Deeds Still Remembered for Good or Ill: 10 WWI Recipients of the Pour le Mérite

The Pour le Mérite, known informally during World War I as the Blue Max, was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order until the end of World War I. The original regulations called for the capture or successful defense of a fortification, or victory in a battle. By World War I, the oak leaves often indicated a second or higher award of the Pour le Mérite. Although it could be awarded to any military officer, many of its most famous recipients were the pilots of the German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkräfte), whose exploits were celebrated in wartime propaganda. was awarded 1,687 times in the First World War. This included 122 awards with the additional oak leaves.

• Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, German U-boat commander for sinking 194 ships, totaling 453,716 tons of Allied shipping, the most by any submarine commander in history. 

• Oswald Boelcke is important as a pioneering figure in the history of aerial warfare, particularly for his contributions to the development of fighter tactics during World War.  "Dicta Boelcke" is the foundational set of rules for aerial combat. (Photo: Bottom Right)

• Hermann Göring, was decorated as an ace pilot in June 1918, later Reichsmarschall, head of the Luftwaffe, and second in command of Germany's Third Reich. War criminal. (Photo: Bottom Left)

• Ernst Jünger, novelist and the last living holder of the Pour le Mérite at the time of his death in 1998.  Wounded 14 times during the war.

• Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, who led German forces in the guerrilla campaign in German East Africa. One of Germany's greatest postwar heroes.  (Photo: Top Left)

• Erich Ludendorff, German general of World War I; awarded the Pour le Mérite in August 1914, one of the earliest World War I awards, for the siege of Liege.  (Photo: Top Right)

• Manfred von Richthofen,  the top-scoring ace of World War I.   As the "Red Baron" has posthumously received mythic status throughout the world.

• Erwin Rommel, the future "Desert Fox" distinguished himself on mutiple fronts of the war, especially at Caporetto in 1917.

• Hans von Seeckt, brilliant staff officer in World War I; awarded the Pour le Mérite in May 1915 and the oak leaves in November 1915 for contributions on the Eastern Front. After the war, he was instrumental in surreptitiously rebuilding the postwar German army.