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The Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max, was Germany's highest military order awarded during World War I.
The award was first founded in 1740, named in French, the language of the royal court, for merit. Until 1810 the award was both a civilian and military honor. In January of that year, Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III decreed that the award could only be presented to serving military personnel.
In 1842, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV founded the so-called peace class of the award, the Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste (Order Pour le Mérite for Science and Arts), with the three sections humanities, natural science and fine arts. One of the most famous artists who received the peace class of Pour le Mérite was Käthe Kollwitz (she was deprived of it later by the Nazis).
In 1866 a special military Grand Cross class of the award was established.
It was during the First World War that the award gained its primary notoriety. Although it could be awarded to any military official, it was most well known as an award for aerial combat. In the aerial war a fighter pilot was initially entitled to the award upon downing eight enemy aircraft. Ace Max Immelmann was the first airman to receive the award, after which it became known - on account of its color and its recipient - as the Blue Max among his fellow pilots (in German: Blauer Max).
| Manfred von RichthofenThis article is about the Red Baron, the WWI pilot. There is also an article on Red Baron the computer game. Baron Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen ( May 2, 1892 April 21, 1918) was a German pilot and is still regarded today as the "ace of aces". He was a wearing The Blue Max |
The number of aircraft downed needed to win the award continued to increase during the war; eventually it became a requirement to down twenty enemy airplanes.
Recipients of the Blue Max were required to wear the badge, which was a blue Maltese CrossThe Maltese Cross has been the symbol of the Christian warrior since the First Crusade. In recent centuries it has come to be adopted by bodies such as the Order of St. John and the United States Fire Service, and appears on the coat-of-arms of the Meckle with eagleAquila ''Haliaeetus ''Pithecophaga ''Circaetus Scientists argue whether Accipitriformes are a separate order,or belong to the Falconiformes. Eagles are large birds of prey, which are found mainly in the Old World, with only two species ( Bald Eagle and Gos between the arms, and the royal cipher and the words 'Pour le Mérite' on the cross, whenever in uniform. Notable recipients included Manfred von RichthofenThis article is about the Red Baron, the WWI pilot. There is also an article on Red Baron the computer game. Baron Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen ( May 2, 1892 April 21, 1918) was a German pilot and is still regarded today as the "ace of aces". He was a, better known as the 'Red Baron', and Hermann GöringHermann Wilhelm Goring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) ( January 12, 1893 — October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. He is often quoted from the, later to become one of the most senior leaders of the Third Reich.
The award was abolished along with Kaiser Wilhelm II's abdication on 9 November 1918.
In 1952, the President of West Germany, Theodor Heuss, revived the peace class of the order as an autonomous organization under the protection of the German President (although it is not a state order like the Bundesverdienstkreuz).
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