This award document records the conferral upon Richard Ferdinand Böcking of the Royal Order of the Crown, 3rd Class, issued at the Neues Palais on 20 October 1893 and bearing the autograph signature Wilhelm R., King of Prussia. The recipient served as church warden of the German-Evangelical community in Antwerp, Belgium, embodying the type of civilian dignitary who received Prussian honors in the late nineteenth century for service to state and community.
The Royal Order of the Crown was instituted by King Wilhelm I of Prussia on 18 October 1861 at his coronation in Königsberg, the first coronation of a Prussian monarch since 1701. The foundation followed the death of his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV on 2 January 1861. The coronation ceremony itself carried profound symbolic significance: Wilhelm's predecessor had refrained from this holy act even though Prussia had possessed a constitution for the preceding decade. The coronation established the King as rightful ruler, sanctioned by God, positioned above the constitution, thereby forming a central moment in Prussian state ideology.
The order was awarded in four classes and worn on a cornflower blue ribbon. Officially the Crown Order was equal to the older Order of the Red Eagle, yet most officials preferred appointment to the latter. The Crown Order frequently served as an award for persons who required recognition while the Prussian government preferred not to use the Red Eagle. Awards were made for both civilian and military merits, with the various classes reflecting the level of distinction based on merit and rank of the recipient. Membership could only be conferred upon commissioned officers or civilians of approximately equivalent status, though there existed a medal associated with the order which could be earned by non-commissioned officers and enlisted men.
The 3rd Class was worn as a badge on a ribbon on the left chest. The badge consisted of a white enameled golden cross pattée with a gold avers medallion showing a royal crown, surrounded by a blue enameled ring bearing the motto GOTT MIT UNS. Over time three different models were identified: the first model from 1861 to approximately the end of 1862 featured a heraldic crown with highly vaulted crown arches; the second model from approximately early 1863 to the end of 1868 displayed a normal small heraldic royal crown; and the third model from early 1869 to the end of 1918 bore the large Prussian royal crown. According to research by Eric Ludvigsen, barely more than 1,200 awards of the 3rd Class in the second model with small crown were made until the switch to the third model. Ludvigsen provides for the regular Crown Order 3rd Class for the period 1861 to 1913 approximately 25,000 awards.
The present document dates from 1893, during the reign of Wilhelm II, who succeeded Wilhelm I in 1888 following the brief reign of Friedrich III. Richard Ferdinand Böcking was identified in genealogical records as born 12 February 1849 in Abentheuer, Germany, and died 11 December 1919 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. His occupation was merchant, and he resided in Antwerp where he held the position of church warden for the German-Evangelical community. This award recognized his service in this ecclesiastical function within the German diaspora community in Belgium.
Among notable recipients of the Crown Order was Robert James Lindsay VC KCB, 1st and last Baron Wantage of Lockinge, who received the 3rd Class with Cross of Geneva following the Franco-Prussian War for his work with the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk also received the 1st Class.
With the proclamation of the Republic in Germany on 9 November 1918, the conferral of the order was discontinued and the order ceased to exist. Award documents have survived as collectible historical items. Recipients or their families retained the documents; the physical insignia of orders were often subject to return obligations. Not least because of the obligation to return them, which particularly affected this award conferred on elderly domestic recipients, only few specimens have survived. The document market includes numerous examples of Prussian award certificates from the Imperial period.
