Saint George's Medal

The Saint George's Medal (German: Sankt-Georgs-Medaille; also Saint George's Plaque) was founded in three classes (gold, silver and bronze) by Reinhard Gehlen, head of the "Gehlen Organisation", on 31 March 1956, just one day before the official founding of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), of which he became the first president. It must not be confused with the commemorative Saint George Medal of the 1919 German-Russian Western Army (Freiwillige Deutsch-Russische Westarmee).

History

It was awarded for 10 years of loyal service, whereby the years in the "Org" also counted. St. George is supposed to symbolize Western Civilization and the dragon to be fought, Bolshevism.

The award ceremony should take place in a dignified setting. From 1 April 1956, the bronze medal was presented to every member of the BND who had been a full-time employee for at least ten years, although in this case not everyone automatically received an award. The silver version was intended for people and officials who did not work in the intelligence service. This was given to the mayor of Pullach in the Isar Valley, for example. The municipality was the seat of the former headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service for many years. The gold version was reserved for foreign partners.

Allen Welsh Dulles (1893–1969), the then head of the Central Intelligence Agency, under whose supervision the Gehlen organization had been since 1 July 1949, received the gold medal with the number 1 in 1956. James H. Critchfield (1917–2003) received number 4. The future CIA director Richard Helms (1913–2002), previously responsible for the BND, received the gold medal number 6 in 1957. John R. Boker (1913–2003) received the gold medal number 8. He had questioned Gehlen in June 1945 while he was a prisoner of war and convinced his superiors of the sense of Gehlen working for the Americans, as Gehlen wanted.

By order of 24 November 1969, the medal was only to be awarded to BND employees and only if they left the service after at least 10 years of service. Until May 1977, it was produced at the Bavarian Mint, and since then by a private company. In the meantime, there are said to have been inflationary and repeated awards on service anniversaries, or every employee received it when leaving the service, regardless of length of service.

On 7 May 2008, a special form of the medal was walled in at the laying of the foundation stone for the new headquarters of the Bundesnachrichtendienst in Berlin-Mitte. On the obverse, it shows the federal eagle with the inscription "Federal Republic of Germany – Bundesnachrichtendienst" and on the reverse, Saint George and the motto of the BND "Libertas et Securitas" ("Freedom and Security"). Inside the screw-on medal are two microfilms. One shows an aerial photograph of the old BND headquarters in Pullach, the other the portraits of the previous presidents of the BND.