Decorations

Golden Military Merit Cross

Goldene Militär-Verdienst-Kreuz

The high Prussian — and by extension German — orders like the Pour le Mérite and the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern were reserved for commissioned officers. To acknowledge exceptional acts of bravery, leadership and service by those that weren’t commissioned officers, Prussia began in late 1916 to awarded the Golden Military Merit Cross, which began known as the “Pour le Mérite for non-commissioned officers” (“Pour le Mérite des Unteroffiziers.”) Though the cross was originally established in 1864, it had only been awarded 38 times before 1914. All told, the Golden Military Merit Cross was awarded 1,773 times during World War I. Only those, only 27 awards were to Kaiserliche Marine personnel: 13 Deckoffiziere (warrant officers) for their service at sea, 3 warrant officer pilots, and 11 Offizierstellvertreter and NCOs serving with the land forces of the Marinekorps Flandern. The 13 awards for service at sea were:

CommanderDate  Command

0 officers decorated with Golden Military Merit Cross (Goldene Militär-Verdienst-Kreuz ) located.

Note: This listing is still being compiled and some recipients might be missing.

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