Order of the Black Eagle

The establishment of the order is directly related to giving Prussia kingdom status. In January 1701, the elector of Brandenburg Frederick III for the participation in the war for the Spanish inheritance on the side of Austria received from the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Leopold I the title "King in Prussia", and began to rule under the dynastic number "I", that is, under the name of Frederick I. Frederick I marked his coronation with the establishment of a new knightly order, the Black Eagle. The statutes of the order were issued on January 18, 1701 . The name and appearance of the signs of the order are closely connected with the royal dynasty of Prussia, since the eagle was the main element of the Hohenzollern dynastic coat of arms. As explained in the statutes, the adoption of the eagle as the basis for the name and badge of the Order was not caused by the ancient order of the knightly orders to accept a heraldic animal as its symbol, but because the eagle is a noble bird, king of the sky, a symbol of justice and a sign of the coat of arms of the Prussian crown ^[1] .

The grandmaster consisted of a king ; the sons of the king became the knights of the order at birth. Of the foreigners, the Order of the Black Eagle complained to the sovereigns and the highest state dignitaries ; German nationals - for military and civil merit. Signs of the order: a light blue eight-pointed cross with 4 black eagles in the corners and a FK cipher on the middle shield worn on a wide orange ribbon over the shoulder, and an eight-pointed silver star with a black eagle on the orange field and the slogan “ Suum cuique ”.

One class. It consists of signs : a cross, a star and a ribbon of a dark yellow color. The badge of the Order was worn on a dark yellow transfine tape (over the left shoulder) or on a golden chain; star on the left side of the chest.

The ribbon of the Order of the Black Eagle was granted to the Vyborg 85th Infantry Regiment on December 18, 1888 by the chief ( honorary commander ) of the regiment by the German Emperor Wilhelm II .

The image of the Grand Cross (one of the signs) of the order on the chain was placed on the national emblem of the German Empire (the Great Emblem of the Empire - the emblem of His Imperial Majesty).

• Order Eagle / / Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 tons. (82 tons and 4 additional.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• A. L. Khazin . Calendar 2018. The highest orders of Prussia (from the collection of Andrei Khazin). - Moscow, 2017. - p. 1. - 12 p.

• Order of the Black Eagle, Page of Yuri Yashnev.