with evil. Just because there are worse evils out there does not mean something isn't evil. Sure, the Soldiers fought bravely in battle and that's something I support, but they did so in support of the nazi regime, and their awards were marks of gratitude by it. Their victories enabled mass slaughter, enslavement, and genocide. These important aspects are often (and intentionally) overlooked.

I recognize the value some of the items bring, but I'm also grateful to not feel the need to trade those items for money. I have identified a correlation between Confederate and nazi memorabilia collectors and am a bit skeptical of anyone whose only collection consists of purely swastikas and Confederate symbols.

I think there are some very unique and interesting pieces from this time, and I appreciate seeing them, but worry that threads like this will simply devolve into "look at my swastika collection".

And on that note, this is probably the most beautiful gold coin I've seen come out modern Germany. Some day, I hope to own one

 

General von Lettow-Vorbeck also appears on German Notgeld post World War I paper money:


Notgeld Berlin von Lettow-Vorbeck Portrait
Paper, 4-1/8 x 3 inches (10.4 x 7.4 cm)


Notgeld Berlin von Lettow-Vorbeck Map
Paper, 4-1/8 x 3 inches (10.4 x 7.4 cm)

 

Yes, the AV 15 Rupieh is nice. You are better to grab a Vorzg (EF) from Kunker auction/ a Kunker EF =TPG MS-64
so way cheaper. Still these are way overpriced! Germany sadly has not made any beautifull coins after 1918. The Holy Roman Empire types where stunning (1650-1871

 

The Blue Max......Love it. Great medal John and awarded only to the exceptionally brave.

 

For me its a tie/ between the Blue Max and the Ritterkreuz. In WW1 Baron Manfred Von Richthofen won the Pour Le Merit at 20 victories/ he ended with 82. In WW2 Erich Hartmann dubbed by Stalin, as the "Black Devil of the Ukraine" scored 352. He got the KC/ Oakleaves/ Swords/ Diamonds....much deserved. He served alongside his buddies Gerd Barkhorn (302 victories) Gunther Rall (276)
They where part of Jagd Gruppe JG-52 on Eastern Front. This unit shot down 12,000 enemy planes/ lost 342/ almost stuff of legends. Both loved the Me-109 G. After the War they where instumental in forming the post war LuftWaffe. Many others like Willi Batz (238) Graf Krupinski (197) joined too. There where 100+ aces with 100-250 victories.

 

John I think you'll find the reason was that they were deployed mainly on the Eastern Front where they did not rate the Russian pilots or tank corps as having the same equipment or skills as their counterparts on the Western Front. Hence Hans-Joachim Marseille with 158 kills was considered the top German air ace as most of his victories came against the British Commonwealth's Desert Air Force while he was attached to the Afrika Korps (Africa Corps).

It is recorded that while on a lone reconnaissance sortie he attacked a squadron of 12 Mosquito fighters and shot down 8 before the remaining aircraft flew to safety in close formation. He died when his ME109F caught fire, the engines were prone to overheating, and he either hit the tail when bailing out or his parachute got entangled with the tail of the aircraft. Not a way for any hero to die.

There were heroes, honourable individuals and gallant men on both sides as there were cowards, traitors, dishonourable and despicable individuals. The medals were awarded for the acts of bravery of individuals who fought for and perhaps gave the biggest sacrifice for their country, while not necessarily believing certain twisted ideologies.

 

BTW how and where did you acquire the Blue Max. It appears to be n outstanding condition.

I remember seeing the movie many moons ago and I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one

 

Actually, the Soviet Army had better tanks at the beginning of Barbarossa. German Panzers crews were shocked to meet KV-1/2s which had superior armour/ guns to their puny PZKW-3s. Later in 1941 they would encounter the T-34. Finally at the end of 1942, the PZKW-VI or "Tiger"saw action in Leningrad sector. But even in 44/45 the Soviets had the formidiable JS-!/2 which had a bigger gun then KonigsTiger.
However, you are correct/ German crews where better trained. In the West, the Allies had better tanks at beginning/ but the new Tigers saw action in 42/ Tunisia and where the best in the West till the end of War.

In the air war, 100 percent the Western Allies had better pilots, then the Soviets. But the Red Airforce had fantastic fighter planes like the La-7/ La-9/ Yak-9

Again, German aircraft engineers had great planes, some like the Me-262 could have given the Luftwaffe air superiority by 1944, had Adolf Galland had his way. But Hitler/ Goring wanted it as a bomber. The Gotha Go-229 could have changed the War, it was 10 years ahead of its time. It would have been far wiser to have put all the emphasis and money into the Horten Slealth Fighter production, then the A-4 (V-2) Rocket program with Werner Von Braun.

 

You can find these on Kunker Auctions (Militaria/ Orders/ Decoration) auctions. With full papers/ documentation these run 25-70K euros depending how famous the receipient was.
The Ritterkreuz/ Eichenlaub/ Schwerten/Brillanten can go up to 1 Million Euros+++

 

There was a sort of "Foreign Legion" in the service of the Reich There where Indians/ Turkomans/ Chetniks/ Cossaks/ Finns/ Estonians/ Iraqis/ Bosnian Muslims/ Walloons/ Flemish/ Dutch/ British in Heer and Waffen SS Divisions.
1/ Spanish Volunteers
2/ Finnish "
3/ African "
4/ French (33rd SS Charlemagne Div.)
5/ Turkomans (former Soviet POWS from Turkmenistan)
6/ Iraqi " (wanted to free Iraq from British rule)
7/ Indian Tiger Brigade SS Volunteers (inspected by Rommel)
8/ Estonian SS Division (Ripulii being awarded Knights Cross by General Felix Steiner)
9/ Cossack " (thousands of Cossacks served in Heer/ Waffen SS)
10/ Bosnian Muslims from Hanschar Mountain Div.)
There where over 1 million of these ethnically diverse volunteers in service. Most joined to fight the Soviets to liberate their former Countries from Stalin's tyranny. Military historians rated the Estonians/ Finns/ Walloons/ Latvians as best combat soldiers of WW2.

 

WW1 Aces/ planes