Scowen

I didn't realise until just now that these come in different sizes 20mm & 23mm Cheers Don

New one in today, marked to Assmann.

I wonder whether this medal was given to the observers at the election. As with elections today I imagine that international representatives were sent/invited to check that it had been performed correctly. Cheers Don

Koj is your man for this stuff, but I don't know if he visits any longer. As far as I'm aware these patches were worn by officals on the left breast of the track suit top. You can also find them with "Sportamt" & "?bungswart" written on them. Cheers Don

I'm sorry to say that #45 in 1943 wasn't issued either. For some reason none of the 8 numbers between #37 & #47 were awarded that year. In fact looking at the early double figure numbers for all the years (1941-1944), quite a number do not seem to have been issued for some unknown reason....... Sorry Don

This is very irritating as I've seen this symbol before quite recently & I can't remember where!!! Let me think on it.......

Sorry for coming in so late Robert Indeed a very interesting piece you found there & I would tend to agree with your assessment, a rare find I would think. Cheers Don

Excellent Any chance of a picture of that add from the web page? Cheers Don

The symbol is the the head of Pallas Athene, godess of the arts. First used in 1933 for the first day of German art (15th Oct), it is more usually associated with the opening of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich on the 16th July 1937. The badge Rick mentions is the tinnie issued to celebrate the event "Tag der Deutschen Kunst" 16th-18th July 1937. What the fork is for is anyones guess. Could be cutlery from the cafeteria for the visitors, or , from the celebration meal at the opening (if there was one) or just sold as mementos........ Cheers Don

It's the 1939 version of the Schwaben HJ games tinnie. The 1938 version is basically the same but in silver with the name of the games on it. Cheers Don

Reverses.

Hi Greg, Thanks for posting your badge. As I expected a nice fine original, just unissued (I haven't seen any evidence that they have been copied yet but I do like to check just in case ). All of these are hard to find & quite rare, issued pieces are doubly hard to locate....... Here are a few that I've been lucky to find recently. All of these were issued (to different contestants).

Forgot to say, yes the badge was generally (but not always) worn on the right breast pocket. Which book do have which shows the badge? Cheers Don

Sorry for the delay Greg, been away in Munich for a few days. Below is the requested image, #1185 is an un-issued piece I'm afraid, the theory is these were either picked up by passing GI's or released onto the market after being found in storage. A majority of these badges in collections are from this "hoard", issued pieces are very hard to find. The higest issued 3 year number is in the #801. Do you have a picture of badge #1185 please? Following many enquiries with archives throughout Germany since July last year, I've now managed to obtain further lists of Meistersch?tze badge numbers for the previous years. I now have the names of all those who received badges in 1941. Unfortunately it seems that only the names, not the badge numbers were recorded in that year. However following hours of painstaking cross referencing, I have managed to find the badge numbers for 431 of the 748 names I have recorded for 1941 using documents from the following years. I also have all of the recorded badge numbers for the years 1942 through 1944 plus the complete list of numbers for the issued 3 year badges!!!! Great photo Terry.

Providing you give full credit to the book & author that you've scanned the image from it will be OK.

Very little seems to be known about either the organisation or the badges. What little is known is generlly taken from Cone's book "One People, One Reich", however it's now agreed that the book is not accurate in all areas. A good example is the Heims Ins Reich badge which he describes as a sympathisers badge, when in fact it's the membership badge of the Luxembourg fascist party "Volksdeutsche Bewegung" (VDB). He also states that no postwar examples have been found with the name Saarlautern on them, which may have been correct at the time, but certainly isn't now (see below). It's certainly a badge/organisation that needs further study, but where to begin? Possibly the German archives? Here is a fake Saarlautern badge, the pin plate gives it away, however with aging & the correct style plate someone purly using Cone's guide could possibly be taken in. I can't tell from the image whether the lettering is raised or not..... The obverse. The enamelling looks poor & the pebbling indistict, but this could be the lighting. If the seller of this pin wasn't convinced it was original & hadn't refused to drop his price I would have picked it up for closer study.....

Hi Perce, Well it's a shame that it has to live all on it's own. If you get time, perhaps you'll post the cap badge in our "Fascism in Europe" forum, it could do with some Italian threads Cheers Don

Pete is correct that it's a youth badge. In particular it's a cap badge for the groups Balilla (8-11 year olds), Balilla Moschettieri (11-13 yrs), Avanguardisti (13-15 yrs) & Avanguardisti Moschettieri (15-17). The Giovani Fascisti (18-21 yrs) had a different cap badge I believe. The badge was sewn to the Fez . Cheers Don Balilla Avanguardisti

Third. Tall think letters on the maker mark again, but pebbling a lot more regimented. Still a different die to James' as can be seen by the pebbles in the top arm of the Swaz...... This one is very tired & dark, I've lightened it considerably to show markings.

Second. Tall thin letters on maker mark like James' but pebbling far more haphazard (couldn't get it lighter to see easier I'm afraid).

Picked up some of these the other week, all slightly different. First one fairly close to Robert's on the maker mark, but the pebbling looks a little different.

Some nice examples there James, thanks for sharing them with us.

Here's my pin

Good question Pete! I have one as well as a "thank you card". On some sites it's often linked to help for the East. I do know that the blue cornflower was worn as a covert symbol of support in Austria for the NS when the Swastika was banned. Whether it's to do with that I do not know.... Cheers Don

Indeed the last two are not tinnies. The DJ although referred to by collectors as the membership badge, I'm told is actually the cap badge of the Deutsche Jaegerschaft The second is a sort of Leistungsabzeichen I believe, there are documents that accompany them. They were also awarded at a special ceremony. Out of interest I assume that it's marked for Lehmann & Wundernberg, Hannover? I've been thinking of starting a thread on the variants of these over in the membership badge section. Cheers Don