Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1952)

Decoration of honor for services to the Republic of Austria

Awarded by the Republic of Austria
Art	Badge of honor
requirement	Head of State / none
Awarded for	special services to the Republic of Austria
status	is awarded
Data
Foundation year	1952 ( 1922 1st Rep. )
Benefactor	National Council
Precedence
Comparable award in the ranking	Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Similar award	Austrian Medal of Honor for Science and Art. Military Merit Medal. Federal Medal of Honor

The Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria is a state award of the Republic of Austria , which comprises a total of 15 degrees.

overview

The Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria is the most important state honor currently awarded in Austria . It was founded by the National Council with the federal law of April 2, 1952 . The various levels are assigned by or on behalf of the Federal President . The honorary badge in its various levels can be awarded for special merits in all areas, especially in the political, economic, cultural, spiritual or even voluntary area. Persons who are awarded the badge of honor are authorized to identify themselves as the owner (not the owner ).

In addition to the medal of honor discussed here for services to the Republic of Austria, there are other awards from the federal government and the nine federal states .

A medal of honor of the same name for services to the Republic of Austria had already been donated on November 4, 1922. This award was replaced in the federal state of Austria by the Austrian Order of Merit (1934) , which was awarded until Austria was annexed in 1938.

Order levels

The badge of honor for services to the Republic of Austria today comprises 15 levels, with the individual insignia having different shapes (crosses, stars, medals) depending on the class. This division was established in 1953 by Federal Law Gazette No. 54/1953:

Big star of the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria : Hip decoration with breast star. In the international scheme of the grading of orders, which is based on the example of the French Legion of Honor , it corresponds to a special level of the Grand Cross

Large gold medal on ribbon for services to the Republic of Austria : hip decoration with breast star, corresponds to a grand cross 1st class

Large silver decoration on the ribbon for services to the Republic of Austria : hip decoration with breast star, corresponds to a grand cross, 2nd class

Large gold medal of honor with the star for services to the Republic of Austria : Neck decoration with breast star, corresponds to a Grand Commander's Cross, 1st class

Large silver medal with the star for services to the Republic of Austria : Neck decoration with breast star, corresponds to a Grand Commander's Cross 2nd class

Large gold medal for services to the Republic of Austria : neck decoration, corresponds to a commander's cross, 1st class

Large silver medal for services to the Republic of Austria : neck decoration, corresponds to a commander's cross, 2nd class

Great decoration of honor for services to the Republic of Austria : plug-in cross, corresponds to an officer's cross in the international scheme

Decoration of honor in gold for services to the Republic of Austria : chest decoration, corresponds to a knight's cross, 1st class

Silver medal for services to the Republic of Austria : breast decoration, corresponds to a knight's cross, 2nd class

Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Austria : breast decoration, corresponds to a merit mark of 1st class

Silver medal of merit of the Republic of Austria : breast decoration, corresponds to a merit symbol of the 2nd class

Gold medal for services to the Republic of Austria : breast decoration, corresponds to a first class medal of merit

Silver medal for services to the Republic of Austria : breast decoration, corresponds to a merit medal 2nd class

Bronze medal for services to the Republic of Austria : breast decoration, corresponds to a merit medal 3rd class (no longer awarded)

Images of all decorations and detailed descriptions (including how they are worn) can be found on the website of the Styrian state government.

Award practice among officials and politicians

The big star is reserved exclusively for heads of state. Foreign heads of state are sometimes awarded it during state visits . According to Section 1, Paragraph 4 of the Federal Act on the Creation of Badges of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria, the Austrian Federal President is "on the day of his election for lifetime owner of the graduation of the badge of honor which, according to the provisions of the statute, has been acquired for the highest degree in the Republic Merits [= Annex Section II, Paragraph 2] is awarded ".

The Chancellor , the ministers and the President of the National Council usually receive the Great Gold Medal on Ribbon , while the Great Silver Medal of Honor on Ribbon is often awarded to state secretaries or state governors . For this reason there is an above-average number of active and former politicians among the owners of the highest levels of the honorary badge . The decoration on the ribbon is also common for foreign ambassadors, usually on the occasion of the end of their mission in Austria.

Senior officials of a ministry (e.g. section head ) or a state government (e.g. state office director ) are usually awarded the great gold or silver medal with the star and the great gold or silver medal. It is customary to award members of the National Council after ten years of office with the Great Gold Medal of Honor . Such decorations are also awarded to non-civil servants. B. the architect Hans Hollein for his 75th birthday the Great Golden Decoration .

The Great Decoration of Honor , which ranks in the lower middle field , is often awarded to court councilors and ministerial councilors , usually on their 60th birthday, the Golden Decoration of Honor is - mostly for a similar occasion - awarded to higher-ranking officials of the higher service , unless they have been awarded the professional title of "Government Councilor " or at least five years (so-called " intercalary period ") have "meritoriously" passed since the award of one . Artists also often receive these levels of distinction.

The gold medal of merit , which is at the lower end of the scale, is often awarded to mayors of medium-sized or small towns and municipalities as well as to civil servants in specialist service when they retire , while the silver medal of merit is awarded to vice mayors. The gold medal is also awarded to sports or club officials and police inspectors when they retire. In contrast, the bronze medal provided for in the statute is no longer issued at all today.

