***Antonio Wednesday’s Wonders ***
The Stein of a Bavarian Hero.
Back to the Bavarian side of the force, I am happy to show you the following “Reservistenkrug”. It is damaged, as you can see. The little soldier on the top is missing, but it compensates it with just knowing to whom this stein belonged.
We see, that the Krug was ordered by Gefreiter Wieser, from the Royal Bavarian 6th Infantry Regiment, 6thCompany. He served there between 1910 and 1912. Please note also, the “special” Shoulder board, that this regiment had.
With this name and details, I had a look at some matchings in the Hauptarchiv München (via Ancestry.com) and the surprise is, that the only person I could find was Michael Wieser, a recipient of the Bavarian Valor Medal in Silver (Silberne Tapferkeitsmedaille or Militär-Verdienst-Medaille), the highest decoration in Bayern for soldiers and NCO. This is something, that you don’t come often, especially because this medal was awarded to less than 3.000 people during the First World War.
I will not go through his life for the sake of not bore you a lot. But the fact, that he was a Beer Brewer before the war, just kind of, makes him even more interesting.
Michael was born in Prackenbach, not far away from Rengensburg and the frontier with the Czech Republic. During the war, he served in the Bayer. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 11, which was part of the 30th Reserve Division, a very poor Division. He received his decoration in this unit, but after he was sent in 1917 to the Bayer. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 20, part of the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, a much harder unit as the one before.
He was awarded with the Tapferkeitsmedaille in 1915 for the following actions:
“On April 10, 1915, the regiment took the right part of a covered trench from the French position near Ban de Sapt. On April 13, an armed reconnaissance was to be carried out to determine whether the left part of this trench was still occupied by the French.
Private Wieser of the 6th Company had volunteered to join the storm troop and, alongside the leader, Corporal Wolf, advanced towards the trench after the defenders had driven away a barrier. Before this was reached, the stormers were thrown back by an explotion and were partially buried. Wieser immediately occupied the blast crater and began fighting. Although wounded in the face and eye by hand grenade fragments, he remained at the front until he was stunned by a stink bomb.“
Sources:
Histories of the Two Hundred and Fifty One Divisions of the German Army.
Bayerns goldenes Ehrenbuch 1914-1918