German cross

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alternative description
German cross in silver and gold (above from left to right) with the corresponding denazified 1957 versions (below).
Official embroidery of the German cross in gold

The German Cross was a German military award (officially: Order of War) in World War II and was donated on September 28, 1941 by Adolf Hitler in gold and silver .

layout

The German Cross is an eight-pointed dark gray star with a silver border. On it is a stylized laurel wreath made of gold or silver, on which the year of the foundation (1941) is engraved at the bottom. The laurel wreath includes a black swastika with silver rims on a matt silver field. The diameter is 65 mm.

Award

Award certificate of the German Cross in Gold to Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

The German Cross fulfilled the need for a higher-ranking war award after more and more soldiers had been awarded the two levels of the Iron Cross and the War Merit Cross in the course of the Second World War , but not the requirements for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross or the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross Swords filled. Although it does not represent a level of the Iron Cross, it thus ranks between the EK 1st Class and the Knight's Cross to the EK and can therefore be seen as a replacement for the Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords, which in the First World War in the Prussian order system between the Iron Cross 1st class and the Order of Merit Pour le Mérite .

The German cross in silver required the award of the Iron Cross of both classes or the War Merit Cross with swords of both classes. According to the Foundation Ordinance, the German Cross in silver should be awarded for "multiple exceptional merits in military warfare" and the German Cross in gold for "multiple proven exceptional bravery or for multiple outstanding merits in troop leadership".

Award Numbers

The German Cross in Silver (DKiS) was awarded around 2,500 times and the German Cross in Gold (DKiG) around 26,000 times by the end of the war. The first German cross in gold was awarded on October 15, 1941 to a member of the Luftwaffe , Robert-Georg von Malapert-Neufville . The first member of the army received the German Cross in Gold on October 18, 1941, the first member of the Waffen SS , which was not part of the Wehrmacht, on November 17, 1941. The first award by the Navy is on November 20, 1941.

Due to the ongoing acts of war, 15 German soldiers were awarded both the German Cross in Silver and the German Cross in Gold. The German Cross in Gold was also awarded to 26 foreign volunteers of the Waffen SS from 1944 onwards. Among the recipients of the German Cross in Gold are 22 soldiers from the armed forces of the Axis powers and friendly states.

German cross in gold with diamonds

The German cross in gold with diamonds. 20 copies were made but never loaned out.

In the summer of 1942, the Order's Chancellery was commissioned by the Presidential Chancellery to procure 20 German crosses in gold with diamonds, which were made by the Munich company P. Rath and delivered in October 1942 at a price of 2,800 Reichsmarks each . However, there was no foundation and therefore no award, so that at the end of the war all 20 copies were still in Kleßheim Palace , the last seat of the presidential chancellery. When the palace was occupied by US troops in April 1945, the order collections there were looted. Of the original twenty crosses, three are now kept in the West Point Museum of the United States Military Academy in West Point / New York, but are not open to the public. Another twelve are said to be in collectors' hands, mostly from the USA. On December 16, 2006, an original copy was put up for auction at a German auction house and was purchased for € 60,000 from an unknown bidder.

Carrying method

  • Award of a marine soldier (submarine crew) with the German Cross in Gold (1942)

  • Carrying as a cross on the breast pocket of the field blouse (Captain Alfred Jaedtke, 1944)

  • How to wear the embroidered version on the flight jacket (Leutnant Siegfried Lemke, 1944)

During the war

The award was worn as a plug-in cross (like the Spanish cross ) on the right side of the chest and called "Brunhildenpik" or "fried egg" in the jargon of the troops. The German cross was worn over the Spain cross if necessary. In addition to the usual metal design, the medal for combat uniforms (e.g. for armored troops, aviators, etc.) was also made in a so-called fabric version. The body of the order was made of fabric, only the laurel wreath was still made of metal. This version was only available in the "Gold" version (announced by the OKW on June 5, 1942); it could only be obtained from official agencies. Embroidered designs were private productions in which the laurel wreath was also braided from decorative cord.

After the war

According to § 6 Paragraph 1 No. 2 of the Law on Titles, Orders and Medals of Honor of 1957, orders with National Socialist emblems may not be worn or manufactured, offered, offered for sale, sold or otherwise placed on the market in Germany. As a result, the German Cross may only be worn without any National Socialist mark. While with the Iron Cross you could simply fall back on the earlier shape with oak leaves instead of a swastika, this problem was more difficult to solve with the German Cross. Because of the ranking of the medals and the award regulations, it was decided to replace the swastika on the German cross in silver with the War Merit Cross with swords. With the German Cross in Gold, on the other hand, the swastika was replaced by an Iron Cross , which can easily give the wrong impression that such a denazified German Cross is a special award level of the Iron Cross, above all because of the superficial resemblance to that so-called "Blücherstern" . Since the German cross in gold with diamonds was never donated, there is no basis for a 57 version of an order of the same name.

literature

Web links

Commons : Deutsches Kreuz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, No. 111/1941 of October 2, 1941, p. 593f.
  2. ↑ Internationales Militaria Magazin, February / March 2007 edition, p. 47