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    Hello Don, sorry for the late reply. Here's the reverse as requested. Do you have any info about the use of these?

    Cheers, Lars

    Hi Lars,

    Thank you for posting the reverse. It's a damn shame that the maker mark can't be read, I've often wondered who made them.

    I can't really provide much information about them. I've only seen KdF versions with the names of either "MS Wilhelm Gustloff" or "ES Robert Ley" on the lower part of the wheel. They can be found with various designs of flag on them (I'll post three of mine), until now I have not seen one with a maker mark or without a name on the front.

    As to their use, according to JR Cone in his booklet "One People, One Reich", these were Crew members badges for the Yachts presented to Hitler, the "Eva", "Geli Raubel" & "Robert Ley". However there is no reference as to where he obtained this info & we now know that there are many mistakes in the book.

    Angolia shows a couple of examples in his book "Labour Organisations of the Third Reich" & also lists them as crew members badges, but makes no other reference to them.

    Personally my own feeling is that they were souvenir pins sold to the tourists on the KdF Cruise ships, but that is purely a theory.

    Here's the first of mine a Gustloff with Party Flag.

    Cheers

    Don

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    Good morning Don.

    It was really interesting to see your 3 variants, beautiful pieces. I don't really collect 3 Reich, but I pick up the different organization pins and related items like these when I see them at reasonnable prices. When looking at your 2 different Gustloff I assume your therory about souvenir pins sold to the tourists on the KdF Cruise ships makes sense.

    They are obviously made by the same company so when I get the time I'll try to play a little with a camera to try to get the maker.

    Cheers, Lars

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    Hello Don, just found this picture in my archive. It appeared on a local internet auction appr. a year ago and I kept the pic. The quality cannot be better as this is the original picture. Just for your amusement! Wonder how many different there is?

    Regards, Lars

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    Thank you Dan, it's a pleasure.

    Lars,

    Thank you for posting this last picture. The colour of the white worries me as it look "too white" if you know what I mean, also the quality of the enamel doesn't look as good as the others. However, this could just be down to the poor quality of the image...

    Cheers

    Don

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    • 4 years later...
    • 3 weeks later...

    My thought is souvenir at least the one I have. It is incredibly light weight unlike say your average membership badge. No one can really know for sure. Maybe someday they will pop-up in an obscure catalogue. Come to think of it, I have a few KdF magazines loaded with ads for diferent trips, etc. Perhaps there are souvenir ads? Not a better thing to do on A saturday night. I will just have to fib on Monday when someone invariably asks me what I did over the weekend!!

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    • 2 years later...

    Hi

    I am new to this forum, and would like to introduce myself.

    I am a collector of ship wheel enamel pin badges, and have noticed on this site a few mentions of a badge for the ship        Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Leys.

    Would any one know where I could purchase one or more of these items for my collection.

    Your help would be appreciated

    Regards

    Bill Hoffman

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    • 4 months later...

    Hi guys !

    I only have 5 of them but what I can say is that the one is the marine flag and Kiel at the bottom is original. The Name of the town KIEl is written by hand with enemal paint which is today to expensive to do. I also have one with KIEL with the party flag instead of the marine flag.

    Regards

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    • 2 months later...

    This may be slightly off topic, but the producer of these badges have been discussed. This one, for a Swedish company, is so close in design and appearance that I would say it most likely the same produce. It's not mine, I have taken the picture from a auction site, and do not have a photo of the reverse, but it's described a beeing marked Sporrong and Co, a well known Stockholm based producer of badges and such. Just a thought!

     

    5a37afaea7455_SvenskaAmerikaLiniensSSDrottningholmSporrongCodia25cmstortilGMIC.jpg.67149ff4b849156e7eb2ac37de8b80e0.jpg

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    • 2 weeks later...
    On 24/11/2009 at 08:06, Scowen said:

     

     

    Hi Lars,

     

    Thank you for posting the reverse. It's a damn shame that the maker mark can't be read, I've often wondered who made them.

     

    I can't really provide much information about them. I've only seen KdF versions with the names of either "MS Wilhelm Gustloff" or "ES Robert Ley" on the lower part of the wheel. They can be found with various designs of flag on them (I'll post three of mine), until now I have not seen one with a maker mark or without a name on the front.

     

    As to their use, according to JR Cone in his booklet "One People, One Reich", these were Crew members badges for the Yachts presented to Hitler, the "Eva", "Geli Raubel" & "Robert Ley". However there is no reference as to where he obtained this info & we now know that there are many mistakes in the book.

     

    Angolia shows a couple of examples in his book "Labour Organisations of the Third Reich" & also lists them as crew members badges, but makes no other reference to them.

     

    Personally my own feeling is that they were souvenir pins sold to the tourists on the KdF Cruise ships, but that is purely a theory.

     

    Here's the first of mine a Gustloff with Party Flag.

     

    Cheers

    Don

    Gustloff.jpg

     

    On 29/05/2017 at 15:58, williamhoffman said:

    Hi

    I am new to this forum, and would like to introduce myself.

    I am a collector of ship wheel enamel pin badges, and have noticed on this site a few mentions of a badge for the ship        Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Leys.

    Would any one know where I could purchase one or more of these items for my collection.

    Your help would be appreciated

    Regards

    Bill Hoffman

     

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    • 2 years later...

    large_Pins.jpg.58ea38519c1c05ca141d8288284bc704.jpgMorning all,

    Every so often, I check back here to see if anyone is posting these for sale. As Mr. Hoffman does, I am also seeking out Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley pins, tallies, etc for the online museum collection. The KdF version of the Robert Ley pin is one I am still missing. To answer another questions I saw, these ship specific ones were sold onboard the Gustloff and Ley in their gift shops before WWII broke out.

    In regards to makers marks however, I went to look at the backs of my pins and I have one with the HAPAG flag and HAPAG underneath it. The back is marked - GES, GESCH. A quick search found this: Ges. Gesch as an abbreviation of Gesetzlich Geschutzt, some several other markings or stamps can verify a piece as being of German origin. If anyone was interested, my souvenir collection for the Gustloff is linked below.

    Regards,

    Eddie

    https://www.wilhelmgustloffmuseum.com/souvenirs.html 

    Edited by MSWilhelmGustloff
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    8 hours ago, MSWilhelmGustloff said:

    In regards to makers marks however, I went to look at the backs of my pins and I have one with the HAPAG flag and HAPAG underneath it. The back is marked - GES, GESCH. A quick search found this: Ges. Gesch as an abbreviation of Gesetzlich Geschutzt, some several other markings or stamps can verify a piece as being of German origin.

    Admittedly my knowledge on the subject is not where it should be but are we really sure that Hamburg America Line was the maker of aforementioned pins? Seems like a lot of work for a shipping enterprise vs ordering the pins from established pin/medal/award maker.

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    I don't think it necessarily means that Hamburg America Line made them, I think it just means they were made in Germany - at least that's what I took from it. The markings are on the pin clasp and not the back of the ship wheel itself. I just found it interesting that after many said they could not find markings on the backs of these, I had one that was clearly stamped. 

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