But calls to revive the famed Iron Cross to fill that gap have exposed how Nazi atrocities still haunt modern-day life in Germany.

As allies, including the United States, are pressing Germany to send more troops into the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, not only does the German Bundeswehr lack medals of valour, nor does it have anything for wounded soldiers.

Georg Martin, 83, a private in the German army during the Second World War, received a Wound Badge in silver for the three times he was severely injured, and an Iron Cross for fighting in a heavy machine-gun crew during the Battle of Kharkov in what is now Ukraine.

Once a year, on Volkstrauertag, the national memorial day, he dons replicas he purchased for a few Deutsche marks in 1959. Meanwhile, in a file with copies of his military hospital records are the original crosses, both bearing the swastika of the Third Reich.

The history of the Iron Cross, designed by the noted German architect and painter Karl Friedrich Schinkel, dates back to 1813 and the Prussian War of Liberation against Napoleon.

Because Hitler's government placed the swastika in the centre of the simple black and silver design and handed out millions of the medals in the Second World War, the award remains off-limits for today's army.

"The symbol was abused by the Nazis and, as a result, has also become a symbol for the crimes of the Wehrmacht during National Socialism," said Stephan J Kramer, secretary-general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Kramer said he believed that German soldiers deserved a medal for bravery, but it needed a new design.

"I don't think it will come back in that form," agreed Martin, who is active in the local German War Graves Commission. Speaking from his home in the Bavarian village of Ingenried last week, he said of soldiers fighting in Afghanistan: "Of course they should have something." But he added with a smile: "They could have something prettier."

Germany's defence minister, Franz Josef Jung, plans to request a new grade of the Cross of Honour for bravery, according to a spokesman, a citation that is awarded in bronze, silver and gold for five, 10 and 20 years of service, respectively. While, in exceptional cases, they can be awarded earlier for individual acts, Crosses of Honour are not considered medals of valour.

A revival of the Iron Cross is not under consideration, the spokesman said. That disappoints many, particularly in the military, who would like to see the Iron Cross revived as a symbol of pre-Nazi military tradition.

"The crimes of National Socialism took place under the swastika and not under the Iron Cross," said Siegfried F Storbeck, a retired lieutenant general living in Hamburg.

What frustrates Storbeck and other supporters of the Iron Cross is that they see it as having emerged from an era about which Germans could be proud.

"This was part and parcel of the famous Prussian enlightened reform era, which included, a year earlier in 1812, Jewish emancipation; legal rights for Jewish citizens," said Michael Wolffsohn, a professor of modern history at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich.

Oddly, while it is considered a political impossibility as a medal, the Iron Cross remains the symbol of the German army, emblazoned on everything from military vehicles to the defence ministry website.

"In the German culture it is simply not possible to express esteem for young soldiers," said Christoph Zuercher, a professor of international politics at the Free University in Berlin. Anti-militarism is a firmly centrist view in the political spectrum in Germany, he said.

Stefan Schroeter, a major in the army reserves, recalled a case during his deployment in Bosnia in 2003 in which the brakes failed on an armoured reconnaissance vehicle on a high mountain road. The driver of the vehicle behind it passed the out-of-control vehicle and stopped in front of it, risking his life and those of his crew members to save their comrades from hurtling off the side of the mountain.

Schroeter said that in a staff meeting, the soldier's commander said: "It's a shame that there isn't a decoration for bravery, or I would put him up for it."

The soldier received two extra days leave instead.