Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Das Ehrenkreuz des Weltkriegs 1914 1918 [The Honor Cross of World War 1914/1918) awarded for serving in combat in the German Army during the First World War. The award was established by President Paul von Hindenburg, on July 13, 1934. This was the first official WWI service medal of the Third Reich, often referred to by an unofficial name, Hindenburg Cross. Hindenburg, Field Marshal of German forces during WWI, appointed Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933, and soon a Nazi dictatorship ruled the country.
- Date
-
commemoration:
1914-1918
issue: 1934 July 13-1944
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lotte and David Zinner
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Military Insignia
- Category
-
Medals
- Object Type
-
Medals, German (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Medal in the shape of a cross with two crossing swords. Embossed in the center of cross is wreath of leaves with "1914/1918."
- Materials
- overall : bronze
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The medal was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Lotte and David Zinner, Otto and Erna Stein’s daughter and grandson, in 2000.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-08-31 14:31:38
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn85761
Download & Licensing
In-Person Research
- By Appointment
- Request 21 Days in Advance of Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
- Request to See This Object
Contact Us
Also in Erna and Otto Stein family collection
The Otto and Erna Stein family collection includes a German Cross of Honor for World War I Combatants, biographical materials and correspondence documenting the Stein family, their immigration to the United States in 1938, and their relatives’ experiences under Nazi rule in Neustadt an der Haardt, Nieder-Olm, Wiesbaden, and Mannheim.
Otto and Erna Stein family papers
Document
The Otto and Erna Stein family papers include biographical materials and correspondence documenting the Stein family, their immigration to the United States in 1938, and their relatives’ experiences under Nazi rule in Neustadt an der Haardt, Nieder-Olm, Wiesbaden, and Mannheim. Biographical materials include birth, marriage, and death certificates, death notices, International Tracing Service forms, Yad Vashem “Hall of Names” forms, passports, student and apprenticeship record, military papers, records from Otto Stein’s time as a Prisoner of War in England during World War I, identification cards, money transfer receipts, a certificate for Otto Stein’s Cross of Honor for World War I soldiers, visa applications, and a receipt for the family’s passage to America. Correspondence files primarily consist of letters to Lotte Zinner’s family in America from her mother’s parents, Albert and Justine Kramer, in Nieder-Olm and then Wiesbaden, from her paternal grandmother, Klementine Stein, in Neustadt an der Haardt and then Mannheim, and from her uncle and aunt, Wilhelm and Flora Stein, in Berlin-Neukölln, London, and then Chicago. These letters describe immigration efforts and life in Nazi Germany Additional correspondence files include postcards congratulating Justine Selig and her family upon her engagement in 1896 and letters from great uncle Ferdinand Bach in St. Louis in 1915 that later served as the basis for Otto and Erna Stein’s family search when they were ready to immigrate. The collection further includes a 1911 postcard to Otto Stein from his brother with a photograph of Wilhelm pasted to it, a 1925 letter enclosing a photograph of Lotte Zinner as a baby, correspondence describing family and friends’ efforts to emigrate, letters after the war describing the fates of family and friends, and correspondence between Lotte Zinner and the National Museum of American Jewish Military History about Zinner’s father and her family records.