Talk:House Order of Hohenzollern

Swords on German orders

Someone recently changed this page to reinsert this sentence, which I had deleted when I rewrote the article: "It was both a military and a civil award, with the addition of crossed swords to indicate a military award. It could only be awarded to commissioned officers (or civilians of approximately equivalent status)."

Crossed swords on the House Order of Hohenzollern did not "indicate a military award"; crossed swords indicated a wartime or combat award. This was not just the case with the House Order of Hohenzollern but also with most other Imperial German decorations (as well as the orders of a number of other European countries). Military officers routinely received orders without swords for peacetime merit. Take a look at the 1914 Prussian Army ranklist and one will see, for example, at least a dozen officers in Füsilier-Regiment Nr. 40, the regiment of the former Hohenzollern principalities, who have the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern without swords. And one will find few officers above the rank of captain who do not have a Prussian Order of the Red Eagle or Crown Order, or both, without swords. These were commonly given as peacetime long service awards.

12.145.108.11 01:08, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Ernst Jünger

The misinformation I corrected was the statement that "he was the youngest officer ever to receive" the Pour le Mérite. He was one of the youngest recipients, but not the youngest. Jünger was born on 29 March 1895 and decorated on 18 September 1918; thus he was 23 years and 5 months old when honored. A number of recipients were younger. Lt. Otto von der Linde, the first junior officer to receive the PlM, was born on 13 January 1892 and decorated on 18 September 1914 (22 years, 8 months). Others include:

• Werner Voss: 5 days before his 20th birthday
• Oliver Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay: 20 years, 1 month
• Franz Büchner: 20 years, 9 months
• Ulrich Neckel: 20 years, 9 months
• Kurt Wüsthoff: 20 years, 9 months
• Karl Allmenröder: 21 years, 1 month
• Erich Loewenhardt: 21 years, 1 month
• Heinrich Gontermann: 21 years, 2 months
• Hans Kirschstein: 21 years, 10 months
• Ernst Udet: 21 years, 11 months
• Rudolf Windisch: 21 years, 4 months
• Kurt Wolff: 22 years, 3 months
• Paul Bäumer: 22 years, 5 months
• Walter Blume: 22 years, 8 months
• Fritz Rümmelein: 23 years, 1 month

Still active order!

Why is it stated on this website that the order is obsolete? To my knowledge the order still exists as a dynastic order, acknowledged as such throughout the world; sincerely not some sort of pseudo-order or fake order! See http://www.icocregister.org/list2002.htm. Demophon (talk) 11:51, 11 March 2010 (UTC)