German Groups

Imperial German Groups

Over the years that I have been collecting German medals I have always wondered about the lack of order exhibited in the mounted groups. I have always assumed that the home state awards should start on the left at least in the pre 1914 groups and the rest should be in the order of ranking or by the date earned. So here for example I have a Prussian group ordered by the war dates as follows from left to right : 1864 1871 1866 1864 1897 plus a long service bar. The only medals in correct order would be the last two. This disorder is common to most groups that I have seen. Is it possible that no one cared? That doesn’t sound very German to me.