List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients

In 1986, the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR) acknowledged 7,321 presentations made to the members of the three military branches of the Wehrmacht—the Heer (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy) and Luftwaffe (Air Force)—as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD—Reich Labour Service) and the Volkssturm (German national militia).

[1] Analysis of the German Federal Archives revealed evidence for 7,161 officially—de facto and de jure—bestowed recipients, including one additional presentation previously unidentified by the AKCR.

The Swords to the Knight's Cross were awarded 160 times according to the AKCR, among them the posthumous presentation to the Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, 13 of which cannot be supported by the German Federal Archives.

The final grade, the Golden Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross was verifiably awarded once to Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 29 December 1944.

[7] The "Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds" is based on the enactment Reichsgesetzblatt 1945 I S. 11 of 29 December 1944.

Ultimately, it would be awarded to only twenty-seven German soldiers, sailors and airmen, ranging from young fighter pilots to field marshals.

The sequential numbers greater than 143 are unofficial and were assigned by the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR) and therefore denoted in brackets.

The deteriorating situation of the Third Reich during the final days of World War II has left the nominations unfinished in various stages of the approval process.

Hermann Fegelein had received the Oak Leaves in 1942 but was sentenced to death by Adolf Hitler and executed by SS-Gruppenführer Johann Rattenhuber's Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) on 28 April 1945 after a court martial led by SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS Wilhelm Mohnke.

[2] With the exception of Hermann Fegelein, all of the disputed recipients had received the award in 1945, when the deteriorating situation of the Third Reich during the final days of World War II left the nominations unfinished in various stages of the approval process.

[195] Günther Nowak, Hitlerjugend, was awarded the Knight's Cross on 14 February 1945 for the destruction of eleven tanks in Hindenburg, Oberschlesien.

It was always assumed that he was the youngest recipient of the Knight's Cross; however, Günther Nowak never really existed — a deserting Commander of the Volkssturm named Sachs was caught and claimed that, after the retreat of the Wehrmacht, he had destroyed five tanks single-handedly.

A silver framed black cross that has arms which are narrow at the center, and broader at the perimeter. In the middle of the cross is a swastika, an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles. On the lower arm of the cross are the number 1939 engraved. The cross is connected to a ribbon with a silver clip. The ribbon has a red central stripe, flanked in white and with a black edge stripe.