The Military Merit Cross (German: ''Militär-Verdienstkreuz'') was the highest bravery award of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

for non-commissioned officers and enlisted soldiers. It was also known as the Golden Military Merit Cross (''Goldenes Militär-Verdienstkreuz'') to distinguish it from the Military Decoration 1st Class (''Militär-Ehrenzeichen I. Klasse''), a lesser Prussian enlisted bravery decoration which was an identical cross but in silver. The Military Merit Cross came to also be known as the "Pour le Mérite for non-commissioned officers and enlisted men" (''Orden Pour le Mérite für Unteroffiziere und Mannschaften''), after the

Pour le Mérite The ' (; , ) is an order of merit (german: Verdienstorden) established in 1740 by King Frederick II of Prussia. The was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Order of the Red Eag ...

, Prussia's highest military decoration for officers. The Military Merit Cross was founded by King

Wilhelm I of Prussia William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was th ...

on February 27, 1864. It was originally reserved for those in the rank of '' Feldwebel'' (the then-highest NCO grade) and below, but eligibility was later extended to soldiers in the rank of ''Offizier-Stellvertreter'', a rank created in 1887 which was roughly comparable to a

warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the mo ...

-type rank. The first 16 awards were made for the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

of 1866. No awards were made for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, where the principal Prussian military decoration, for both officers and enlisted men, was the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...

. The next group of awards were 17 made in 1879 to Russian soldiers for bravery in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Only five more awards were made before World War I: four for colonial conflicts and one for the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an Xenophobia, anti-foreign, anti-colonialism, anti-colonial, and Persecution of Christians#China, anti-Christian uprising in China ...

. During World War I, the Iron Cross was again reinstituted, and for the first years of the war that again became the principal Prussian military decoration. The first Military Merit Cross was awarded in October 1916, followed by 54 more awards in 1917. The rest of the awards of the Military Merit Cross were made in 1918. Despite the much larger number of awards in 1918, the decoration remained extremely rare compared to the number of eligible Prussian soldiers and compared to the number of awards of the Iron Cross and most of the enlisted decorations of the other German states. Recipients received a monthly stipend, which was maintained even after the end of the Prussian monarchy in November 1918 through the Third Reich era, and was reestablished in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

in 1957.

References

Bibliography

* Klaus D. Patzwall, ed., ''Das Preußische Goldene Militär-verdienst-kreuz'' (1986). * Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann, ''Pour le Mérite und Tapferkeitsmedaille'' (1966). {{Orders and decorations of the Kingdom of Prussia Military awards and decorations of Prussia