Karl Liebknecht Medal
The Karl Liebknecht Medal was a state award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which was donated in one step on June 18, 1970. The medal could be awarded to apprentices who had consistently achieved top performance in their professional training within the framework of the socialist professional competition, who also had a fixed class position of the working class and had thus developed into a socialist skilled worker personality. However, the medal was only awarded upon successful completion of the vocational training, usually when the skilled worker was handed over. However, the number of awards was limited to 400 per year, from 1978 to 800.
Appearance and wearing style
The gold-plated medal with a diameter of 32 mm shows on its obverse the left-looking portrait of Karl Liebknecht with the name below him, slightly shifted to the right: KARL LIEBKNECHT . The reverse of the medal, on the other hand, shows the GDR's national coat of arms, surrounded by the inscription: FOR EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE IN SOCIALIST PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION . The medal was carried on a 24 x 15 mm, blue enameled clasp, in the middle of which a 4 mm wide, red enameled, horizontally held bar is coined, which is united towards the center in the symbol of the professional competition: hammer, compass and a Open book that partially covers two ears of wheat that have been bent upwards. From 1975 the clasp, which incidentally was worn on the upper left side of the chest, was no longer enamelled but lacquered.
Individual evidence
- ^ Frank Bartel (text), Jürgen Karpinski (photographs): Awards of the German Democratic Republic from the beginning to the present . Military Publishing House of the GDR , Berlin 1979, page 167.