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:

 

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Knight Cross 1st Class

 

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