Medals

Decorations have a long history. It is proven, that awards were given in ancient times solemnly for military achievements. The Greek called them "tá fálára", the Roman word was "phalera". Both words had the same meaning: Award. This word, "phalerae" was used to classify the science that studies orders, decoration and their history - phaleristic. Some years ago phaleristic was just an interesting field among numismatic.

A Phalere was an approx. 4' in diameter circle or crescent shaped plaque that was attached to war horses. Later those plaques were mounted to the soldiers armor. Those phaleren are still visible on roman tombstones. Besides the phalere several other decorations existed. Those are wreaths (corona) worn on the head, rings (torques) or batons (vitis).

During the crusades in the 11th century knights formed orders in a sense of a society devoted to humanity and beneficence. There ideas had formed four knight orders.

The Order of the Holy Sepulcher, founded after storming Jerusalem in 1099 and united with the order of St. John in 1291, the Order of St. John in 1118 formed out of the monks Order of the Holy John of Jerusalem, the Order of the Templar was founded in 1118, too and merged in 1312 in the Order of St. John And at last in 1170 the Marianer Knights Order the later German Order.

The cohesion among the orders member was determined by their rules, their congregation, the community and the orderliness (lat. ordo). The affiliation to an order was shown by their uniforms and insignia. In this regards it should be said, that all design of those insignias root in the pattern of the holy cross. Being a member of such society had nothing to do with being awarded honors during those old days. But among the order members a ranking system was established, and documented by different insignias.

Almost being jealous of this development the secular sovereigns started their own societies to withstand those growth of clerical power. The very first secular Knights orders did therefore function as competitive societies to bond the knights and royals to their sovereigns. Besides the political usage of those orders an advantage was seen to underline merits in military and civil service.

The change was definitely speed up by starting to award the insignia of the order rather then the membership of the order. The special mark of the community was awarded to an outsider for merit of all different kind. This procedure was the step towards the modern order. During the era of absolutistic power a classic knights order with all its rules, limited membership numbers, religious goals etc couldn't accomplish the needs during those modern times.

From now on, knights societies doesn't exist anymore, but anonymous decorations are worn as symbol for merit. The time around the 18th and 19th century tinted by wars explains easily, why the first founded order were solemnly military orders, as the Military Order of St. Henry founded in the kingdom of Saxony in 1736 or the Prussian Pour le Mérite founded by Friedrich II. in 1740.

Another step in the development of our order system was of course the French revolution. Trying to get rid of titles and privileges during this time to make humans equal went the opposite way in regards to orders. In 1802 the 1. Consul Napoleon Bonaparte founded the today most known order. The Order of the Legion of Honor. This triggered a variety of order foundations. Indirectly inspired the most popular and known German medals was founded by Friedrich Wilhelm III. in 1813 - the Iron Cross.

In over 130 years and 4 wars the IC had central character in regards to medals and in 1939 as an order. In the beginnings Military Orders did honor the merit of officers only. This was changed certainly during the 19th century. NCOs and enlisted men were awarded military and bravery medals. Some were actually combined with monetary awards or installments. Those medals were as much known as comparable orders. Some even were given names of there order relatives as for example the Pour le Mérite for NCOs, the Prussian Military Merit Cross. The variety of stars, crosses and medals comes up after the downfall of Napoleon. Commemorative medals are born. 1813 was the year. Numerous commemorative medals for this war are issued and mostly cast of metal of the conquered cannons. Medals for combatants and non-combatants are among those new creations. War medals are sorted after merit at the frontline or merit earned at the "home-front". During peaceful times there are medals and order for the Army, Police, Firemen, Customs, for merit in science, sports, rescue.....

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