Silvered metal and blue and white enamel Latin cross pattée with concave ends to the arms, with graduated silvered rays between the arms, with integral loop for ribbon suspension; the face with a circular central white enamel medallion bearing a black enamel cross gammée within a bronze ring inscribed ‘DER DEUTSCHEN MUTTER’ (The German Mother), the arms of the cross with white-enamel-edged blue enamel panels; the reverse plain, dated ’10 Dezember 1938’ and bearing the facsimile signature of the then German Führer and Reichs-Chancellor, Adolf Hitler; small surface chips to the blue enamel; on possibly original full neck ribbon.
The Cross was instituted on 16 December 1938 ‘als ein sichtbares Zeichen des Dankes de Deutschen Volkes an kinderreiche Mütter’ (as a visible token of the thanks of the German people to child-bearing mothers) with the intention of encouraging the growth of the German population.
The Cross was awarded each year on 12 August, birthday of Adolf Hitler’s mother and on the second Sunday in May, Mothering Sunday in Germany. The gold cross was for mothers of eight children, the silver cross, as in this example, for six children and the bronze cross for mothers of four children.
The first version had a reverse inscribed ‘Das Kind adelt die Mutter’ (Children ennoble their mother); this example is of the second version.
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