The makers mark W m w hard to see. The main stick pin was replaced in 1940s, I could polish but I like the patina on it. The Iron Cross (EK) was originally a Prussian, later German war decoration, which was introduced by the Prussian King Frederick William III. March 1813 in Breslau was founded in three classes for the course of the wars of liberation. [1] The first Iron Cross was awarded by Friedrich Wilhelm III. Personally to his deceased wife Luise posthumously. King Wilhelm I of Prussia repeated the founding of the Iron Cross with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War on 19 June 1841. Renewed in his capacity as Prussian King on 8. August 1914 the foundation again and through its broad awarding practice made the Iron Cross a quasi-German order.