The German Occupation Medals were a series of
awards
An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration.
An award may be d ...
, also known as the ''"Flower War medals"'', created to commemorate the successive annexations by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
of neighbouring countries and regions with large ethnic German populations. These comprised
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
(March 1938), the
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...
(October 1938) and
Memel (March 1939). The occupation of the remainder of
western Czechoslovakia (March 1939) was marked by the 'Prague Bar', worn on the ribbon of the Sudetenland Medal.
The awards
All three medals have a common obverse designed by Professor
Richard Klein, Director of the Munich School of Applied Arts and a favoured artist of the Nazi establishment.
The criteria for each of the medals and the Prague bar were broadly the same. They were awarded to those, both military and civilian, who participated in or contributed to the occupation, including members of the German Wehrmacht, German State officials and local Nazi supporters who had worked for union with Germany.
[
The wearing of Nazi era awards was banned in 1945. Occupation medals were not among those awards reauthorized for official wear by the ]Federal Republic of Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...
in 1957.
A Campaign streamer
Campaign streamers are decorations attached to military flags to recognize particular achievements or events of a military unit or service. Attached to the headpiece of the assigned flag, the streamer often is an inscribed ribbon with the na ...
() in the colours of the appropriate medal ribbon could be attached to the flag of those regiments that had taken part in these occupations.
See also
*Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
- The German annexation of Austria
*Occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
*Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, th ...
* The German annexation of Memel
*Interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
References
{{List of military decorations of the Third Reich , state=collapsed
Military awards and decorations of Nazi Germany