Members of the National Council or State Parliament usually receive the respective badge of honor after ten years of service.

The gold medal can be awarded just like the silver medal on the red ribbon and then functions as a life-saving medal 1st or 2nd class. However, the silver medal on the red ribbon has not been awarded for decades.

Examples

This list is intended to exemplify the practice of awarding the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria . Much more extensive (although by no means complete) is the list of the bearers of the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1952) .

1 - big star

Queen Elizabeth II , head of state
Haile Selassie , Head of State
Josip Broz Tito , head of state
Shimon Peres , head of state

2 - Large gold medal on ribbon

Kofi Annan , UN Secretary General
Christoph Cardinal Schönborn , Archbishop of Vienna
Alois Mock , politician
Angela Merkel , German Chancellor

3 - Large silver medal on ribbon

Gabi Burgstaller , Governor of Salzburg
Michael Häupl , Mayor of Vienna
Leopold Maderthaner , politician and entrepreneur
Karl Otto Pöhl , President of the Deutsche Bundesbank

4 - Great Gold Medal with the Star

Erwin Kräutler , bishop
Robert Nünlist , Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard
Franz Olah , politician
George Tabori , artist

5 - Large Silver Decoration with the Star

Jörg Ziercke , President of the German Federal Criminal Police Office
Walter Homolka , rabbi
Nicolas Hayek , Swiss entrepreneur
Kurt Gaßner , member of the National Council

6 - Great Gold Medal

Karlheinz Böhm , actor
Alfred Ebenbauer , Rector
Hans Hollein , architect
Simon Wiesenthal , publicist

7 - Great Silver Decoration

Gerd Albrecht , conductor
Georg Ebert , pianist
Fritz Muliar , actor
Gottfried Schatz , biochemist

8 - Great Badge of Honor

Peter Alexander , actor
Udo Juergens , singer
Karl Schranz , skier
Renée Schroeder , scientist

9 - Gold Medal of Honor

Hansi Hinterseer , pop singer
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner , mountaineer
Paul Hörbiger , actor
Thaddaeus Ropac , gallery owner

10 - Silver Badge of Honor

Manfred Ackermann , politician
Hans Krankl , soccer player
Andreas P. Pittler , writer
Johann Hindler , university professor and clarinetist with the Vienna Philharmonic

11 - Gold Mark of Merit

Gold medal of merit in a case

Thomas Brezina , author of children's books
Leopold Engleitner , contemporary witness
Franziska Jägerstätter , widow of conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter
Christoph Kotanko , journalist

12 - Silver Mark of Merit

Sebastian Auer , technician and inventor

Hans Schwanda , alpinist and author

Sepp Tezak , detective as well as railway historian , photographer and painter

Adolf Tuma , lithographer

13 - Gold medal

Georg Hamann , violinist and violist
Christian Illedits , politician
Robert Lucas , writer
Werner Senn ( on the red ribbon for lifesaving), lawyer and head of the Austrian flight police

14 - Silver medal

Otto Pendl , politician (awarded as an officer of the justice guard)
Ernest Windholz , politician (awarded as a customs officer)
Ernst Winter , Federal Councilor (awarded as an official in the presidential office)

Manufacturing

The individual levels of the honorary badge for services to the Republic of Austria were produced for many years by the Anton Reitterer company at Schubertgasse 26 in Vienna's 9th district , now they are produced by the Friedrich Orth company at 8 Bürgerspitalgasse in Vienna's 6th district .

literature

Walter A. Schwarz : I have the honor ... 50 years of honor for services to the Republic of Austria 1952–2002 . Exhibition catalog Vienna 2002.
Peter Diem : The symbols of Austria . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1995, pp. 224-226.

Web links

Commons : Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1952) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

The entire legal regulation for decorations for services to the Republic of Austria. With statute, description of the decorations of the honorary badge, description of the ribbon of the badge of honor to be awarded in the event of lifesaving and the way of wearing the decorations of the badge of honor. (accessed June 15, 2009)

Photos of all Austrian decorations and merit and military awards

Information on Austrian awards (short version)

Information on the Austrian awards on the website of the Federal President

List of (all) decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 to 2012 (PDF; 6.9 MB)

List of all state awards awarded in the field of sport since around 1954 (PDF, 300 kB; accessed on June 15, 2009)

Entry on Badges of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1952) in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )

Statistics: Awards of decorations in 2014

Individual evidence

↑ Note .: The to Gold Medal additional "Band: Red, 45 millimeters wide, provided with a both sides each one millimeter wide white advance" is awarded in accordance with Appendix 2: Description of the band of the in life rescues to be imparted Honor in the version dated August 2, 1957, Ordinance Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria - Statute .

[1] Note .: The to Gold Medal additional "Band: Red, 45 millimeters wide, provided with a both sides each one millimeter wide white advance" is awarded in accordance with Appendix 2: Description of the band of the in life rescues to be imparted Honor in the version dated August 2, 1957, Ordinance Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria - Statute .