Issued in 1851, the House Order of Hohenzollern always had a special position among the Prussian orders. The highest grade was awarded to bearer's of the Prussian Black Eagle Order only. The knights cross with swords is considered to be equivalent to the German Cross in gold (III.Reich). Being so dominant within the regular grades the Eagle decorations seem almost forgotten.

Yet, they seem to be much more interesting and definitely rarer than the "regular" crosses. During their complete awarding period they have almost  only been awarded to either citizen in teaching positions or priests. Not enough with this. The eagles were more or less given to retirees for their dedicated and honorable service to the Prussian state.

Besides the Eagle of the Bearers, a plain silver eagle badge with just enameled Hohenzollern coat of arms, there are the Eagle decorations for the Knights and Commanders.

I like to take the opportunity to write a few words about the Eagle of the Knight, since I just bought one for my collection. I actually bought the Eagle decoration together with a Red Eagle Order 4th class last model including their matching miniatures. All pieces came right out of Germany from a widow named Mrs. Ziegler (maiden name: Lauffer, born in 1904). The errands unfortunately weren't able to tell me anything about those orders. We can only speculate about the history of these pieces, but do know that the Red Eagle Order was given for long service as well as the Eagle of the Knight. In this case maybe a teacher, maybe director of a school, was lucky enough to be awarded the Red Eagle in time of service, but received  the Eagle decoration, following general practice, with his call to retirement.

The early Eagle badges made by Hossauer are crafted in a very pretty 3-dimensional manner and are only enameled on the front side. The Hossauer makers mark is easily to find on those badges. Pieces made after the Hossauer period are generally flat and enameled on both sides. Original decorations made before 1918 are based on gold are incredibly hollow constructed. The resulting weight is rather light. Normally between 7 and 9 grams. Those badges show an incredible workmanship as shown on the pictures here.

Only 485 pieces were awarded between 1851 and 1918, equal to only 7 badges per year. Since the recipients were men receiving only lower to mid income the likelihood of acquiring a piece for commemorative purposes for 81 Mark is doubtful. The errands were normally not able to afford a piece like this. In addition to this, the piece had to be returned to the Prussian Orders Commission by law.

The eagle badges are certainly a highlight of any Prussian collection and extremely hard to acquire.

For comparison a Eagle of the Bearers (Equivalent size to the Eagle of the Knights):

© A. Schulze Ising, VI/02