Winners of the Golden Bravery Medal with bars for repeat awards

The dimensions of World War I were, regarding the length of time and the number of engaged troops so large that it became obvious that the Golden and the two Silver Bravery Medals were not sufficient to honour all the heroic acts of the  non-commissioned personnel. To that end the Bronze Bravery Medal was instituted on the 14th of February 1915 and finally the bars for repeat awards (Wiederholungsspangen) on the 29th of November 1915. These one, two or three silver-coloured bars on the ribbon showed the second, third or fourth award of the same bravery medal.

These bars, perhaps with the exception of the bars for fourth awards, are common with silver or bronze bravery medals but very rare for the Golden Bravery Medal. The reason was that, on several occasions, it was ordered by the emperor that persons, who had received the Golden Bravery Medal, should "as far as possible" be employed in positions behind the front e.g. training the troops to save their lives as an encouragement for the people. Kaiser Karl added to this order on the 17th of July 1917 with "had to be employed in the rear under all circumstances" but this was too difficult, especially as the aviation troops would have been deprived of their best pilots and so he was forced to made an exception (2nd of August 1917) for all flying personnel. Another reason why the bars for Golden Bravery Medals were so rare, especially by non aviation personnel, was that this medal was often awarded posthumously or after the man received serious wounds during the particular action. Consequently most of the about 4,500 winners never returned to the trenches!

Winners of four Golden Bravery Medals (three bars on the ribbon):

Winners of three Golden Bravery Medals (two bars on the ribbon):

Winners of two Golden Bravery Medals (one bar on the ribbon):

Winners with bars not clearly confirmed:

During my research I found only four persons who claimed a second award of the Golden Bravery Medal by themselves which I could not confirm in any official source, these are:

1.) In 1942 Croatian army Colonel Ladislav Ritter von Alemann, who was a former Austro-Hungarian officer, compiled a list of all winners of the Golden Bravery Medal from 1914-18 who then served with the new Croatian Army. Besides 202 other names he listed a Stabsfeldwebel Jozo BEŠLAGIĆ from Visoko and a soldier Bozo LOVRIĆ from Sinj - both claimed that they had received a Golden Bravery Medal twice. Both names could not be confirmed from any serious source or in any publications prior to 1918. Perhaps both men had changed their names after the war but it seems strange that especially the latter named recipient had still not attained any rank although he had supposedly won the highest award for bravery twice.

2.) Wognar Stephan, born on the 6th of January 1890 at Nagyszombat near Pozsony, who received the Golden Bravery Medal as a Feldpilot and Feldwebel in FliK 2 in 1917, published on the 10th of November 1917. According to some "important" aviation historians it was rumored that he had received the golden medal shortly after this date a second time but this was wrong and could not be confirmed by his files or any other publication! It was true that he had been recommended by his commanding officer for a second award but this was changed to a Silver Bravery Medal 1st class - incidentally between November 1917 and the end of the war he received the Silver Bravery Medal 1st class three times!

3.) Zebisch Eugen, born on the 16th of September 1889 at Landeck,  received the Golden Bravery Medal as an Oberjäger in 4.TKJ in 1915, published on the 18th of September 1915. Following this, he volunteered for the Luftfahrttruppe and was trained as pilot and at least saw some action on the Italian front. During the war he received all the bravery medals and was wounded five times! Long after the war, when he volunteered for the German Luftwaffe in 1939, he claimed by himself that he had received the Golden Bravery Medal a second time and the Field pilots badge for his performance as a pilot at the end of October 1918. During World War II he wore the medal with bar and the badge until he died in action on the 16th of January 1945 near Bozen. The second award and the Field pilots badge could not be confirmed by any documents or serious sources and it seems strange to me that he did not write a single word about all this (and gave his birthday as the 23rd of September 1890) when he was asked by the Society of the Golden Bravery Medal Winners for their planned book in April 1937!

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