Bidspirit auction | German WWII ”Medaille für deutsche

German WWII ”Medaille für deutsche Volkspflege” Award Medal - German WWII ”Medaille für deutsche Volkspflege” Award Medal This medal was awarded for services to German national welfare (Volkspflege), a category of recognition tied to the DRK and affiliated social welfare organizations during the Third Reich period. The obverse depicts a Reich eagle above a Red Cross symbol set within a cross-shaped field of four panels, while the reverse carries the raised Gothic-script inscription ”Medaille für deutsche Volkspflege.” Medals of this type were distributed to individuals engaged in nursing, care work, and civil welfare activities, reflecting the regime's efforts to formalize and honor such service within its broader social apparatus. This decoration formed part of the Third Reich's system of civil honours recognising sustained work in nursing, social care, and welfare administration, fields that were closely integrated with the German Red Cross (DRK) and state-run welfare bodies (NSV) under National Socialist policy. Such awards were intended to publicly acknowledge long, often unpaid service by nurses, welfare workers, and volunteers who supported the regime's domestic social programmes. The imagery combining the Red Cross emblem with the Reich eagle reflects the fusion of humanitarian nursing traditions with state ideology characteristic of welfare institutions in this period.