My father gave this to me and said his grandfather took it off a German soldier during WW1. I was hoping to get some more info on it. There's two different dates on each side, so I'm wondering what time period it's from. Also, who is this awarded to and for what? Thanks in advance!
Edit:heres the other side
That's an iron cross second class (first class would have a pin on the backside instead of the band) from World War I. The back side (your first picture) references the original iron cross from 1813 established by the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III. (hence the FW initials and the symbol of the Prussian crown). On the front side is the year of the recommissioning of the award shortly after the start of the Great War, the initial of then monarch of Germany Wilhelm II. and also the Prussian crown because Wilhelm II. was emperor of Germany and king of Prussia.
As the band is black with white stripes it's the variant for combatants. It was awarded to about 5 million Prussians and allies of all ranks for heroism in the years of the war. I wrote Prussians here because this version of the iron cross was still a Prussian award, because the emperor only had the power to grant awards in his power as king of Prussia as awards could then only be granted by the countries making up the empire not the empire itself. The measure of what amounted to heroism changed quite drastically during the course of the war (Heinemann writes in translation: "The individual in this struggle was exposed to danger and exertion, that just holding out and doing your duty, amounted to heroism.") which led to the inflationary numbers of awards given out.
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