Cross of Honor

Honor Cross for Combatants
Honor Crosses for Non-combatants, Combatants, and Next-of-Kin
Awarded by Weimar Republic & Nazi Germany
Type	Service Medal
Eligibility	All Great War Combatants
Awarded for	"For Soldiers who Fought on the Front"
Status	Obsolete
Statistics
First awarded	July 13, 1934
Last awarded	1944
Total awarded	6,250,000
Posthumous awards	No
Precedence
Next (higher)	Hamburg Hamburgisches Hanseatenkreuz
Next (lower)	Honor Cross for War Participants

The Cross of Honor, also known as the Honor Cross or, popularly, the Hindenburg Cross, was a commemorative medal inaugurated on July 13, 1934 by Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg for those soldiers of Imperial Germany who fought in World War I. It came in three versions:

• Honor Cross for Combatants (Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer) – for soldiers who fought on the front.
• Honor Cross for War Participants (Ehrenkreuz für Kriegsteilnehmer) – for non-combatant soldiers
• Honor Cross for Next-of-Kin (Ehrenkreuz für Hinterbliebene) – for the next-of-kin of fallen soldiers

After the annexation (Anschluss) of Austria in 1938, Austrian veterans of World War I were also eligible for the Cross of Honor.

A total of 6,250,000 Crosses were awarded to combatants, 1,200,000 were awarded to non-combatants and 720,000 medals were awarded to next-of-kin.

Design

The medal was designed by Eugene Godet, its shape is similar to the Iron Cross (although smaller in size), in the center of the obverse are the dates of the First World War (1914–1918) surrounded with a wreath of oak leaves, the reverse of the medal in plain. A variation with an anchor in the center, and referred to as the Naval Cross, was issued to veterans of the Imperial German Navy.

The Honor Cross for War Participants differed from the Honor Cross for Combatants by not having the crossed swords. The Honor Cross for Next-of-Kin also lacked swords, was lacquered in black, and had a different ribbon.

The medal is suspended from a ribbon with a thin black lines of its sides, a red line in the center and next to it a black and white lines on each side, on the next-of-kin medal the ribbon colors are reverse.

External links

• Cross of Honor 1914/18