The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German language: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, often simply Ritterkreuz) was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II. It was second only to the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross (Großkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) in the military order of the Third Reich. The superior Grand Cross of the Iron Cross was only held once by Nazi leader and Hitler's political second-in-command Hermann Göring who procured it as a result of his services for building up the Luftwaffe (The German air force) and for acting as its commander-in-chief, thus making the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross the highest functional order that Military officials in Nazi Germany could procure.
The Knight's Cross grade of the Iron Cross was worn at the neck and was slightly larger but similar in appearance to the 1813 Iron Cross. It was legally based on the 1 September 1939 renewal of the Iron Cross. The order could be presented to German soldiers of all ranks and to the allies of the Third Reich. As the war progressed, some of the recipients distinguished themselves further and a higher grade, the Oak Leaves to Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub), was instituted in 1940. In 1941, two higher grades of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves were instituted. These were the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern) and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten). At the end of 1944 the final grade, the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit goldenem Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten), was created.
Read more about Knight's Cross Of The Iron Cross: Historic Background, The Knight's Cross Grades of The Iron Cross, Award Documentation, Nomination and Approval Procedure, Recipients, Dönitz-decree, Law About Titles, Orders and Honorary Signs, Military Slang
Famous quotes containing the words knight, cross and/or iron:
“By a knight of ghosts and shadows
I summon’d am to a tourney
Ten leagues beyond the wide world’s end:
Methinks it is no journey.”
—Unknown. Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song (l. 57–60)
“He is asleep. He knows no longer the fatigue of the work of deciding, the work to finish. He sleeps, he has no longer to strain, to force himself, to require of himself that which he cannot do. He no longer bears the cross of that interior life which proscribes rest, distraction, weaknesshe sleeps and thinks no longer, he has no more duties or chores, no, no, and I, old and tired, oh! I envy that he sleeps and will soon die.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)