German Awards - No Fire Military Merit Cross

King Ludwig II. established the Order of Military Merit on July 19, 1866. The order consisted until 1900 of 5 classes: Grand Cross, Komtur, Knights of the 1st and 2nd classes. class and cavaliers of the Military Merit Cross. The order was awarded for brave military exploits, which, however, did not justify being awarded the military order of Max Joseph. Civilians could be rewarded if they acquired special services to the Bavarian army. It is also possible to reward foreigners. In 1891, swords were donated for the wars of 1866 and 1870/71. Swords had to be looked for and purchases were paid. In 1900, the Officer's Cross was presented to the Military Order of Merit. In 1905, the enameled cross "For Military Merit" as the lower class of the order was replaced by a silver cross "For Military Merit" in 2 classes. Classes were converted. Now the classes were the Grand Cross, 1st class with a breast star, 2nd class with and without a breast star, Officer's Cross, 3rd class (formerly Knight of the 1st degree. class), 4th grade with and without a crown (knight of the 2nd degree. the class of 1866 fell away) and the Military Merit Cross (silver) of the 1st and 2nd classes. Thus, enameled crosses of military merit were awarded only for a short time with and without swords and, accordingly, rare. Swords were attached later, so crosses without swords are even rarer. The circulation is about 3100 pieces. However, it is not known how many crosses were subsequently supplemented with swords. The last sword awards took place for fighters in China in 1900/01. A well-known option is crosses without a herringbone pattern under the enamel, which are slightly smaller. Since 1905, the awardees were designated Cavaliers of the Cross of Military Merit of the 1st class.

Silver cross in Maltese uniform. Cruciform arms silver borders. Inner sides with blue glass enamel. Underneath is a translucent herringbone-like hatching. Front and back with raised round gold medallion. Between the tops of the upper cruciform sleeve is an ornamented agraf. In the ring of the tape, the factory point is GH - for the Hemmerle brothers.

Front side:

• Round medallion, centre enamelled in black with gold cord - L - under Bavarian royal crown
• This is surrounded by a wide white enameled belt hoop at the bottom with a buckle.
• It has a curved gold font at the top: - MERENTI -.
At
• the bottom of the antennae and points (ribbon holes).

Downside:

• Round medallion, central black enameled with a golden lion crawling to the left.
• This is surrounded by a wide white enameled belt hoop at the bottom with a buckle.
• On it in the upper part is a curved gold figure - 1866 -.
At
• the bottom of the antennae and points (ribbon holes).

Tape:

white 35 mm, edge white 1 mm, side stripes blue 5 mm.

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