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As many other order decorations the
Anhalt House Order of Albert the Bear experienced
amendments to its statues in order to award the order for
a wider variety of occasions and to highlight special
deeds.
In this regard the crown was added
to all classes of the order on April 29, 1901, in honor
of the 70th birthday of duke Friedrich I. The crown was
bronze gilt for all classes except for the knight cross
2nd class, which was made of silver to match the knight
crosses' silver color. The
crown was only added to the decoration itself but not
to the stars.
It is needless to say that the
crowned decorations are extremely rare, due to being an upgrade of the originating
class. The following table shows the estimated number of
awards sorted by the class of the order:
|
Order class |
estimated number awards |
|
Grand Cross |
15 |
|
Commander Cross 1st
Class |
10 |
|
Commander Cross 2nd
Class |
20 |
|
Knight Cross 1st Class
|
60 |
|
Knight Cross 2nd Class
|
60 |
Unfortunately the archives
are not complete and not all bestowals were listed.
It is therefore even more
exciting to find those rare special decorations that
survived the last 100 years. Below you will find
pictures of some original pieces:
Following document is the
award document for the Crown awarded to the knight
second class. The crown was awarded in only a few
cases together with the order. In most cases the crown
was given as an upgrade for special deeds to an
existing already awarded decoration. In this case the
crown was given to the Tax Official Franz Huth in the
town of Dessau on November 15, 1913, possibly because
of receiving the Prussian Red Eagle Order 4th class
just 2 weeks earlier. He already was awarded the
knight 2nd class on April 29, 1900.
© A. Schulze Ising,
XII/02
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