The German Cross in Gold
(Das Deutsche Kreuz in Gold)
The German Cross (in Gold) was introduced to fill the gap between the Iron Cross 1st class
and the Knight's Cross. As it was not introduced until 1941, many Knight's Cross winners were not awarded it but a pre-requisite
for the award was that the recipient had to have at least been awarded the Iron Cross 1st class.
It was awarded for repeated acts of bravery or leadership.
In my opinion the German Cross is one of the best-crafted and designed awards from the Third
Reich period. It was designed by Dr Richard Klein and was complex in construction being made up of 5 pieces (wreath, swastika,
centre plate with enamelling, outer star burst and back-plate)
Known manufacturers are:
C.E. Juncker (Berlin), marked '2'
Steinhauer & Lück (Luedenscheid), marked '4'
C.F. Zimmermann (Pforzheim), marked '20' and sometimes L/52
Godet (Berlin), marked '21'
