{"product_id":"braunschweig-war-merit-cross-award-paperweight-named-ribbon-watenbuttel-wwi","title":"Braunschweig War Merit Cross Award Paperweight Named Ribbon Watenbuttel WWI","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eOriginal First World War-period German commemorative glass paperweight from the Duchy of Brunswick, enclosing a section of award ribbon together with the printed notice announcing the award of the \u003cem\u003eBraunschweigisches Kriegsverdienstkreuz\u003c\/em\u003e (Brunswick War Merit Cross) to a named local recipient. The piece measures 4 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches (approximately 10.2 by 6.4 by 1.3 cm), a flat rectangular block of clear glass with rounded corners, the paper and textile insert sealed to the underside and viewed through the glass from above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eSet beneath the glass is a diagonal length of the medal's silk ribbon in yellow with blue side stripes, laid across a mottled ground, above a printed paper strip lettered in German blackletter. The heading reads \u003cem\u003eDas Braunschweigische Kriegsverdienstkreuz\u003c\/em\u003e (The Brunswick War Merit Cross), and the notice below, in \u003cem\u003eFraktur\u003c\/em\u003e, states: \u003cem\u003eDas Braunschw. Kriegsverdienstkreuz am gelb-blauen Bande ist dem Landwirt Eduard Helms in Watenbüttel verliehen worden\u003c\/em\u003e — \"The Brunswick War Merit Cross on the yellow-blue ribbon has been awarded to the farmer Eduard Helms in Watenbüttel.\" The insert thus records a specific, named bestowal of the decoration, pairing a physical piece of the award ribbon with the printed announcement of the honor. The underside is backed in dark paper, and the block shows age toning and some moisture-related clouding and residue within, consistent with a century-old sealed keepsake.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eThe decoration named is one of the principal honors of the Duchy of Brunswick. The \u003cem\u003eKriegsverdienstkreuz\u003c\/em\u003e, also called the \u003cem\u003eErnst-August-Kreuz\u003c\/em\u003e, was instituted on 23 October 1914 by Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, to be awarded, in the words of the statute, without distinction of rank or standing for merit in the war. It is a bronze cross pattée bearing the ducal cypher \u003cem\u003eEA\u003c\/em\u003e at its center, the Brunswick crown to the upper arm, the date 1914 to the lower, and oak-leaf sprays to the sides, with the reverse legend \u003cem\u003eFür Verdienst im Kriege\u003c\/em\u003e (\"For Merit in War\"). Originally a single-class award, it gained a First Class in pinback form on 20 March 1918, the existing cross becoming the Second Class. From 17 November 1915 the cross could also be conferred on a distinct ribbon for non-combatants, to recognize services not directly connected with fighting: where the combatant's ribbon is blue with yellow side stripes, the non-combatant ribbon reverses the arrangement to yellow with blue side stripes. The ribbon sealed into this paperweight is that yellow-blue non-combatant ribbon, and the notice's description of the recipient as a \u003cem\u003eLandwirt\u003c\/em\u003e (farmer) is entirely consistent with such a home-front award, granted for agricultural or civil contribution to the war effort rather than for service at the front.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eThe named recipient roots the piece firmly in its place. Watenbüttel is a village on the outskirts of the city of Brunswick, long since absorbed into it, and Eduard Helms was evidently a local farmer whose wartime service to the duchy was recognized with the cross and reported, as such awards routinely were, in the regional press. The paperweight was almost certainly made as a personal or family keepsake, preserving the printed announcement and a fragment of the ribbon under glass as a permanent memento of the honor. Objects of this kind, combining an actual ribbon relic with the documented name of the recipient, occupy the ground between decoration collecting and archival document, and are considerably scarcer and more personal than the medals themselves. The Duchy of Brunswick, ruled at the war's outbreak by Ernst August, the son-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the last reigning Welf duke, holds a particular fascination for collectors of the smaller German states, and its distinctive awards and the units associated with it, the Brunswick Infantry Regiment No. 92 and the Brunswick Hussar Regiment No. 17 with their death's-head tradition, are keenly followed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eCondition is consistent with a sealed glass keepsake of over a century's age. The glass block is intact, with edge and corner wear and light chips consistent with use as a paperweight. The interior shows age toning, some clouding, and moisture-related discoloration to the backing, but the ribbon retains its yellow and blue coloring and the printed notice remains legible in full, including the recipient's name and place. The dark paper backing is worn and partially abraded at the edges. The named inscription, the feature that gives the piece its interest, is clear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\"\u003eFor the collector, the appeal is the rare conjunction of relic and record: a genuine section of the Brunswick War Merit Cross non-combatant ribbon preserved together with the printed, named announcement of its award to an identifiable Brunswick farmer. It is at once a state-award piece, a named document, and a home-front keepsake, and it speaks directly to the way an ordinary family memorialized an honor received in the Great War. Such personalized award ephemera from the smaller German states survive far less often than the decorations themselves, and rarely with the recipient named so plainly.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Derrittmeister Militaria Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50144998129903,"sku":"18-115","price":97.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/9169\/5855\/files\/18-115_1.jpg?v=1783455545","url":"https:\/\/derrittmeister.com\/products\/braunschweig-war-merit-cross-award-paperweight-named-ribbon-watenbuttel-wwi","provider":"Derrittmeister Militaria Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}