{{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A Service Award Cross (''Dienstauszeichnungskreuz'') was an award for long-time service as a civil servant or member of the military.

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

had a service cross for 25-years service for officers as well as service awards in the form of buckles for nine-, 15 - and 25-years' service in the active Army. In addition, there was a

Landwehr ''Landwehr'', or ''Landeswehr'', is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large-scale, low-strength fortificatio ...

Service Award in two categories: a cross for 20-years service by officers and a buckle for 12-years' service by officers and men of the Landwehr if they took part in a campaign or had served at least three months on active service convened for an extraordinary initiative. Similar rules and orders - mostly in Prussian-like orders - were produced in the kingdoms of Bavaria and Saxony. Even in the

Weimar Republic The German Reich, commonly referred to as the Weimar Republic,, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also r ...

, the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and other states there were distinctions for long periods of service. The

German Federal Republic BRD (german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland ; English: FRG/Federal Republic of Germany) is an unofficial abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany, informally known in English as West Germany until 1990, and just Germany since reunification. I ...

had service awards, not restored on German unification.

See also