Albert Order
The design was a Christian cross with a bust of Albert the Bold at the centre. In 1875, however, it was discovered the bust was in fact the wrong Albert, Albert the Perennial, the grade structure of the Albert Order changed several times. At first, there were five classes, Grand Cross, Commanders Cross 1st Class, Commanders Cross 2nd Class, Knights Cross and these provided the basis for a series of changes over the following forty years. On 18 March 1858, the Small Cross was renamed as the Honour Cross, a Merit Cross with Swords was added on 29 October 1866 and this was extended on 9 December 1870 with the Merit Cross with Swords on Ring. The medals were abolished on 2 February 1876 and the Knights Cross was split into two classes. On 30 April 1884, a gold Great Cross was added and on 11 June 1890, if, however, a recipient was subsequently awarded a higher grade in the Order, he could lose the bravery distinction attached to the superseded grade. This anomaly was solved in 1906 by allowing the addition of Swords by replacement of insignia, a recipient, had to pay the cost of replacement and this appears to have inhibited the numbers of such replacements
Major
Major is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicators, major is one rank senior to that of an army captain and it is considered the most junior of the field officer ranks. Majors are typically assigned as specialised executive or operations officers for battalion-sized units of 300 to 1,200 soldiers, in some militaries, notably France and Ireland, the rank of major is referred to as commandant, while in others it is known as captain-major. The rank of major is used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures, such as the Pennsylvania State Police, New York State Police, New Jersey State Police. As a police rank, major roughly corresponds to the UK rank of superintendent, the term major can be used with a hyphen to denote the leader of a military band such as in pipe-major or drum-major. Historically, the rank designation develops in English in the 1640s, taken from French majeur, in turn a shortening of sergent-majeur, which at the time designated a higher rank than at present
Hechingen
Hechingen is a town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about 60 kilometres south of the capital of Stuttgart and 90 kilometres north of Lake Constance. The town lies at the foot of the Swabian Alps below Hohenzollern Castle, the city of Hechingen is subdivided into nine neighborhoods, and the downtown is separated into Oberstadt/Altstadt and Unterstadt. Other cities in the area include Bodelshausen, Mössingen, Bisingen, Rangendingen, Hechingen is the ancestral home of the Hohenzollern dynasty of princes, electors and emperors, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. In 1176 the Counts of Hohenberg separated from the Counts of Hohenzollern, in 1218 the Burgraves of Nuremberg gained independence from them. The city was founded in 1255 by the Counts of Hohenzollern as their new capital city, the Hohenzollern had great land holdings near Strasbourg and in the Alb-Donau-Kreis during this time. Hechingen was located on an Imperial highway which led from the middle Neckar south by way of Rottweil to the upper Rhine, the Counts of Hohenzollern had financial problems and grew steadily weaker.
In 1388, there was a siege, following which Eberhard II, the Counts of Hohenzollern became his vassals and opened the town and their castle to him. After the town was destroyed by fire in 1401, the Count tried to attract new citizens by granting them rights, the town thus became the center of the county. The cost of rebuilding was so great that Friedrich XII of Hohenzollern, known as der Öttinger, even this was not enough to satisfy his creditors. The Imperial court in Rottweil condemned him, although his cousins in Brandenburg attempted arbitration for him, Countess of Montbéliard, Duchess of Württemberg, took the castle in 1423 and destroyed it. After he was freed from prison, Friedrich undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and his brother, Eitel Friedrich IV of Hohenzollern, pledged his allegiance to Württemberg, turning over his inheritance if he did not have an heir. However, in 1433 at age 50, he had a son, Jos Niklaus and his son, Count Jos Niklaus of Hohenzollern was able to gain Imperial permission to rebuild the castle, as well as to nullify the agreement with Württemberg.
Thus, the city of Hechingen remained in the hands of the Hohenzollern, as a result, the city remained more provincial, and largely agricultural. In 1567, the county was divided in three and became the counties of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and Hohenzollern-Haigerloch, Hechingen became the residence of the counts of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. Their territory, which consisted of Hechingen and 26 villages, did not change substantially until the 19th century, Eitel Friedrich IV made Hechingen a center of art and Renaissance architecture. Many buildings built during his reign are still to be today, the convent church St. Luzen, the hospital, and the lower tower. The Renaissance palace that he built, the Friedrichsburg, was removed at the beginning of the 19th century, during the Reformation, Hechingen remained Catholic, but was still affected by the 30 Years War
General of the Infantry (Germany)
General of the Infantry is a former rank of German Ground forces. Present it is an appointment or position to an OF-6 rank officer, responsible for affairs of training. General of the Infantry was a rank of General of the branch OF8 in the German land forces and in the Prussian Army. It was the third-highest General officer rank, subordinate only to Colonel General and it is equivalent to a three-star rank today. The same rank was adopted by the Finnish Army between the world wars, German cavalry officers of equivalent rank were called General der Kavallerie and those in the artillery corps were General der Artillerie. In 1935 the Wehrmacht added the ranks of General der Panzertruppe, General der Gebirgstruppen, General der Fallschirmtruppen, in the Luftwaffe, the equivalent rank was General der Flieger. The rank was generally referred to only in the form of General, in the modern German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, the rank of Generalleutnant corresponds to the traditional rank of General der Infanterie.
