Well, this is going to be an article, that start from the end.
During the last few months, I have shown you a few Bavarian Military Merit Crosses in Bars. The main characteristic of all of them is, that they belong to the third form, which was introduced in 1913.
Here you find an example of that period.
Just one tip, if you are interested in this particular form, please get your hands in the Magazine: “Orden und Ehrenzeichen, Nr. 85 (June 2013)”. There is a very interesting article there about it with plenty of pictures and comparisons.
The previous Form or second one was made between 1905 and 1913.
The main differences between the 2ndand 3rd form are:
– Introduction of the 3rd Class in 1913.
– Introduction of the Crowns in the 3 classes.
The one, that I am showing today, belongs to the very first Form, which was made between 1866 and 1905. We are going to concentrate only in the Cross and not the Orden itself and its classes.
König Ludwig II was the head of the Royal Family and the Bavarian Kingdom, when on the 19th of July 1866, this Orden was approved. The reason for its creation was, as states in its Statutes: “In order to reward such brave acts of war, which lack one or the other statutory prerequisite for the award of the Military Max-Joseph-Orden, and particularly outstanding services to the army with a Decoration, a second military Orden has been created.
The Article 3 stablished the Orden in 5 different classes, being the Military Merit Cross, the 5th one of them. This class was given to NCOs and Troops. This is something easy to check, just having a look at the Regiment Histories for the 1870/1871 war. Have a look at the example attached of the 2nd Company of the Leib Regiment.
In the same Statutes, it says in its article 11, that the orden or cross has to be send back to the War Ministry, when the person died. This was something very common with other decorations.
This cross is marked A.H. in its ring. This means, it was made by the jeweller Adam Hausinger. He was in the business until 1875-76, so we already have a date to situate this piece.
The Orden was created without the “feature” of the swords. A change in the Statutes of the Orden on the 19th of February 1891 introduced them. This was also made in a retroactive way, for those who took part in a war (for example, 1866 or 1870/71), which is the case of the shown cross in the article. The swords were added to it but upside down. Still a beauty.
Finally, we get to the numbers. Having a look at the work from Bernd Döbel (see sources), we find out, that a total of 3.835 Militär-Verdienstkreuze were awarded.
Sources:
– “Orden und Ehrenzeichen, Nr. 85 (June 2013)”.
– Statuten des Königlich Bayerischen Militär-Verdienstordens (https://ordensmuseum.de/…/koniglich-bayerischer…/)
– Zusammengestellt anhand der Matrikellisten (MKr4Reg) des Ordens aus dem Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchiv- Bernd Döbel (Pinneberg, 08.02.2014