Austria-Hungary Austrian War Merit Cross 3rd class @ 1917

[Ulsterman]

Grossly undervalued in my opinion, I remember when these were 25 pounds at Spinks only 7 years ago. I just picked up this third class in silver (silver marks on the back too) for pocket change. I love these: the precision, quality workmanship, the snow white enamel work, silver filigreed oak leaves and sweeping, smooth, curve of the cross's arms make this my favorite merit award. This is the Austrian version of the EK2 noncombat award I suppose-but much nicer.

[Josef Rietveld]

@ulstermann

I agree with you. The Kriegskreuz f?r Zivilverdienste i a very welldone deoration in matters of design (a bit of art deco or art noveau) and craftmanship. Originally it was intended to habe a cross on a ribbon. The austrian authorities of the old reich favoured the classic black-yellow ribbon that stood for the habsburg-dynasty and could be traced back to the emperor of the holy roman empire of german nation in the early middleages. But the hungarians refused this proposal and demanded the hungarian colours (red-white-green) to be on the ribbon. as a result the ribbon would have been black-yellow-red-white and green. to avoid this colour-mishmash the cross was designed as pin-back.

You see what were the problems in austria-hungary arround 1916/17

The same problem, in a different implementation, occurred when emperor Franz Josef died in November 1916. all medals had to be changed to he image of the new emperor Charles I (IVth of hungary). the hungarians demanded to change the inscription of the bavery medals backsiede from the german 'DER TAPFERKEIT' to the Latin 'FORTITUDINI' , because hungarian soldiers who fought for tzhe hungarian king and kingdom shouldn't be decorated with medals with german inscription. what means the same. the alternative would have been medals in german AND hungarian, unthinkable for the army. so again Latin was chosen as compromise. that is also the reason why the Kriegskreuz f?r Zivilverdienste bears an latin inscription.

regards

haynau

[Ed_Haynes]

Nice one. Thanks for the eye-candy!

Amazing how nationalism -- which caused the war after all -- resulted in changes and limitations in the awards given for that war.

[Guest Rick Research]

Any of the three grades of these have always eluded me.

Who made this one?

So much more ... luxurious than the dreadful zinkies of Germany.

Has anyone ever seen a photo of one of these crosses being worn?