Is the Iron Cross still given to German Soldiers Today?

[Ludwig]

I agree to that!

[markus]

"Fallschirmspringer Abzeichen" awarded to "me" in Altenstadt, Schongau in 1996!

The badge was also an "A"ssmann, just like Prosper´s.


Gruss,
Markus

[markus]

Hardware

[markus]

Software.

"Hand stiched" (by me!), not "machine applied" Para-Badge on Cammo cloth after my 4th jump.

Below: Metal btl.-insignia worn by me on an extra sewn in bottom underneath the pocketflap for duty inside the barracks.

11 years ago.....

[Marc Garlasco]

Markus,

I am sorry, but that is obviously a Pakistani fake with the typical "IslamaBAD" stitching.

Hey - great stuff! I LOVE seeing the connection to the past!
Marc

[Edgar Estrada]

Thanks a lot Markus, those are really beatiful badges, and yes, you can see the tradition (or the past), on them.

I hope the IRON CROSS will get its place again, in the right place.

Edgar

Yes, you are absolutely right that it has become too controversial. I have in my living room a coat of arms with the Iron Cross and some people (Europeans), look a bit strange to it. Some even ask “what is that?” So I have to explain to them a bit.

Yes, we all know from when those bad memories come from. But I think that something could be done to CLEAN the bad memories from that German Symbol. First, stop neo-Nazi groups using it (some still use it, as well as the Imperial White Ensign), second let people know that the cross is 800 years old and not invented by the Nazis. Third, people should know that the first Iron Crosses given as a military award were given to German soldiers (and allied), who fought for Europe’s freedom.

I think that Hollywood has helped a lot to this bad image of the Iron Cross and also the pictures of Hitler wearing it. But as we know he wears it because he won it in WWI, not as a Nazi symbol. However “normal” people do not know it and they related the cross with Hitler and his entire BS. Good that he never used the KC, uuffff.

When I travel around Germany in my bicycle I saw even in the smallest towns the Iron Cross in the German memorials for their soldiers, and the grave stones have it too. If the tanks and planes of the German Armed Forces have it as a symbol I wonder why not the Navy’s Ensign. I would like to see the Iron Cross in the German Battle Ensign along with the German Eagle and the German Colors. There in the upper right corner just like the Imperial Navy used it. Then when German ships sail together with NATO ships (the former enemy), everybody will start to see the Iron Cross as a friendly symbol. At least the German Cost Guard still use their “iron cross shaped” red cross (that is good).

I have seen CDs of heavy metal groups using the IRON CROSS!!! Even one of those groups is named like that (Iron Cross), and another is named Wolf Pack (both from the UK). So, the symbol of the iron cross is losing the battle as people will see on it a “devil’s thing.”

Yes, it should be something done and the German in the armed forces with a sense of tradition should do the move: make people know about it, clean it and use it.

Regards

Edgar