There was no equivalent rank in the army of East Germany, in the Bundeswehr, the position of an infantry officer responsible for certain questions of troop training and equipment, usually with the rank of Brigadier Generals. The position of general of the infantry is connected with that of commander of the infantry school, corresponding service positions exist for other branches of the army. Since in this usage it refers to a not a rank. The form of address is usually Herr General and/or Herr Oberst, note that a number of these officers may have gone on to higher ranks during their careers. General Comparative officer ranks of World War II
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations armed forces, fire service or police. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different military formations, but is often subdivided into senior and junior ranks, in navies it is often equivalent to the army rank of captain, it may indicate a particular post rather than a rank. The rank is used in fire services, emergency medical services, security services. Lieutenant may appear as part of a used in various other organisations with a codified command structure. It often designates someone who is second-in-command, and as such, for example, a lieutenant master is likely to be second-in-command to the master in an organisation using both ranks. Political uses include lieutenant governor in various governments, and Quebec lieutenant in Canadian politics, in the United Kingdom, a lord lieutenant is the sovereigns representative in a county or lieutenancy area, while a deputy lieutenant is one of the lord lieutenants deputies. However, their efforts failed, and the French word is used, along with its many variations.
The early history of the pronunciation is unclear, Middle English spellings suggest that the /luː-/ and /lɛf-/ pronunciations may have existed even then. The rare Old French variant spelling luef for Modern French lieu supports the suggestion that a final of the Old French word was in certain environments perceived as an, in Royal Naval tradition—and other English-speaking navies outside the United States—a reduced pronunciation /ləˈtɛnənt/ is used. This is not recognised as current by recent editions of the OED, conventionally and other services or branches which use army-style rank titles have two grades of lieutenant, but a few use a third, more junior, rank. Where more junior officers were employed as deputies to the lieutenant, they went by names, including second lieutenant, sub-lieutenant, ensign. The senior grade of lieutenant is known as first lieutenant in the United States, and as lieutenant in the United Kingdom, in countries which do not speak English, the rank title usually translates as lieutenant, but may translate as first lieutenant or senior lieutenant.
The Israel Defense Forces rank segen literally translates as deputy, which is equivalent to a lieutenant, there is great variation in the insignia used worldwide. In most English-speaking and Arabic-speaking countries, as well as a number of European and South American nations, an example of an exception is the United States, whose armed forces distinguish their lieutenant ranks with one silver bar for first lieutenant and one gold bar for second lieutenant. Second lieutenant is usually the most junior grade of commissioned officer, in non-English-speaking countries, the equivalent rank title may translate as second lieutenant, sub-lieutenant or junior lieutenant. Non-English terms include alferes, alférez, fänrik, Leutnant, poručík, a few non-English-speaking militaries maintain a lower rank, frequently translated as third lieutenant OF1c. The rank title may translate as second lieutenant, junior lieutenant, sub-lieutenant or ensign. Warsaw Pact countries standardised their ranking systems on the Soviet system, some of the former Soviet and Warsaw Pact nations have now discarded the third rank while many retain it like Bulgaria
Crosses of Military Merit
The Crosses of Military Merit are Spains military awards for gallantry or merit in war or peace. Awarded to members of the Spanish Armed Forces, Guardia Civil or civilians, established on 3 August 1864 by Queen Isabella II as the Order of Military Merit, it has been amended many times. During the Spanish Civil War it was recognized by both sides of the conflict, awarded originally in four classes, in 1995, in 1995 it lost the rank of an order of merit, and the classes were reduced to two and the number of categories extended to four. Multiple awards of each class and each category to the individual are possible. The decoration has the form of a Greek cross with the arms enameled red in the Red Decoration category, the Blue Decoration and Yellow Decoration badges have additional narrow bars in blue or yellow across the lower and lateral arms. The upper arm is surmounted by a Spanish royal crown and has a tablet to engrave the date of bestowal. The round central shield of the bears the coat of arms of Castile, León, Aragon and Granada.
On the reverse there are letters MM on red background, the cross is worn on a ribbon on the left side of chest. Each subsequent award is denoted by a bar with the date of bestowal on the ribbon, the Grand Cross has the same form as the cross described above but is worn on a sash over the right shoulder. The star added to the class of Grand Cross is gilt, eight-pointed, with the cross superimposed on it, Crosses of Naval Merit Crosses of Aeronautical Merit Juan L. Calvó Pascual, Cruces y medallas 1807/1987, Monte Cotiño 1987. Real Decreto 1040/2003 of 1 August 2003 about military decorations, Real Decreto 970/2007 of 13 July 2007 amending the Real Decreto 1040/2003. Cruz del Merito Militar by Antonio Prieto Barrio, Order of Military Merit by Megan Robertson
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German Empire (to 1918)
Imperial German Army