Last Pour Le Merite

[Zif]

Who was the last man awarded with the Blue Max ?
Even if not a pilot.

And why this legendary decoration was never awarded again, for example in the WW2 ?

[Immo_Frese]

Zif,
hope I understand your question right...

The last PlM in WW1 was given on 8 Nov 1918 to Hptm. Wilhelm Edler von Graeve. He was CO of Sturm-Bataillon 2.

There is still some rumour that Lt.d.R. Gustav Doerr, Pilot with Jasta 45, got the PlM on 17 Jan 1919. There is some small possibility that the "Orden-Kommission" confirmed the award on 9 Nov 1918 but that it was not officially told to Doerr because of the Abdication of the Kaiser the same day and the outbraking chaos of the November-Revolution in Germany...

The last living recipient of the PlM was the famous author Ernst Jünger (Storm of Steel), former Lt. with Infanterie-Füsilier-Regiment Nr.73 from Hannover, who died in 1998 at the age of 102 years.

The Pour le Mérite was a prussian order. Without the King of Prussia - no PlM. At the outbreak of WW2 Hitler introduced the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) as a replacement for the PlM to follow the old tradition of the highest german award. Therefore the Ritterkreuz was worn as a neck-order too.

Immo

[Rick]

Immo:

* *What about the following army guys on 8Nov18:
Col. Armand von Alberti
Capt. Karl Hausen
Ltn.Col. Ernst Kaether
Capt. Ernst Meyer
Col. Frhr. von Reitzenstein
and Ltn.d.R. Ulrich Neckel (Jasta 6)
as well as Capt. Wilhelm Edler von Graeve

and Ltn.d.R. Carl Degelow, Jasta 40s, on 9Nov18?
Considered to be the LAST PlM winner ?

Source: *"The Prussian Order Pour le Merite" by David Edkins (who translated all the German ranks into English, and dropped all the dR and dL, thus negating any chance to establish anyone's true rank at the time [just my opinion]).

As to the 2nd part of the question: *11Nov18 = No Kaiser = No Imperial Germany = No PlM. * You are correctomundo!! *Ah, 'two dummies = one thought' *;D * * * * R.

What about interesting pilots that DIDN'T win the PLM ? . I guess von Hantelmann is a favorite of many , but what of the others that just missed out or were too late to be recognised ? . Anyone got any favorites they want to list ? . Even a late star that didn't make it to the Hohenzollern if you like .
The one that I find most interesting is Reinhard not getting his due to his death . The whole story about the Zepplin-Lindau actually ..and the what if ' if the wings had come off when Hermann was up in it .
Phil.

[Barrett]

the PlM was re-established by the W German gummint in the 1960s, I think. It's a social/scientific/artsy decoration now that does not a-tall resemble the Blue Max. Last award I heard of went to a research chemist.

[Immo_Frese]

Hi Rick,

yes, you are right. All the other men received the PlM on 8 Nov 1918 too, but in my source Graeve got the last number ( No. 5413 from 1740 on...).
Degelow got his PlM also on 8 Nov 1918. He is listed as No. 5411, Neckel got No. 5408... As far as I know, there has been no award after 8 Nov 1918. Doerr is the case in question but up to now I did not find any proof for his late award in January 1919.

My source is:
Christian Zweng: "Die Ritter des Ordens Pour le Mérite 1740-1918. Osnabrück 1998."

Immo

[Zif]

Since you are all informed so good I will ask some other question :
-who was the first german to be awarded with PlM ?

-who was the first pilot awarded with the PlM ? (i guess about Himmelmann and Boelke)

-where can I find documentation (books articles and similar) about the men decorated with the PlM for acts of bravery in the WWI.

-finally, since allied used to decorate even stranger friendly soldiers of the alliance with national decoration, was the PlM assignated to any other no-german soldier ? (Austrian, Turkish and so..)

Thanks for your collaboration.

[Immo_Frese]

Blackseptember:

You can often read that the nominating-criteria for the award of the PlM increased at the end of the war to 30 victories for Jasta-pilots. I don't think that this was true! I'm still convinced that even at the end of the war the criteria was still around 20 victories. The only reason that so much high ranking german aces never received the award is that the "Ordenskommission" in Berlin simply had not sufficient time to go through all the proposals which arrived in the last four month of the war. It is a typical appearance of crisis that the number of awards increases with the difficulties at the front.

You can see this for the PlM being awarded during the year 1918:

January: 13 awards (only 3 awards of these were given to men lower in rank than Major)

February: 4 ( 3 lower than Major)

March: 18 ( 6 lower than Major)

April ( The big push ): 65 (16 lower than Major)

Mai: 48 (5 lower than Major)

June: 36 (13 lower than Major)

July: 16 (6 lower than Major)

August (the beginning of the retreat): 39 (13 lower than Major)

September: 32 (11 lower than Major)

October: 72 (22 lower than Major)

November: 30 (10 lower than Major)

If a fighter pilot had his score around 20 victories, he was automatically proposed for the PlM.

Lt. Loerzer claimed his 22.kill on 19 Jan 1918 and was awarded with the PlM on 12 Feb 1918. His score at the time of the award stood at 22, see below in brackets...

