Military medical medal
The military medical order was on October 16, 1914 by King Ludwig III. Donated by Bavaria in two classes and was intended for medical officers who distinguished themselves in times of war on the battlefield or in hospitals, with the risk of their lives taking care of the wounded and sick.
Order decoration
The medal is a white enameled, gold-rimmed cross with outwardly widening arms. The gold and crowned initial L (Ludwig) can be seen in the dark blue enameled medallion . The medallion is surrounded by a white enamelled ring with a laurel wreath and the year 1914 on top. The reverse of the medallion shows the golden inscription FOR MERIT IN WAR , also enclosed by the already described ring. However, without the year.
The second class, apart from the enamel, is made of silver .
Carrying method
The first class cross, like the second class, was initially worn on a black ribbon with white and light blue stripes on the left chest, later as a neck medal .
Others
With the award of the order an annual pension of 600, - Marks for bearers of the 1st and 300, - Marks for bearers of the 2nd class was connected. In the Federal Republic of Germany the still living members of the order received a monthly honorary salary of DM 25, -.
Overall, the medal was awarded very sparsely. From the first class 11 and from the second class only 164 awards were made.
history
Up until the end of the monarchy in 1918, the old German army had a number of the highest orders of bravery, which honored only outstanding deeds by officers . They were awarded by the various German federal states as their highest bravery decoration, were all held in the form of elaborately crafted crosses, which by their appearance immediately stood out from the other awards and so on. enjoy an almost legendary reputation even today. The best-known example of this is the bright blue enameled Prussian Pour le Mérite , which is regarded almost worldwide as "the" order of bravery par excellence. These highest orders also included, for example, the Military Karl Friedrich Order of Merit in Baden, the Military St. Heinrichs-Orden in Saxony, the Military-Merit-Order in Württemberg and the Military-Max-Joseph-Order in Bavaria , whose bearers were also raised to the personal nobility of a "knight of".
As the last of these former highest German bravery orders, King Ludwig III. of Bavaria, on October 16, 1914, the Bavarian Military Medical Order . This medal, donated exclusively for the brave behavior of medical officers in the foremost combat zone, is in many ways an unusual award. Because of its short lifespan from 1914 to 1918, it is also extremely rare.
Medals of honor to honor the merits of the medical staff and those people who had to do with the care of the wounded in the broadest sense were donated in many German states, especially on the occasion of the war of 1870/71; Men standing in the officer rank were mostly given the various levels of the existing orders of merit. An explicit award to honor bravery in performing this difficult service was missing almost without exception. The notable exception to this was the Kingdom of Bavaria. There, the value of the brave deployment of medical soldiers in armed conflicts was recognized very early on , because a soldier who knew how to be rescued and recovered in the event of a wound went into combat with considerably more commitment and confidence.
In 1812, King Max I Joseph donated the Military Medical Medal , a kind of special form of the Bavarian Medal for Bravery , and since 1794 the kingdom's highest honor for bravery, for NCOs and common soldiers. In the course of the 19th century there were changes in the military medical system, but especially the eventual regular award of the officer rank to military doctors, aroused the legitimate wish in the group of people in question, just like all other officers, with the same bravery, not just with a medal, but to be awarded a cross that corresponds to their position. Despite repeated attempts in this direction, the request remained unfulfilled for decades. With the outbreak of World War, however, the problem suddenly reappeared.
Foundation, endowment
King Ludwig III., Donated the Bavarian Military Medical Order in the first weeks of the war in order to “make excellent contributions to the medical officers of the mobile army in the care and treatment of wounded and sick officers and men on the battlefields and in to reward the hospitals of the operational area acquired during the war ” . The award of the Military Medical Medal of 1812 was discontinued from this point in time; Medical personnel in the non-officer rank should be awarded the Bavarian Bravery Medal again if necessary . Since no other German state followed the example of Bavaria, its foundation remained the only German order of bravery for medical officers.
Awarding practice and honorary pay
In order to rule out preferential treatment and discrimination by superiors to a large extent, a very modern and practice-oriented award procedure was chosen - similar to the Max-Joseph-Orden: Anyone who thought he had deserved the medal could apply for the award himself. A commission of the order then conscientiously examined the information under questioning witnesses and spoke out to the king - who had the last word - for or against the award. A symbolic honorary salary of 600 or 300 marks annually was associated with the order; a reward that has survived to our day through incorporation into the law on titles, medals and decorations from 1957. In addition, when a porter died, the Bundeswehr (like the Reichswehr before) sent an honorary delegation who held a wake at the coffin and carried the high order on a pillow at the funeral.
The military medical medal was awarded only 174 times and the crosses were subject to return until 1935 after the wearer's death. In 1980, when four knights were still alive, the Military History Museum Rastatt, as a state institution of the federal government, honored the Bavarian Military-Sanitary Order with the publication of a memorial booklet. It says with regard to the facts recorded for posterity by the award of the order, which were again made available to the public (as in 1928 in Bavaria's Golden Book of Honor):
“ Last but not least, the 174 named individual representations of exemplary bravery of the medical officers awarded the Military Medical Order are suitable to emphasize one of the noblest soldier virtues, namely helping wounded comrades in the front line, which is associated with the greatest self-endangerment. "
literature
- Bavaria's Golden Book of Honor. Bavarian War Archives. Munich 1928.
- Georg Schreiber: The Bavarian orders and decorations. Prestel Publishing House. Munich 1964.
- Military history museum Rastatt. Orders and decorations. Part II: The Royal Bavarian Military Medical Order. in the series The Collections of the Defense History Museum in Rastatt Castle. Freiburg im Breisgau 1980.