page_title: Military Merit Medal (Austria-Hungary)
section_title: Post-World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Military Merit Medal (Austria-Hungary) / Post-World War I
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: Magyar Koronás Nagy Aranyérem kisdíszítménye
context_page_description: The Military Merit Medal was a military decoration of the Empire of Austria-Hungary. It was founded by Emperor Franz Joseph I on March 12, 1890. The Military Merit Medal is often referred to as the "Signum Laudis" after the inscription on the reverse of the medal.
context_section_description: The Military Merit Medal became obsolete with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in November 1918.  However, previously awarded medals continued to be worn by veterans in many of the successor states of the empire.  After the Anschluss in 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed the Austrian Republic, the Military Merit Medal and other Austro-Hungarian medals were often worn mounted German-style rather than on trifolds.  Equally, when the 1934 German The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 was extended to eligible Austrian and Czech military personnel after the Anschluss and the annexation of Sudetenland in 1938, it was also suspended from trifold-style ribbons in those countries.
  In Hungary, which was under the regency of Miklós Horthy, many imperial decorations were continued or revived in modified forms. One of these was the Signum Laudis, reestablished in 1922.  The Hungarian Signum Laudis replaced the Austrian crown with the Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen. The obverse featured the double cross of the Hungarian coat of arms and the reverse added the date 1922 below the words SIGNUM LAUDIS.  New ribbons were also introduced: a green ribbon for civil awards and a green ribbon with narrow white (inner) and red (outer) stripes for military awards.  A war ribbon was authorized in 1939 which reversed the colors of the military ribbon to red with narrow white (inner) and green (outer) stripes.
caption: Hungarian Gold Signum Laudis kleine dekoration
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