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Austrian General War Service Medal (Die Kriegsmedaille 1873)


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As mentioned, getting into Austrian medals at the moment so here is the first I just got in:

 

Austrian General War Service Medal, sometimes also called the Campaign medal. From the 1873 Jubilee of the Emperor, troops received this medal rather than a specific campaign medal. Austria loved to keep things cheap and I suppose one medal rather than many made it cheaper to produce!

 

The official statement on the Austrian government War Memorial website is:

 

On his 25th Jubilee, in December 1873, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria instituted the 'Kriegsmedaille' (War Medal). The medal shows on the obverse the Emperor's head surrounded by a laurel wreath and on the reverse the date '2.December 1873' (those showing the spelling Dezember where produced after 1900). It was suspended from a ribbon in the Habsburg colors of black and yellow. The medal was awarded to military personnel who had taken part in a least one action since 1848. Later the award of the medal was extended to military personnel who had taken part campaigns after 1873, until the Kaiser's death in November 1916.

 

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Have had a small collection of the most common Austrian awarards for many years, which I started in the mid 1960s, and sadly neglected, as I have so many interests, amongst others the said medal of 1873. Allways wanted to improve on this section of collecting, but never really got off the ground.

Have just found following description of the medal under Wikipedia and translated this as follows:

 

The War Medal was instituted by Kaiser Franz Joseph I. on 2. December 1873 and was awarded to all military persons of the k. und k. (kaiserliche und königliche) Streitkräfte, who took part in one or more campaigns of the years 1848, 1849, 1859, 1864, 1866, 1878, 1882 as well as the Chinese Boxer Uprising from 1900 - 1901. the decoration was worn on a black and yellow ribbon on the left breast.

The decoration was not awarded in World War I. The medal, struck from the bronze of captured cannon depicts the portrait of Franz Joseph, to the reverse, an open wreath of laurel (left) and oakleaves(right), within which, the description 2.December 1873.

 

Die Kriegsmedaille wurde am 2. Dezember 1873 von Kaiser Franz Joseph I. von Österreich-Ungarn gestiftet und konnte an alle Militärpersonen der k. und k.-Streitkräfte verliehen werden, die an einem oder mehreren Feldzügen der Jahre 1848, 1849, 1859, 1864, 1866, 1869, 1878, 1882, sowie an den militärischen Einsätzen im Verlauf des chinesischen Boxeraufstandes 1900 bis 1901, teilgenommen haben.

Das Ordensband ist gelb-schwarz quer schraffiert, von einem schwarzen Seitenstreifen begrenzt und von einem gelben Randstreifen abgeschlossen.

Getragen wurde die Auszeichnung am Dreiecksband auf der linken Brust.

Während des Ersten Weltkriegs wurde die Medaille nicht verliehen.

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