The German military is having a branding issue.
The Iron Cross is a military honor that originated in Prussia in the early 1800s. It's modeled after the emblem used by Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages, and it appears on every tank, truck, and airplane of the Bundeswehr.
Only it isn't a medal anymore because Hitler ruined the brand.
He awarded it to thousands, as it was an exclusively military honor, like America's Medal of Honor or the UK's Victoria Cross. Only the recipients were not just on the losing side of the war. All were at least complicit in Nazism's atrocities. Many were indirectly involved. Some were perpetrators.
Hitler stamped a swastika in the middle of the medal, making it his own recognition for the most valiant Nazis.
So the medal has been replaced by a rather generic-looking sort-of similar cross, only rendered in gold and ribboned with the washed-out gold, red, and black that are reminiscent of the old West Germany. It can be awarded for any number of services to the state.
For anybody who watched Robert Shaw stomp his boots through "Battle of the Bulge," the replacement jewelry just seems more like a collectible from the Olympics.
There's a debate underway in Germany about bringing the Iron Cross back, driven in part by the fact that Germans are dying again in battle (25 have lost their lives so far trying to keep in check the madmen in Afghanistan).
Right-wingers are fielding petitions for it, and the Central Council of Jews is, not without reason, objecting. A group of retired soldiers is proposing a middle-ground approach, hoping to Iron Cross-ify the current Badge of Honor.
Seems to me that somebody needs to figure out the German military heroism brand.
As such, there's nothing to being back, really. Military heroism has little to do with ideology; valor is agnostic to politics, and stays consistent through the years, irrespective of the weapons available to test it. Recipients of the Iron Cross have, on average, had far more in common with those awarded the highest honors from other countries than ways they differed.
Nazism poisoned so much of Germany's traditions, as it usurped the past in service to its evil future. Like Japan's use of the Rising Sun flag on its ships, those traditions run deep, and include getting put to dubious, if not bad, purposes. Traditions, especially those involving violence and nationalism, possess within them some dangerous seeds.
But they're real, and as meaningful as all of the good qualities they represent.
I wonder if the Iron Cross brand is permanently sullied. Perhaps it should be.
Link to original post