Amazing display, Claas! I'm speechless!
Luke
Amazing display, Claas! I'm speechless!
Luke
Good Lord Class!!!,
I am truly humbled by your collection. Thanks to this forum, I do not think anybody can ever amass such a collection again. I am starting to turn green.
Steve
P.S I got you email and plotted out the picture 36 inches wide and around 12 to 16 inches high. It looks great!! I need to send it to Dwight to translate all the text when I get a chance. Meanwhile, I plan on fixing the folds in the picture in Photoshop soon. At that point it will be perfect in both languages. I will be sure to get free copies to the regulars out at that point. Please do not hold your breath, it may take a while
Here is a U-Deutschland related item that I haven't seen before, which was recently sold on Ebay. This lapel pin is identical in shape and inscription to, but much smaller than, the oval pendent or watch-fob made from the U-Deutschland's iron ballast and sold on the US East Coast in August and September 1916. It sold on Ebay for the bargain price of $34. The apparent colorization occurred during the process of converting the ebay photo to a compatible format.
Dwight
Claas: I'm glad I didn't buy it. My son sent me two more photos of it that show more detail and reveal what I think it really is. I think it's a full-size pendant or watch fob that someone has ground off the loop at the top and has soldered a stick needle on to. The discoloration that I thought was caused by the digital format changing process is really heat discoloration that occurred when the needle was soldered on, probably with a propane hobby torch. Dwight
Dwight: I don't agree with you. I think it is an extra pin. Look on the backside from the fob with the ring on the picture below. The text is written a little bit different. On the pin you posted the text is written around the needle in the middle.
The other two pictures shows the medal with an other kind of fixing.
I don't have this pin. I found the pics several years ago on ebay or anywhere else.
By the way: Did you see this kind of cross. It has got a loop for collar:
I found this pic on ebay, too. It was to expensive...
Regards
Claas
Claas: You're right about the lettering on the back, so the pin probably isn't made from a full-size pendant or fob. But that is sure a sloppy soldering job, and whoever did it used way too much heat. It could be that the original pin came off, or someone wanted a different pin on it, but I agree with you that it probably is a lapel pin cast by the same people who cast the pendents/fobs. I have just sent you an email. Dwight
Thanks to Claas, we now have the facts regarding when and where this Iron Cross paperweight was made. In his collection, Claas has a photo of an award document dated 11 March 1937 issued by a German association called Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland (VDA) on which is written that the Iron Cross being awarded had been made in Baltimore in 1916 at the direction of an American-German association called the "Society in Aid of German Prisoners in Siberia." The iron used to make the Iron Cross was from the ballast that came across the Atlantic on the first trip. The write-up says that when the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, these Iron Crosses were hidden since they had become dangerous to the State (Staatsgefährlich) and could not be shared openly, which I think is referring to the German sympathizer and spy scare that swept the country during WWI. After the war, Paul König returned to the United States and took to Germany all the remaining examples of this Iron Cross, which he gave to the VAD to be used as awards to its members for loyal service.
According to an undated and unattributed source that Claas has, A craftsman in Baltimore, identified only as Hans, designed the cross and G. Krug and Sons made them. We have other confirmed sources that these crosses, together with several other made-from-ballast souvenirs were sold throughout the New York-Maryland area. I infer from what Claas sent me that Paul König obtained the unsold examples either from the society that had them made or from G. Krug & Sons, and it must have been in 1932 when he and his daughter were in the US. I think Walt has some information on the making of these Iron Crosses that is at odds with this information, but maybe his source has the name of the mystery Hans. Dwight
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