Description
This is an award document for the Hanseatic Cross from the Free State of Hamburg. The document measures 13″ x 8 1/4.” At the document’s top is the Hamburg Coat-of-Arms. The award was made to Otto Dannhauer, who served in 5. Hannoversches Infantrie-Regiment Nr 165. This was one of the old-line regiments from the Kingdom of Hannover. The Prussian Army absorbed Hanoverian regiments in 1866, when Hannover fought with Austria against Prussia. The Duchy of Braunschweig, which was a vassal state of the Kingdom of Hannover, was also absorbed into Prussia. That Duchy did not gain a real measure of freedom until 1913, when its Duke (Herzog), Ernst August, married Kaiser Wilhelm’s only daughter, Viktoria Luise. 5. Hannoversches Infantrie-Regiment Nr 165 was founded in 1813, and proudly served at Waterloo in 1815. As a result the regiment’s members, like all Hanoverian regiments that served in the Napoleonic Wars at Waterloo and/or the Peninsula, wore bandeaux on the wappens of their pickelhauben, as authorized by Kaiser Wilhelm in 1897. Bataillons Nr 1 and Nr 3 were garrisoned at Quedlinburg, while Bataillon Nr 2 was based at Blakenburg. The regiment was assigned to the IV. Armeekorps. The document was awarded in 1918. While having been previously folded, this document is in very fine condition.
