Recipients of the Pour le M\u00e9rite (military class)

Friedrich Christiansen (12 December 1879 – 3 December 1972) was a German general who served as commander of the German Wehrmacht in the occupied Netherlands during World War II.
Christiansen was a World War I flying ace and the only seaplane pilot to receive the Pour le Mérite. He joined the Nazi Party in the interwar period, eventually rising to the rank of Korpsführer of the National Socialist Flyers Corps. After the German invasion of the Netherlands, Christiansen was appointed as the Wehrmachtbefehlshaber (Chief Military Commander) in the Netherlands. In response to attacks by the Dutch Resistance, he ordered reprisals against Dutch civilians such as the Putten raid. He was also responsible for the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 that resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians after ordering an embargo on all food transports to the western Netherlands. After the war, Christiansen was arrested and convicted of war crimes.

Hermann Köhl (15 April 1888 – 7 October 1938) was a German aviation pioneer and pilot of the first transatlantic flight by a fixed-wing aircraft from east to west.

Max Immelmann (21 September 1890 – 18 June 1916) PLM was the first German World War I flying ace. He was a pioneer in fighter aviation and is often mistakenly credited with the first aerial victory using a synchronized gun, which was in fact achieved on 1 July 1915 by the German ace Kurt Wintgens. He was the first aviator to receive the Pour le Mérite, colloquially known as the "Blue Max" in his honour, being awarded it at the same time as Oswald Boelcke. His name has become attached to a common flying tactic, the Immelmann turn, and remains a byword in aviation. He is credited with 15 aerial victories.