Lt. Kroll 20 18 Feb 18 PlM 29 Mar 18 ( 21 )
Lt. Menckhoff 20 04 Feb 18 PlM 02 Apr 18 ( 21 )
Lt. Udet 20 18 Feb 18 PlM 09 Apr 18 ( 23 )
Lt.Löwenhardt 20 10 May 18 PlM 31 May 18 ( 24 )
Lt. Pütter 20 11 Apr 18 PlM 31 May 18 ( 25 )
Lt. Göring 20 09 Jun 18 PlM 02 Jun 18 ( 18 )
Lt. Windisch 20 15 May 18 PlM 06 Jun 18 ( 22 )
Lt. Kirschstein 20 03 Jun 18 PlM 24 Jun 18 ( 27 )
Lt. Thuy 20 08 May 18 PlM 30 Jun 18 ( 23 )
Lt. Rumey 20 18 May 18 PlM 10 Jul 18 ( 29 )
Lt. Jacobs 20 10 Jun 18 PlM 17 Jul 18 ( 23 )
Lt.Sachsenberg20 12 Aug 18 PlM 05 Aug 18 ( 19 )
Lt. Bolle 20 05 Jul 18 PlM 21 Aug 18 ( 30 )
Lt. Veltjens 20 11 Jun 18 PlM 26 Aug 18 ( 31 )
Lt. Osterkamp 20 12 Aug 18 PlM 02 Sep 18 ( 23 )
Lt. Röth 20 13 Aug 18 PlM 08 Sep 18 ( 23 )
Lt. Könnecke 20 30 May 18 PlM 26 Sep 18 ( 32 )
Lt. Blume 20 25 Aug 18 PlM 30 Sep 18 ( 26 )
Olt.v.Greim 20 21 Aug 18 PlM 14 Oct 18 ( 25 )
Lt. Laumann 20 09 Aug 18 PlM 25 Oct 18 ( 28 )
Olt.v.Boenigk 20 07 Aug 18 PlM 25 Oct 18 ( 26 )
Lt. Büchner 20 20 Aug 18 PlM 25 Oct 18 ( 40 )
Lt.v.Beaulieu 20 23 Sep 18 PlM 26 Oct 18 (25 )
Lt. Thom 20 15 Jul 18 PlM 01 Nov 18 ( 27 )
Lt. Bäumer 20 23 Mar 18 PlM 02 Nov 18 ( 43 )
Lt. Neckel 20 07 Jul 18 PlM 08 Nov 18 ( 30 )
Lt. Degelow 20 01 Oct 18 PlM 08 Nov 18 ( 30 )

As you can see, it take actually in most cases around 6 - 8 weeks from the proposal after 20 victories to the official date of award. The only two exceptions are Göring and Sachsenberg, who received the award before scoring 20 kills, most probably they got the high award due to their outstanding leadership.

The long delay for men like Bäumer, Neckel, Könnecke and Thom can be explained with their late commission...

All the men who were proposed for the award after mid-August 1918 had to wait so long for the award because of the high amount of proposals sent to the Ordenskommission during the withdraw-fightings after 8 Aug 1918.

But after all the criteria for the award was still 20 victories, even at the end of the war.

Some famous men, who failed to get the award but were most certainly nominated for it: Lt. Frommherz, Lt. Billik, Lt. Mai, Lt. Auffarth, Lt. Fruhner, Lt. Näther, Lt. von Hantelmann, Lt. Meyer, Lt. Becker, Lt. Preuss, Lt. Höhn, Lt. Noltenius and Lt.von Freden.


Immo

[Immo_Frese]

-who was the first german to be awarded with PlM ?

-who was the first pilot awarded with the PlM ? (i guess about Himmelmann and Boelke)

-where can I find documentation (books articles and similar) about the men decorated with the PlM for acts of bravery in the WWI.

-finally, since allied used to decorate even stranger friendly soldiers of the alliance with national decoration, was the PlM assignated to any other no-german soldier ? (Austrian, Turkish and so..)

Zif,

The first german soldier decorated with the PlM was most probably Lt.Col. Friedrich Wilhelm Marquis de Varenne, Regiment Graf Döhnhoff zu Fuß, in June 1740

The first german soldier in WW1 was General der Infanterie Otto von Emmich, Commanding General of X.Army-Corps and Commander in chief of the Maas-Army, awarded with the PlM on 7 Aug 1914 for his action against Lüttich (Liège).

First PlM to pilots went to Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke on 12 Jan 1916.

The PlM was often awarded to allies of Prussia. During the Napoleonic Campaign 1812-1814 more russian officers received the medal than prussians. In WW1 the PlM was given to high ranking officers of the kuk-Army, Turkey and Bulgaria. Examples are Generaloberst Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, chief of staff of the kuk-Army on 12 May 1915, GenLt. Damad Enver-Pascha, Vizegeneralissimus of the osman.Army on 23 Aug 1915, General der Infanterie Arthur Baron Arz von Straussenberg, Commanding General of the kuk VI.Army-Corps on 28 Aug 1915, or King Boris III. of Bulgaria on 3 Oct 1918 to list only a few...

Immo

Excellent research Immo! I have a question: Were any of the non-recipients caught up in a possible 'feud' between the Kingdoms? I understand that von Schleich had his PLM delayed in 1917. He achieved his 25th victory at the end of September, but wasn't awarded the Blue Max until December of that year. I read that this was probably due to strained relations at the time between the Kingdom of Bavaria and Prussia. He also was passed over for the HOH, which almost always preceded the PLM (Rommel was another well-known example). What are your thoughts on this?

regards