Kultur” Crosses: Allied Propaganda in Pendant Form
 crude cast-iron crosses appeared in Britain and the Commonwealth from late 1914 onwards, produced as satirical anti-German propaganda items. The deliberate use of the German spelling “Kultur” rather than the English “Culture” was the whole point of the joke, and to understand why, you need to understand how loaded that single word had become by 1915.
The “Kultur” propaganda war
In the opening months of WWI, German intellectuals and politicians repeatedly invoked “Kultur” as justification for the war, framing the conflict as a defence of superior German civilisation against the decadent West. The most notorious example was the “Manifesto of the Ninety-Three” published in October 1914, in which prominent German academics, scientists and artists defended German conduct in Belgium. Allied propagandists seized on the word immediately.
The trigger events were the German actions in Belgium during August and September 1914, particularly the burning of the medieval university library at Louvain (with its irreplaceable manuscripts), the shelling of Reims Cathedral, and the executions of Belgian civilians during what became known as the “Rape of Belgium.” To the Allied press, these acts made German claims of cultural superiority darkly ironic. “Kultur” became Allied shorthand for barbarism dressed up as civilisation, and cartoons in Punch and elsewhere relentlessly mocked the term.
The crosses themselves
 They were cheaply mass-produced, usually in cast iron or pot metal, deliberately crude in execution, and made to mimic the shape of the Prussian Iron Cross (the Eisernes Kreuz). The mockery was layered: the Iron Cross was Germany’s most prestigious bravery award, and reducing it to a cheap pendant stamped “FOR KULTUR” turned the symbol against itself. The implication was that the only thing Germany was decorating itself for was barbarism.
They were sold as novelties, fundraisers for war charities, and worn as lapel badges or pendants. Some were given out at recruitment drives, others sold for the Red Cross or Belgian Relief funds. The hanging loop at the top  indicates it was meant to be worn or displayed.