| Medal for Faithful Service in the National People's Army | |
| Awarded For: | "Faithful Service in the National People’s Army" |
| Status: | No longer awarded |
| Firstawarded: | 1956 |
| Lastawarded: | 1990 |
| Higher: | Medal ... – Silver for 10 years of service |
| Lower: | nothing |
| Image2 Size: | 120px |
The Medal For Faithful Service in the National People’s Army (German: Medaille für treue Dienste in der Nationalen Volksarmee) was a medal issued in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Day of Establishment: June 1, 1956 (revised orders were issued on August 28, 1964 and on July 15, 1968).
Four Classes:
Faithful Service Medals with a similar design were issued by Border Guards (Grenztruppen) and Civil Defense (Zivilverteidigung).
Preceding the establishment of the National People’s Army there was a Faithful Service Medal for its predecessor organization the Barracked People's Police (German: Kasernevolkspolizei (KVP) established in 1954).
The medal could be presented for honest conscientious performance of duties in the National People’s Army (Army, Navy or Air Force/Air Defense Force) or other armed organizations of the GDR.
It was presented to:
The award was presented in the name of the Minister of National Defense or Minister of State Security usually on the day of the completion of the specified years of service.
Document / Cash award: Each medal was accompanied by a document/certificate. No cash award is specified.
The medal is suspended from a five sided cloth ribbon which is 48mm at the widest point. The medal is 35mm in diameter and is silvered and/or gilded bronze (gold medal), or bronze depending on the grade of the medal. Some variations of the medal are 34.7 mm in diameter.
The ribbons for the Faithful Service medals stem from the basic design used for the Bronze medal. The basic ribbon has a wide light green center stripe flanked by three equal width stripes of yellow, red and black, with black being the edge color. The Silver medal has a narrow silver center stripe added, and the 15- and 20-year ribbons have a narrow yellow center stripe. To differentiate the 20-year ribbon from the 15-year ribbon, a gold-plated "XX" device is attached, by means of two straight pins soldered to the back of the device, to both the suspension ribbon and the service ribbon. The Roman numerals are without serifs.
The ribbon bar is 24 mm (just under 1 inch) wide, rectangular and corresponds with the medal ribbon.
The medal was awarded with a certificate and was worn on the left upper chest. Uniform regulations specify when the medal or ribbon bar was worn. Wear of this medal on the ribbon bar was mandatory.
Several distinct variations of each grade of this medal exist. Although established in 1956, the first 10-year medals were not manufactured until 1959; the first 15-year medals in 1960 and the first 20-year medals in 1965. Because the practice of serial numbering medals was discontinued in 1959, only the Faithful Service Medal in bronze exists in a serial numbered version.
According to research by John Standberg the different types are;
The first style, used until 1959, has the GDR flag without the State Seal. The second style, used from 1960 until 1974 features the GDR flag with the State Seal. However, there is no outer ring around the seal. The final variety, used from 1974 until 1990 features a ring around the State Seal in the GDR flag. The 20 year medal also has three distinctly different obverse designs. The first type featured colored enameled flags. The second type featured colored lacquer applied over a pebbled finish on the flags. The third type was similar to the second except that the metal finish under the lacquer is smooth.