Honor among Peers? A Comparative History of Honor Practices in Postwar Britain and West Germany

Abstract

The first-ever medals for military bravery awarded in the Federal Republic were placed on the chests of four German soldiers in July 2009. These noncombatant soldiers were being honored for running to help injured Afghans and military colleagues after suicide bombers had blown up a nearby patrol car in October 2008. The decision by Germany’s political leaders to honor these soldiers was unexceptional from an international perspective; soldiers from other nations fighting in Afghanistan had been awarded similar honors much more liberally. Indeed, special Operational Honors Lists have been created every six months to honor hundreds of members of the British Armed Forces involved in the conflict. Yet, while awards for gallantry shown in Afghanistan have attracted almost no critical discussion in Britain ðin spite of much critical discussion of the decision to go to war thereÞ, the new bravery award provoked much debate in Germany. One reason for the unease was that unlike other political honors, which rewarded long, often routine service, this honor was given to young men for showing a remarkable physical bravery and “overcoming of their fear.” Would the rewarding of heroism on the battlefield with an award reminiscent of the Iron Cross, wondered particularly leftist politicians, not threaten the identity of a modern nation that had painfully freed itself from archaic notions of honor? After all, to paraphrase Bertolt Brecht, was not the land that needs heroes an unhappy one? We might wonder whether this nation’s soul-searching reminded its citizens that however prosperous and comfortable they might feel, they dare not feel or glorify certain emotions and actions that had once signified national greatness. Similarly, were such concerns about honoring national, and particularly military, service unique toGermany or shared by other European nations with less