Hello,

I have this family photo, no dates on it. I believe it may be my greatx3 grandfather Ludwig Funk. I am hoping the medal bar will give me some insight into the time period of this photo and which war he served in.

I believe his family was from Aschaffenburg -- his son Ludwig was born there in 1851.

Thank you in advance for your insight! It is greatly appreciated!
Kathy

Kathy,

From left to right the medals he has are Iron Cross 2nd class 1870/71 campaign medal Bavarian 1866 campaign medal Bavarian long service cross (probably for 24 years of service) UNKNOWN


Based on this, he clearly served in two wars: the 1866 war between Austria and its allies (to include Bavaria) against Prussia and the 1870/71 war between Prussia (with its allies-including Bavaria) and France.

There is a Heinrich Funk shown in the 1877 list of Iron Cross receipients- he is the only one from a bavarian unit. Perhaps your relative went by more than one first name??

This man was an "Oberfeuerwerker" an artificer- someone responsible for ammunition, particularly artillery.


As far as dating the photo, it is most likely before 1895 when those individuals awarded the Iron Cross in 1870/71 were authorized to wear an oak leaf clasp on their Iron cross as well as attach small bars to their 1870/71 campaign medal showing which battles they fought in.

Perhaps if we knew what the last medal was, that might lead to a better dating, as it is most likely a commemorative of some description.

Andy

Thank you VERY much Andy for the information.

I appreciate your time and consideration to provide this much detail. It will help me tremendously as I continue to put pieces of my family history together.

I am going to look into Heinrich Funk to see if in fact he is part of our family. I would imagine with this amount of decoration, there would be some news stories about him at the very least from his home town.

Thank you again for your sharing your time and knowledge!

Kathy

You may want to try contacting the Bayerisches Armeemuseum:

Daniel Hohrath M.A.
Uniformen, Fahnen, Fotos, Dokumente

http://www.bayerisches-armeemuseum.de/en/service-en/contacts...


Postal adress

Bayerisches Armeemuseum
Postfach 21 02 55
85017 Ingolstadt
Street adress:

Neues Schloss
Paradeplatz 4
85049 Ingolstadt

Telefon: +49 (0)841 / 9377-0
Fax: +49 (0)841 / 9377-200
Email: info@armeemuseum.de

http://www.bayerisches-armeemuseum.de/en/service-en/contact....

Thank you for the referral Ken!

I hope to learn more about the information that Andrew provided in an eariler post. Perhaps Daniel will be able to provide even more detail about the events around those medals and hopefully my greatx3 grandfather!

I'm very appreciative of your time and information.

Have a good week
Kathy

Glad to be of service. I suppose I should also have suggested Dr. Müller below, although the medals have been identified already. I'm not sure that given the lack of clarity with the last one more can be learned about it, but you never know.

Dr. Thomas Müller
Graphik, Gemälde, Zinnfiguren, Orden