I have shown this picture already, when I showed a Medal Bar with a Romanian Orden, which you will find below.
This time, I am going to talk about the Foto itself and the Rank Lists of the Bavarian Kingdom.
I remember to buy this picture a few years ago, just because there is a mix of Bavarian and Spanish Officers, with the portrait of the King Alfonso XIII of Spain. They were all Artillerymen of the Royal Bavarian 5th Field Artillery Regiment “King Alfonso XIII of Spain”. There are only Spanish names at the back and a year 1913.
What I also like from this picture is, that there are also many officers posing with Medal Bars. Just having a look at it, I must say, that the Spanish were more generous than the Bavarians, because there are more German officers with Spanish Medals than the opposite. But from those officers, when checking the Rank Lists, there was a chance to find the name of 3 of them. Well, this is the type of stuff a person do in those looong summer days (and bad weather, that doesn’t allow me to go to a Biergarten)
To do so, it is very, VERY useful to have the “Militär-Handbuch des Königreiches Bayern from 1914”. This is the book, where all of the Bavarian Officers with his decorations are listed. from the General Staff to each of the regiments, military schools, forts, etc, in the Bavarian army. Also, it shows the list of officers in the reserve. To identify the Medals and Orden, they also attaches the symbols or abbreviations of them, so it is fairly easy to identify them.
As said before, we are talking about officers of the Royal Bavarian 5th Field Artillery Regiment. I have attached a picture of the list of officers in that Regiment, which will be compared with the picture of the officers. One of them is holding a cigar (3rd from the left, front row). He has a really interesting Medal Bar. It could be identify as Major Hugo Raila. All of his Decorations are listed, but one. The List doesn’t show the Southwest Africa Commemorative Medal for taking part in the fight against the Herero. That is why he received the Red Eagle Orden, 4th Class with SWORDS (no Iron Crosses were given during this campaign). I have attached a picture of how his Medal Bar would have been and compare it with the one in the Rank Lists. Please note also he had an Austro-Hungarian Franz-Joseph Orden. Beautiful.
We move now to the 3rd officer from the right, in the front row. He is Major George Röck. He is wearing another beautiful Medal Bar with a Star below. That is the Spanish Military Merit Orden 2nd Class. I also attach a picture of one, that belongs one of the persons I most trust, my friend Don Emilio Montiel. But it could also be, that he is wearing a 1st Class one. The medal bar contains a beautiful Bavarian Militär-Verdienstorden without Swords (right before the war). I tried to put together that “Ordensspange”. Please note, the Red Eagle Orden is not the model that he received.
And finally, the 3rd officer in the front row from left is wearing the almost the same Medal bar as Major Röck, but there is a Spanish Military Merit Cross in it. I could identify him as Major Hugo Nötig. Please note that with the Spanish Military Merit, the basic class (or knight class if we want to compare it to German ones) is the 1st class, being the 2nd and 3rd more important. So it goes the other way araound.
There are also a couple of Bavarian officers wearing just a 2 Medal “Ordensspange”. A beautiful Spanish Bavarian mix of the Bavarian Jubiläumsmedaille and a Spanish Military Merit Cross.
I had really much fun digging about this picture. The typical case that you spend more hours in an Item than euros.
Sources.
– Militär-Handbuch des Königreiches Bayern from 1914
– Spanish Military Merit Orden 2nd Class –Emilio Montiel.
– Fotos from Bene Merenti Auktions, Künker Auktions, Tompress Militaria.