Germany (Third Reich): Honour Cross 1914-1918. With 'Swords' for combatants

Reverse of cross with makers marks 'G & S', for Glaser & Sohne Dresden

The medal fitted with a bright length of 'Combatants' medal riband

Often referred - erroneously - as the 'Hindenburg Cross' - the Honour Cross was the first general service medal to be instituted during the short-lived, but ultimately calamatous, era of the 'Third Reich', as an exclusive 'retrospective' general service award, for combat veterans, non-combatants and for award to the next of kin of the fallen of the 'Great War 1914-18'

The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 (Das Ehrenkreuz des Weltkrieges 1914/1918),was established by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, President of the German Weimar Republic, by an order dated 13 July 1934, to commemorate service of the German people during the First World War. This was Germany's only official service medal for soldiers of Imperial Germany who had taken part in the war, and where they had since died it was also awarded to their surviving next-of-kin. Shortly after its issuance, the government of Nazi Germany declared the award as the only official service decoration of the First World War and further forbade the continued wearing of German Free Corps awards on any military or paramilitary uniform of a state or Nazi Party organization

Condition: EF

Code: 23331