The Alsen Cross (or Alsenkreuz, in German) is a military medal of the Kingdom of Prussia established 7 December 1864 and commemorating the Prussian victory on 29 June 1864 during the Battle of Alsen.
Alsen is an island near the German border to which Danish forces had retreated. On the night of 29 June 1864, 2,500 Prussian troops crossed the Alssund in small boats and took the Danish lines, enabling a pontoon bridge to be built to bring up reinforcements. On 1 August, the Danish king renounced his right to Schleswig-Holstein in favour of Prussia and Austria.
The medal was initially awarded with two different suspension ribbons, for combatants and noncombatants. It was subsequently extended to those troops held in reserve at the battle and members of the Johanniter Orden who participated in the battle.
The Alsen Cross is made of bronze cross pattée with a laurel wreath between the arms and a loop for ribbon suspension.
The obverse shows a circular central medallion bearing the head of King Wilhelm I facing left, and the inscription ‘WILHELM KOENING VON PREUSSEN’. The reverse bears a circular central medallion with the crowned Prussian royal eagle in flight, a laurel wreath in its talons, above a small boat in the sea before a stone wall, a standard bearing the Iron Cross to the right on its stern, the upper, left, right and lower arms inscribed ‘ALSEN’, ‘29’, ‘JUN.’, ‘1864’ respectively.
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