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Condition: Excellent
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Product Description: This Luftwaffe German Cross in Gold is a really nice example. It’s a cloth version, which was chosen for wear on field uniforms by many Wehrmacht officers. This one is on a blue-gray wool backing, indicating Luftwaffe issue. It is beautifully hand embroidered, with all of the original stitching intact. The wreath is a nice strike, made of a brass alloy (Tombak), with some honest wear to the original gold finish. The swastika is perfectly executed in black thread, accentuated with a bullion wire outline, on a white backing that shows typical slight age toning. The reverse of this attractive Luftwaffe German Cross in Gold retains the original black backing paper. There are a few spots of old adhesive residue, most likely from having been mounted in a photo album at one time. Stitch holes around the edge show where this was once neatly sewn to a Luftwaffe uniform, and even some very small traces of the original stitching remain. This is an outstanding piece, that was worn, and that shows just the right amount of honest wear and age. It has a great look, and is in excellent condition.
Historical Description: The German Cross in Gold was instituted on September 28th, 1941. The German High Command saw it necessary to create an award which would bridge the gap between the Iron Cross First Class and the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. Once instituted, the German Cross became Germany’s second highest military decoration, second only to the Knights Cross and its subsequent grades. The German Cross was similar to the Knights Cross in regards that the award was not based off of any previous awards in German history. It was a unique creation which also ended with the war. There were approximately 26,000 recipients of the German Cross in Gold. This number, however, does not reflect the total amount of German Crosses produced.
The German Cross was actually not a cross at all. It took on the form of an eight-pointed star, resembling some of the former breast awards of the Imperial era. The award came in two forms, a metal version and a cloth version. The metal version being the most complex of the two, it consisted of five separate pieces being fitted and held together using four to twelve rivets depending on who the manufacturer was. The cloth version follows the exact same design as the metal produced version except the entire cross is cloth with the exception of the laurel wreath still being metal.
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