Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches


The Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches was an honorary award granted by the German president for scholarly or artistic achievements. It was introduced during the Weimar Republic, under President Friedrich Ebert and continued under Nazi Germany. It was a metal disc with a German imperial eagle on a pedestal. It was a high and infrequently awarded honor, received by around 70 people in total.

Recipients during the Weimar Republic

Article 109, section 3 of the Weimar Constitution entitled "Orders and honours may not be given by the state" enacted a ban on honorific orders. Nevertheless, there was a desire for the state to be able to confer symbolic honours and the honorific award of the Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches was created to meet this desire. It consisted of a 108 mm wide medal of cast bronze, mounted on a bronze pedestal and inscribed on the reverse with an individualised honorific inscription. The designer of the Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches was Josef Wackerle. The award was to be given to outstanding individuals in the realms of art, culture, scholarship, science and the economy.
The award was made by hand written decree of the President. The Ministry of the Interior made decisions about the honour at the direction of the Reichskunstwart Edwin Redslob, who was also responsible for the design. According to Redslob, the form of the eagle expressed the "idea of the Reich." In total, the Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches was awarded to twenty one people during the period of the Weimar Republic. They were:
  1. Gerhart Hauptmann
  2. Paul Wagner
  3. Harry Plate
  4. Emil Warburg
  5. Adolf von Harnack
  6. Max Liebermann
  7. Max Planck
  8. Hans Delbrück
  9. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
  10. Wilhelm Kahl
  11. Lujo Brentano
  12. Oskar von Miller
  13. Friedrich Schmidt-Ott
  14. Theodor Lewald
  15. Georg Dehio
  16. Robert Bosch
  17. Walter Simons
  18. Carl Duisberg
  19. Max Sering
  20. Ernst Brandes
  21. Adolph Goldschmidt

    Recipients during National Socialism

The Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches continued to be awarded during the Nazi period. From 1934, the eagle designed by Josef Wackerle was replaced by the Imperial Eagle with a swastika, symbols closely connected with Nazi ideology. The reverse continued to feature an individualised inscription, but was also inscribed Der Führer und Reichskanzler. Otherwise it was unchanged.
  1. Philipp Lenard
  2. Eduard Schwartz
  3. Friedrich von Müller
  4. Werner Körte
  5. Wilhelm Dörpfeld
  6. Hermann Stehr
  7. Reinhold Seeberg
  8. Hugo Hergesell
  9. Richard Strauss
  10. Adolf Schmidt
  11. Theodor Wiegand
  12. Julius Friedrich Lehmann
  13. Heinrich Finke
  14. Ludwig Aschoff
  15. Gustav Heinrich Johann Apollon Tammann
  16. Ludolf von Krehl
  17. Erich Marcks
  18. August Bier
  19. Wladimir Peter Köppen
  20. Emil Kirdorf
  21. Adolf Bartels
  22. Bernhard Nocht
  23. Alexander Koenig
  24. Adalbert Czerny
  25. Henry Ford
  26. Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer
  27. Robert von Ostertag
  28. Friedrich Karl Kleine
  29. Albert Pietzsch
  30. Heinrich Sohnrey
  31. Julius Dorpmüller
  32. Arthur Kampf
  33. Karl Muck
  34. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
  35. Paul Kehr
  36. Heinrich Schnee
  37. Albert Brackmann
  38. Ernst Poensgen
  39. Wilhelm Kreis
  40. Gustav Bauer
  41. Hermann Röchling
  42. Alfred Hugenberg
  43. Ernst Rüdin
  44. Eugen Fischer
  45. Paul Schultze-Naumburg