***Antonio Wednesday’s Wonders ***
A Death Card from a very Brave Bayern: Sebastian Schmid.
The following “Sterbebild” landet in my collection, thanks to a good person and fantastic Bavarian collector. Thanks Walter. It is a quite simple one, but the information behind is so huge, because one of the medals, that he got during the war. By the way, that decoration is also mentioned in the “Dead Card”.
We are talking about the Bavarian Golden Military Merit Medal, the highest decoration in the Kingdom of Bavaria for troops an NCO. This medal was awarded less than 1.000 times during the First World War. It was made in Gold (around 20-21 Grams) and the current value of it goes well above the 5.000 Euros, and I believe, I am being very optimistic.
As Example of the medal, that he got, I am showing one, which went for auction by Künker in 2014.
And know, that we know, what he got. It is time to explain how he got it. To do so, I will use the Information available in the book “Bayerns Goldenes Ehrenbuch” from 1928, which shows all of the Bavarian Heroes, who got the most important awards in the Kingdom as well as the reason behind.
Sebastian was a soldier, who served in the 2ndKompanie of the Royal Bavarian 8th Infanterie Regiment Großherzog Friedrich II von Baden. He was just a farmer before the war.
On the 20th of March 1915, the Kompanie was trying to recover, part of the defensive lines in the “Cobres-Höhe” (Combres-sous-les-Côtes), that the French had taken. The managed to recover 50 metres of trenches, but due to the high casualties, the attacked was halted.
Sebastian went as volunteer forward to help 2 comrades and started to defend the position alone in a very brave way, despite the coming French Infantry and the grenades flying around him. He also managed to build a barricade with sand sacks, with the help of some pioneers, who joined him. When the attack re-started, he volunteer for the attack and started to take down the Barricade, the he managed to build. With all his actions and valour, he was an immense example for his comrades.
Just to mention, that Combres-sous-les-Côtes is located between Verdun and St. Mihiel.
The emdal was awarded to him already in February 1916. But it wasn’t the only one given to him in that year. In January he was also awarded with the Iron Cross 2nd Class.
So as I said before, it looks like a “simple Sterbebild”, but it has so much behind it. He was a Bavarian Hero, no doubt of it.
Sources:
– Foto from “Herbstauktionen 2014” from the Auktionhaus “Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG”.
– Bayerns Goldenes Ehrenbuch