# How do you feel about people wearing the Iron Cross?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-people-wearing-the-iron-cross/775487>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 23, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-people-wearing-the-iron-cross/775487 "2016-12-23T22:18:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-people-wearing-the-iron-cross/775487/41 "2016-12-26T20:39:23Z")

</div>

[Turns out it’s called a balkenkreuz.](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/crosses-illustration-set-different-kind-isolated-white-background-each-cross-entitled-35551219.jpg)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-people-wearing-the-iron-cross/775487/42 "2016-12-27T18:33:01Z")

</div>

Some of my great aunts and their friends used to wear collections of iron crosses and other German military insignia on their jackets, coats, or shawls for special occasions (especially funerals). They would tell us the stories of how every man who had originally worn those medals had died.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-people-wearing-the-iron-cross/775487/43 "2016-12-27T20:56:47Z")

</div>

> [@snfaulkner](#):
>
> It depends on if they actually earned it, and for what. If they didn’t earn it, then hey are us wannabe douchbags.

If the actual award, yes. But just the depiction of the cross itself, the Maltese Cross, which is what most Goths wear- meh.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-people-wearing-the-iron-cross/775487/44 "2016-12-27T21:26:41Z")

</div>

One of the more generally agreed-upon statements I’ve seen is that the Germans, no matter what you think of their actions or policies, had some pretty freaking awesome uniforms and decorations. Pointed hats, iron crosses, skulls, all in black leather and chrome.

It’s been over 70 years now. Absent any more direct evidence, assuming someone wearing an iron cross is a Nazi sympathizer is rather like assuming anyone wearing a pentagram worships Satan.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-feel-about-people-wearing-the-iron-cross/775487.md?page=2)