Help identifying an old German medal

See the attached Iron Cross type medal with the 1812 date. My father had this and I believe he picked it up in WWII in Germany. Haven't had any luck doing internet searches and thought some of the regulars here might be up to the challenge. For scale it is about the size of a half dollar.

 

Not German, but Prussian...

Prussian medal for the Waterloo Campaign.
http://generalreevewargames.blogspot.com/2012/03/prussian-campaign-medal-for-1815.html
http://www.medal-medaille.com/sold/product_info.php?cPath=64&products_id=5499

 

Thanks. I had found other 1812 medals from other countries in searching but hadn't found this one. Guess this thing is almost 200 years old. Wish I knew the story behind it but my father is gone so I only have a general recall that he got this is Germany during WWII and I think someone gave it to him. He did make friends with some locals and treated some injured folks (medic).

 

It probably came from a German family or from a flea market . Many Germans had to sell their family belongings after 1945, just to have money for food. Of course many houses were damaged during the bombings and abandonned. When this happened , families left with essential belongings and souvenirs were left in the homes.
Intact objets were often found by children who in turn traded them for chocolate and cigarettes with allied soldiers looking for relics.
My own neigbour has a photo album that was thrown in the garbage and picked up by a child who traded it for food. One popular thing for soldiers was to go to antigue shops looking for souvenirs to bring back home.

 

The abandoned house or a family giving it to him seem most plausible or the trade scenario I have a nice letter some young woman sent to my grandmother thanking her for the treatment my dad gave her hand infection. Knowing my dad I am sure he never went into an antique shop and he didn’t venture out at all when he was awaiting transport home. He always told me he wasn’t going to get killed in an accident after surviving combat and that didn’t make made sense to me until I watched the last episode of Band of Brothers.

He definitely was a bit of a souvenir hound. Some of them I know the stories for: G-43 8mm, picked up in Normandy in June ‘44 and carried it with him the rest of the war; a 7.65mm Ortigies, won in a poker game and carried in his fatigue jacket for the duration; two Mausers, slave labor guy they fed got parts from the factory he worked in and gave enough to make two Mausers to my dad; and the usual stuff like German helmet, compass, bayonets, Nazi flag, canteens. I was the guy canoeing the boundary waters in 1976 with a WWII German canteen.

And just to go further off-topic, your kids trading objects reminded me off a story. My dad told me that after the war it was common for the kids to find and toss German grenades around like we would have played with cherry bombs. And men will be boys, so my dad and some others did the same until he pulled a potato masher of a shelf in a dark bunker and heard something click. Nothing blew up but he stopped doing that out of fear of booby traps.

Okay, end of rambling for now.

 

No need to apologize for sharing your father's stories. However, if you have any more to share (and I hope you do!), it would be better to post them in the What Granddad (or Dad!) Did in the War section.

PS: Nice medal! Thanks for sharing it here. Also, props to Takao and Skipper for the quick and thorough response. It seems I learn something new every day on this Forum.

 

According to a German website the Prussian '1815' medal was awarded to soldiers who fought in wars against the Emperor Napoleon and had not yet received a medal dated 1813 or 1814. So it is not 'Waterloo'-related.

 

Thank you for the clarification. While it is referred to as the "Waterloo Medal", the amended 1815 issue of the medal was awarded to all who fought in the war against Napoleonic France. Quote from a medal description found at the 2nd website linked in post #2: