Hamburg Hanseatic Cross and Iron Cross Group Named Airshipman Otto Justus 1917 1918

This is an original named Imperial German award grouping to a Hamburg balloon-corps airshipman of the First World War, uniting two decorations with their two award documents, all to the same man: Luftschiffer Otto Justus. The grouping comprises the Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz (Hanseatic Cross) in its original box of issue with its award certificate from the Senate of Hamburg, and the Iron Cross Second Class of 1914 with its provisional award document. A group in which both a state decoration and the Iron Cross are tied by name, unit, and date to a single identified soldier is far more desirable than any of its parts alone.

The Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz is the war decoration of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, instituted in 1915 as Hamburg's equivalent to the state war crosses of the German monarchies, the three Hanseatic free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck each creating their own cross for citizens who served with distinction. The cross is of the characteristic form, arms enameled in red with a central medallion bearing the Hamburg arms of three towers on a red field, the reverse medallion inscribed FÜR VERDIENST IM KRIEGE 1914 (For Merit in War 1914). It is suspended on the red and white ribbon of Hamburg. The cross is accompanied by its original box of issue, the lid embossed in gilt with the Hamburg city arms, and by its award certificate. That certificate, headed Der Senat der freien und Hansestadt Hamburg beneath the full armorial achievement of the Hamburg Senate, records that the Senate conferred the Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz upon the airshipman (Luftschiffer) Otto Justus of Feld-Luftschifferabteilung Nr. 21 (Field Airship Detachment No. 21) for merit in the present war, dated Hamburg, 2 July 1917, and signed by the Oberverwaltungsrat.

The Iron Cross Second Class is the 1914 pattern, an iron core in a silver frame, the obverse bearing the crowned "W" cypher of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the date 1914, the reverse the 1813 side with the crowned "FW" cypher of King Frederick William III, the oak-leaf spray, and the date 1813, recalling the decoration's Napoleonic-era origin. It is mounted on its black and white Prussian combatant ribbon. Its accompanying document is a Vorläufiges Besitzzeugnis (provisional certificate of possession) printed with the heading Ballonzug Nr. 61 (Balloon Platoon No. 61), recording that the Gefreiter Otto Justus of Ballonzug 61 received, in the name of His Majesty the Kaiser and King, the Iron Cross Second Class on 12 May 1918. It is dated in the field, 23 May 1918, signed by a Leutnant der Reserve serving as Ballonzugführer (balloon platoon commander), and struck with the unit seal of Feld-Luftschifferabteilung 15.

Together the two documents trace the wartime service of a Hamburg airshipman through the balloon and airship troops of the Imperial German Army. The Luftschiffer were the men of the Luftschiffertruppe, the balloon corps, a branch older than the aeroplane arm and, throughout the war, one of its most important. Their principal instrument was the tethered observation balloon, the hydrogen-filled Drachenballon or, later, the streamlined Parseval-Sigsfeld "sausage" balloon, raised on a cable to a height from which an observer in the basket could see deep into the enemy's rear, direct artillery fire by telephone, and report the movement of troops. It was cold, exposed, and exceptionally dangerous work: the balloons were prime targets for enemy aircraft and long-range guns, and the observers were among the very few soldiers of the war routinely issued parachutes, needed for a hurried escape when a balloon was set ablaze. The balloon detachments were organized into Feld-Luftschifferabteilungen (field airship detachments) and their subordinate Ballonzüge (balloon platoons), exactly the units named in these documents, and they served all along the front, tethered behind the lines and feeding the guns the observation on which the artillery war depended. Otto Justus's path from Feld-Luftschifferabteilung 21, where he earned his city's Hanseatic Cross in the summer of 1917, to Ballonzug 61 under Feld-Luftschifferabteilung 15, where he received the Iron Cross in the spring of 1918, is the service record of one of these balloon men through the last two years of the war.

Hamburg's place in this story reflects the character of the city itself. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was one of the three surviving free cities of the German Empire and its greatest port, a republic governed by its Senate rather than by a prince, proud of the civic independence expressed in the towered arms that appear on both the cross and its certificate. When Hamburg created its Hanseatenkreuz in 1915 it did so to honor its own citizens in the way the kingdoms and grand duchies honored theirs, and the award to a Hamburg Luftschiffer joins the city's civic identity to the technical, front-line service of the balloon corps.

Condition of the grouping is very good throughout. The Hanseatenkreuz retains bright red enamel with the central arms clear, showing only minor wear, and its ribbon and embossed box of issue are present and sound, the box with expected shelf wear. The Iron Cross is solid and complete with its iron core, silver frame, and ribbon intact, showing honest age. Both documents are complete and legible, printed and completed in manuscript on period stock, with fold lines from storage, toning, and minor edge wear; the Hamburg Senate certificate retains its bold armorial heading and the Iron Cross document its unit seal, with the recipient's name, units, and dates clearly readable on both.

For the collector, a named and documented group of this kind is the ideal form in which Imperial German awards survive: the two crosses are given their full meaning by the two certificates that identify the man, his branch, his units, and the dates of his decorations. The combination of a Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz, one of the more sought state war crosses, with an Iron Cross, both to an identified balloon-corps airshipman, will appeal strongly to the collector of Hanseatic and city-state awards, to the collector of the Imperial German Luftschiffertruppe and aviation-related material, and to any collector who values a grouping that can be traced to a single named soldier and his wartime service.