Awards and Decorations of Nazi Germany were military, political and civilian decorations which were bestowed between 1923 and 1945 by the Nazi Party and later the state of Nazi Germany.
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The first awards began in the 1920s, before the Nazis had come to power in Germany, with the political decorations worn on early Party uniforms. Most early Nazis also displayed awards they may have earned as soldiers and sailors during the First World War or before.
After 1933, the state began issuing a variety of civilian decorations which could be bestowed upon any citizen of the Reich. Thus, some awards (such as Sports Badges) were bestowed on Nazi Party members, members of the German military, and regular civilians. Many standard awards of the German state, such as military and civil service long service decorations and life-saving medals, were redesigned to incorporate the Nazi symbol, the swastika.
Third Reich military awards are by far the most commonly recognised. Military long service decorations, awards for participants in the Spanish Civil War and medals for the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland were among early awards, but the greatest number began to be bestowed in 1939 after the start of World War II. Regulations of award issuance also permitted the simultaneous wear of military, civilian, and political decorations on any military or para-military uniform of the Third Reich, allowing for a wide variety of combinations in manner of wear and awards displayed.
Nazi awards and decorations were discontinued after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. After the end of World War II, new German military awards were created under the authority of the West German military and the East German communist regime.
Third Reich awards
The following articles deal with each section of Third Reich awards:
Pre-Third Reich awards
Orders, decorations and medals earned by Germans before the Nazi assumption of power continued to be worn and were incorporated into the prescribed orders of precedence and uniform regulations for the German armed forces and civil organisations in the Third Reich. These included awards of Imperial Germany and its members states (Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, etc.), awards of the Weimar Republic and awards of Austro-Hungary (after the 1938 annexation, Austrian awards were treated as another class of state award like Prussian and Bavarian).
German decorations of the First World War were by far the most numerous of pre-Third Reich decorations displayed on Nazi uniforms. Prior to Hitler assuming power, when the Nazi Party was simply a paramilitary political party, Nazi uniforms also displayed several awards of the Freikorps. Awards of the German Freikorps were prohibited from wear after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, with any veteran who had received one then eligible for the Cross of Honor of World War I. In all, nearly eight million persons applied for, and received, the Cross of Honor in lieu of a former unofficial veteran or Freikorps medal.