It’s official: Germany is again allowed to brag about its military heroes.

A politically correct, newly minted version of the Iron Cross — awarded to German soldiers since 1813, but withdrawn after the Second World War — was pinned on the chests of four senior non-commissioned officers yesterday.

They had dragged comrades and children to safety after a suicide bomb attack in northern Afghanistan.

“In my trips to Afghanistan I have seen for myself the conditions under which these men have to serve,” Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, said at a ceremony attended by German military top brass in the Berlin chancellery. The award of the bravery medal — known as the Honour Cross, although it has the same shape as the Iron Cross — marks a breakthrough in the way that Germany sees itself.

Times Archive, 1813: Prussia's new order of merit

The Grand Cross can be obtained for gaining a decisive battle or the taking of a fortress

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Until now, Germans have done everything they could to avoid the impression that their soldiers were in the fighting business — indeed, after the Second World War it was constitutionally forbidden for the West German Army, the Bundeswehr, to serve in combat missions abroad. The only medals on offer were for good or long service, and even they resembled school prefects’ badges.

After unification, successive governments realised that the country could no longer avoid international peace-keeping missions.

The paraphernalia of heroism, however, was not in place: no regimental traditions, no flags bearing battle honours and no role models.

The four officers who received the Honour Cross yesterday had gone to the aid of a German patrol vehicle after it was attacked by a suicide bomber on October 20 last year.

The dangers facing them were real — two soldiers died in the blast and two were injured, along with a number of civilians. The incident happened ten days after the bravery medal was introduced.

It had not been an easy passage. Many argued that it was too similar in function and design to the Iron Cross — millions of which were awarded during the First World War, with Adolf Hitler one of the more prominent recipients.

The German Government is still studiously avoiding the word “war” in relation to Afghanistan, and the reason is plain: the Social Democrat Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, once clinched what seemed to be an unwinnable general election by opposing George Bush’s war in Iraq — mobilising German pacifists and leftwingers.

If the campaign in Afghanistan is upgraded, rhetorically, into a full-scale war, Ms Merkel will face problems getting a parliamentary mandate for German operations there — and she may well lose crucial votes at the September general election.

So German military heroes are welcome once again — as long as they remember not to mention the war.

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