A great mother

[Knight]

I have always cherished this set of mother medals. A mother who can bear many children and raise them should be respected everywhere. Thanks for the comments!

[Wim Vangossum]

Fine trio. It was known that Hitler add much importance to this specific award.


Regards Wim

[Mike TM]

Nice set

Mike

[midwaymilitaria]

these are some of the loose ones I own, I have a few more in envelopes and or cased. I would guess I own around 20 or so.

[Knight]

Thank you all for your comments and collections display.

[Wim Vangossum]

After the war most women said that they never had worn the cross and that it soon ended up in a drawer at home. But more recent research brought to light that there was great envy between mothers who owned a cross and mothers who where for some reason excluded from receiving one. Many letters were written to Gouwleiters to complain about some circumstances around the right to own the cross.

I've added my tiny collection of these enamel beauties.


Regards, Wim

[Wolfe8918]

I am of two minds about this award. On the one hand, they are beautiful awards and display very nicely. But so many were brought back as trophies, which reminds me of the horrible abuses German women suffered at the end of the war and afterwards.

[burgerhaus]

And my problem is the sheer number of these awards in circulation. If you did the math including the criteria for the award surely the number of awards in circulation outnumber the number of children born during that time. I am of the belief that more awards were manufactured than issued and were brought home by occupation forces post war. The grades are simply way too numerous dont you honestly think? My advice would be that if you had to have one buy one that shows a little age at the very least. But of course they are not as shiny and pretty. Am i the only one that thinks this way? Maybe I am. Regards

[midwaymilitaria]

No i actually prefer items that show some wear , I don’t have any interest in items still in the wrapper, or super mint. Has no honor imo.

[rbminis]

Some of my silver examples.
Ralph.

[Knight]

Wow, these goodies are almost all in North America and Europe.

[Wim Vangossum]

And my problem is the sheer number of these awards in circulation. If you did the math including the criteria for the award surely the number of awards in circulation outnumber the number of children born during that time. I am of the belief that more awards were manufactured than issued and were brought home by occupation forces post war. The grades are simply way too numerous dont you honestly think? My advice would be that if you had to have one buy one that shows a little age at the very least. But of course they are not as shiny and pretty. Am i the only one that thinks this way? Maybe I am. Regards

You have certainly a point with that! My best guess is that they still made them after the war in the same manner as before.

[HPL2008]

And my problem is the sheer number of these awards in circulation. If you did the math including the criteria for the award surely the number of awards in circulation outnumber the number of children born during that time.

There seems to be a misunderstanding:

In order to qualify for the Mother's Cross, it was not necessary for a woman's children to have been born during the Third Reich. Apart from racial/ideological requirements (both parents being "of German blood" and free of hereditary disease, the mother being "worthy" of the award), it was only necessary for the children to have been born alive, with no limitation in terms of the time period.

Many recipients of the award were old ladies whose childbearing days were long in the past and whose children had long grown up, especially when it came to the silver and gold grades. Of course, German families were generally larger in the 1930s and 1940s than they are today, but six or eight children were already unusual by that time. (In 1880, the average number of children per mother was 5.06; in 1901 it was 4.01 and by 1935, this had already dropped to 2.08.)

So, when it comes to calculating the number of children factoring into possible awards of the Mother's Cross and given the life expectancy of potential recipients, the period we have to consider goes way back into the 19th century.

(But even if we just look at the statistics for the period from 1900 to 1944, a total of more than six-and-half million live children were born in Germany.)

[Wim Vangossum]

There seems to be a misunderstanding:

In order to qualify for the Mother's Cross, it was not necessary for a woman's children to have been born during the Third Reich. Apart from racial/ideological requirements (both parents being "of German blood" and free of hereditary disease, the mother being "worthy" of the award), it was only necessary for the children to have been born alive, with no limitation in terms of the time period.

Many recipients of the award were old ladies whose childbearing days were long in the past and whose children had long grown up, especially when it came to the silver and gold grades. Of course, German families were generally larger in the 1930s and 1940s than they are today, but six or eight children were already unusual by that time. (In 1880, the average number of children per mother was 5.06; in 1901 it was 4.01 and by 1935, this had already dropped to 2.08.)

So, when it comes to calculating the number of children factoring into possible awards of the Mother's Cross and given the life expectancy of potential recipients, the period we have to consider goes way back into the 19th century.

(But even if we just look at the statistics for the period from 1900 to 1944, a total of more than six-and-half million live children were born in Germany.)

Interesting. Thanks for the clarification.

Regards, Wim

[HPL2008]

You're welcome!

Here's a good example for a very old recipient of the Gold grade:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:...utterkreuz.jpg

The period caption of the press photograph tells us that Mrs. Hedwig Rohde of Berlin celebrated her 100th birthday in 1943. A recipient of the Mother's Cross in Gold, she had 8 children, 22 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren.