Pour le Mérite

The Pour le Mérite (“For Merit”) was Prussia’s highest military order and was open only to officers. In the First World War it went above all to victorious commanders of armies and fleets, but it was fighter pilots and U-boat commanders who made it world-famous. After one of the first airmen to receive it, Max Immelmann, it was nicknamed the “Blue Max” (Blauer Max).

An order for officers

The order was founded in 1740 by King Frederick II of Prussia, who gave it a French name because French was the language of his court. In January 1810 Frederick William III reserved it for officers, and only for exceptional merit on the battlefield. NCOs and other ranks had their own decorations: the Golden Military Merit Cross, instituted in 1864, was regarded as their equivalent of the order. In 1813 a higher grade was added, gilt oak leaves above the cross.

The order took the form of a blue-enamelled Maltese cross with golden eagles between the arms and a French inscription, on a black ribbon with silver-white edges. A recipient had to wear it whenever he was in uniform. Unlike the British Victoria Cross, it usually rewarded not a single act of courage but command and success: ships sunk or aircraft shot down.

In 1914–1918

The first to receive it in this war, on 7 August 1914, were General Otto von Emmich and Erich Ludendorff, for the capture of Liège. According to the count of the naval-history.net website, it was awarded 687 times by the end of the war, including 533 times in the army, 49 times in the navy and 20 times to foreigners. More than a third of the awards went to generals and admirals, more often for leadership than for personal bravery, and only about one in four to junior officers. Allies received it too, for example the Bulgarian general Nikola Zhekov in January 1916.

In this war the oak leaves usually meant a second award and went almost exclusively to senior commanders and to staff officers who had planned a victorious battle or campaign. Paul von Hindenburg received the order in September 1914 and the oak leaves in February 1915. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of the forces in East Africa, received the order in November 1916 and the oak leaves in October 1917. Manfred von Richthofen, on the other hand, was refused the oak leaves in early 1918 because under a strict reading of the regulations he was not entitled to them, and received the Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class, instead.

Airmen and U-boat commanders

On 12 January 1916, after the eighth victory of each, Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann, the heroes of the “Fokker Scourge”, became the first airmen to receive the order. The threshold then rose: by early 1917 a pilot usually had to shoot down 16–20 aircraft, and by the end of the war about 30. Richthofen received the order on 12 January 1917, after his sixteenth victory. It was also given to airship commanders and to bomber and reconnaissance crews.

At sea the order went mainly to U-boat commanders. The first was Otto Weddigen, decorated on 24 October 1914, after his U-9 had sunk three British cruisers and then the cruiser Hawke. Soon afterwards the order went to Otto Hersing, whose U-21 sank two British battleships off Gallipoli within three days in May 1915, among them the Majestic.

It was also awarded to Walther Schwieger, commander of U-20, which sank the Lusitania, to Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière of U-35 and to Max Valentiner, whose U-38 shelled Funchal in Madeira. The uboat.net website lists 29 submarine commanders decorated with the order.

The end of the military order

The military order ended with the monarchy. After the abdication of Wilhelm II on 9 November 1918 it was never awarded again, although recipients could still wear it. Hitler did not revive it, because it had been reserved for officers, and instituted the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross instead. The last living holder of the military class, the writer Ernst Jünger, died in 1998. The peace class for scholars and artists, however, survived: created in 1842 by Frederick William IV, it was re-established in 1952.