Prohibition of orders

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A ban on medals prohibits certain people from accepting medals and decorations . It is found in various current and historical legislations. Particularly noteworthy are the conditions in Switzerland , the Hanseatic cities and the Weimar Republic .

Switzerland

Due to the strong republican tradition, there are no state orders in Switzerland. In the past, medals were occasionally awarded.

Since the Middle Ages, foreign states have tried to influence influential Swiss people with money, (honorary) titles or orders in their favor. Since the 15th century, the Diet tried to curb this practice, but could never prevail. In Article 12 of the Federal Constitution of 1848, members of authorities and civil servants “may not accept pensions or salaries, titles, gifts or medals from foreign governments”.

Berets de grands officier de la legion d'honneur

The most prominent case concerned the President of the National Council, Gustave Ador , who was in office in 1902 . He resigned from the council because he did not want to return the Cordon de grand officier de la Légion d'honneur, a high French honor that had already been received . In October of the same year, Ador was re-elected to the National Council and sworn in without having to return the award.

A popular initiative was launched in 1927 to curb the numerous medals awarded to Swiss citizens . The initiators of the right-wing, Germanophile Volksbund for the independence of Switzerland wanted to forbid all citizens to accept medals. Violation of the ban would have resulted in the loss of political rights. The initiative was withdrawn in favor of a direct counter-proposal, which was adopted in 1931 with around 70% yes-votes, but against the will of the French-speaking cantons. The counter-proposal was limited to a regulation for members of the authorities, officials and members of the army. Before taking office, an express waiver of the wearing of titles and a return of medals became mandatory.

On the occasion of the federal constitutional revision in 1999, it was decided to downgrade the ban from constitutional to legal. To this end, various laws had to be adapted (government and administrative organization law, business and parliamentary law, military law).

Hanseatic cities

The Hanseatic ban on religious orders goes back to Hamburg's city ​​law from the 13th century. The fact that the "externally visible order insignia should distinguish the decorated person in front of his colleagues and fellow citizens as a more excellent one" was already considered to be a fact that was in marked contradiction to the bourgeois spirit of the constitution. (“There is no master over you and no servant under you.”) According to the practice in Hamburg, it is still frowned upon by all senators, members of the parliament and public service employees to accept awards - even after their retirement. It used to be forbidden for the leading representatives. In principle, the members of the Bremen Senate neither accepted nor accept any foreign medals.

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen was the only federal state to vote against the foundation of the Federal Cross of Merit . Bremen and Hamburg are also the only federal states that have not donated their own Order of Merit. There were and are but awarded by the Hanseatic cities of medals (for example Portugaleser and Bene Merenti ), and in the First World War the three Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Luebeck donated 1,915 each in their own expressions of the Hanseatic Cross as a war prize.

Weimar Republic

The prohibition of medals in the Weimar Republic was the constitutional prohibition on awarding medals and decorations . Article 109 of the Weimar Imperial Constitution (WRV) stipulated a state ban on medals and decorations. The German Reich did not award any medals or decorations (Art. 109 Para. 5), and no Reich citizen was allowed to accept foreign medals (Art. 109 Para. 6).

The prohibition of orders was not fully enforced in practice, as the federal states continued to award the life-saving medal and the President of the Reich awarded foreign state guests the badge of honor of the German Red Cross - which did not fall under the state prohibition of orders as the DRK was organized under private law.

For intellectual and artistic merit, the Reich President created the “ Eagle Shield of the German Reich ” in 1922 and, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Goethe's death in 1932, the Goethe Medal for Art and Science . These awards were so-called "showcase orders", that is, they could not be worn and thus did not fall under the prohibition of Art. 109 WRV.

According to Art. 175 WRV, the provision did not apply to orders and decorations for services in the war years 1914-1919.

literature

Switzerland

  • Lucienne Hubler: Order. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Etienne Piaget: The ban on pensions, titles and medals in Article 12 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. Its history and its meaning. Turbenthal 1936 DNB 57101738X
  • Diego Hättenschwiler: Art. 12, independence from foreign states. In: Graf / Theler / von Wyss (ed.): Parliamentary Law and Parliamentary Practice of the Swiss Federal Assembly, Commentary on the Parliamentary Act (ParlG) of December 13, 2002. Helbing Lichtenhahn, Basel 2014, ISBN 978-3-7190-2975-3 , p 97 ff.

Germany

  • Franz Spath: The Office of the Federal President. 5th edition, Düsseldorf 1993.
  • Jens Hannig: Structure and functioning of the office of the Federal President. Marburg 2005.

Web links

Wikisource: Constitution of the German Empire (1919)  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lucienne Hubler: Order. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ^ Etienne Piaget: The ban on pensions, titles and medals in Article 12 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. Its history and its meaning. Turbenthal 1936, p. 9 ff.
  3. ↑ Bundesblatt 1902 I 432 and Carl Hilty, About the emergence of Articles XI and XII of the Swiss Federal Constitution, in: Politisches Jahrbuch der Schweiz. Bern 1902, pp. 243–342.
  4. ^ Federal Gazette 1930 II 439 and 1931 I 293; Revision of Art. 12 of the Federal Constitution of 1874; admin.ch on this referendum
  5. ↑ Adaptation of the legislation to the new Federal Constitution, FDJP  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ejpd.admin.ch  
  6. ↑ 99.057 Entry into force of the new federal constitution. Adaptation of the legislation
  7. ↑ Government and Administration Organization Act , Art. 60
  8. ↑ Parliament Act, Art. 12
  9. ↑ Military Law, Art. 40a
  10. ↑ Alois Friedel: German status symbols. 1968, p. 71 "... that the awarding and acceptance of medals has not been customary for the Hanseatic people since ancient times ...".
  11. ↑ Brockhaus Enzyklopädie in twenty volumes, Volume 8, 1969, p. 101 "The Hanseatic cities do not award medals themselves and traditionally try to limit the acceptance of medals in their area (exception → Hanseatic Cross )".
  12. ^ Ludwig Benninghoff: Germany. P. 231, "Senate, officials and judges of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, however, refuse to accept and wear medals and decorations out of traditional practice."
  13. ^ "The leading representatives were forbidden to accept and wear medals.", Senate resolution of June 26, 1895, Official Gazette of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, No. 85, June 27, 1895, quoted from: Tobias von Elsner: Kaisertage: Hamburg and Wilhelminian Germany in the mirror of public festival culture. European University Theses, Series 3: History and its Auxiliary Sciences. 471, 1991, p. 343.
  14. ^ Werner Kloos and Reinhold Thiel: Bremer Lexikon. Article medals (decorations). Bremen 1997, ISBN 3-931785-47-5 .