Reserve officer Oldřich Pilz was born on 16 March 1900 in Prague. He was conscripted into the army in 1920. As a graduate of the commercial academy he was enrolled in the school of reserve officers. He did his reserve service from 12 October 1920 to 20 September 1922 and was incorporated into the 8th Cavalry Regiment of Prince Václav the Holy in Pardubice. His last rank until the end of the First Republic was Captain of Cavalry.
During his life Oldřich Pilz was also active as a reserve officer. He worked in the group of the Committee for the Study of Reserve Officers' Issues at the MNO. From the year he developed a rich publishing activity, which was related to his phallic interests. As an artist, he was successful in the creation of decorations, being the creator of the Czechoslovak Volunteer Medal of 1918-19 and collaborated in the creation of the badge of the Order of Charles IV, or other National Guard decorations.
As a reserve officer, he participated in tasks related to increasing the enlisted soldiers' fitness, and so O. Pilz was monitored by the Gestapo from the beginning of the occupation. The author tried to cover his political positions with his publishing activities, and so he produced a treatise on the Order of the Annunziata, as well as an article on the first renewal of the Iron Cross 1939 and even on the Nazi Blood Order. His discussion of the Japanese Golden Loon Order is interesting. He also gives lectures on the 130 years of the Iron Cross. One of his most valuable lectures, however, is a lecture on the Czech Cross of Nobility.
O. Pilz deserves a lot of credit. He is the author and "founding father" of the name faleristics, which he used to designate the discipline dealing with the issue of orders and decorations. He derived the name from the Greek word TA FALARA, or perhaps the Latin PHALERA, a medallion worn on the chest of a legionary as a visible reward. The author was himself a phalerist in the true sense of the word, and always stressed that phaleristics was by no means badge collecting. However, even his wartime journalism did not save the author. He was arrested and perished at the end of the war in Terezín Prison.
Oldřich Pilz was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 "im memoriam" by the President of the Republic after the liberation of Czechoslovakia.
Articles: Václav Měřička.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Pilz-Oldrich-t80661#295517
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