Teutonic Knights Cross
The Teutonic Knights Cross (also called Randow Cross ) was donated on April 12, 1919 by Captain Alfred von Randow , who led a Freikorps - the Detachement von Randow - in the Baltic States after the First World War . As an award for a volunteer corps, the Teutonic Knights Cross is one of the non-governmental, private awards: Captain von Randow himself said about it: "My thought was to achieve a certain comradely solidarity among the members of the detachment through such commemorative signs for later times".
The four-armed, eight-pointed Maltese cross , which was worn as a plug-in cross, is enamelled black over the entire surface and has a narrow, silver-colored edge. In its simple version, it was given to everyone who had served four months in the Randow Detachment. The same cross on a silver star was given for six months of service.
In May 1919 a Grand Cross was added, but it was never awarded alone, as well as a second class cross. The Grand Cross with the star was only worn by Alfred von Randow himself.
All designs for the awards came from Hauptmann von Randow. They were produced by the Paul Meybauer company (Berlin). The associated certificates of ownership were signed by Alfred von Randow himself and given the official seal of the detachment.
literature
- Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann (Ed.): Militaria. Contributions to the history of uniform and equipment. No. 2. The Order Collection, Berlin 1964.
- Olof v. Randow, The Randows. A family story. Degener, Insingen (formerly Neustadt / Aisch).