The Pour le Mérite (Fr.: For Merit) was an order of merit  established in 1740 by King Frederick II of Prussia. The Pour le Mérite was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Order of the Red Eagle and the House Order of Hohenzollern, among the highest orders of merit  in the Kingdom of Prussia. After 1871, when various German kingdoms, duchies and principalities had come together under Prussian leadership to form the German Empire, the Prussian honours gradually assumed, at least in public perception, the status of honours of Imperial Germany, even though many honours of the various German states continued to be awarded.