War Merit Crosses
"Kriegsverdienstkreuz"
On 18 October 1939, the anniversary of the German victory over Napoleon at Leipzig in 1813, Hitler instituted the War Merit Cross, or Kriegsverdienstkreuz, usually known as the KVK. Over the next six years it was to be used at means of recognising virtually every sort of service imaginable and was to become the most widely distributed of all German decorations. The cross was open to anyone, male or female, who contributed to war effort of the Tird Reich, from front-line troops to staff generals, from Hitler Youths to aged industrialists, and from factory workers to polished academics.