Organisational Badges Danziger Luftschutzbund

[student]

Here a strange one.Not sure of it is a real one.

student

[student]

Reverse,"Danziger Luftschutzbund"

[Scowen]

These badges are quite controversial, some believe them to be a total fantasy item, others that they are exceptionally rare & that most found for sale are fake. Dealers certainly ask a high price for them......

As for myself, I believe that they did exist during the period, as a picture of a manufacturer's sample board in Angolia's book "Belt buckles & Brocades of the Third Reich" shown on page 40 clearly shows an example attached (this of course assumes that the board was not put together post war).

However as to which ones are genuine I'm not yet so sure. They seem to come with two types of pin fixing. The type shown here, pus a bar type (of which I do not yet have an image to show). There is no doubt that fakes exist, & many of these are poorly made, bad definition of the star etc.

For now here's my one which I found being sold for a reasonable price which is the only reason I took the chance.

Anyone else have one?

Cheers

Don

[Scowen]

reverse

[--dj--Joe]

No example to show. I have not taken the plunge.

I am of the opinion they period existed, no concrete proof though.

How the reverse should appear, not positive.

--dj--Joe

[BURGERHAUS]

Gents If memory serves, the example with the bar pin attachment set-up is unmarked. I remember seeing one offered for sale by the infamous Rolf/Williwo on another forum. It appeared to look original but the price was $125. I had previously owned one of the examples shown in this thread but no longer. I remember mine being extremely light in wheight for a badge of its'dimensions. Perhaps another member would have a bar pin example to show. Cheers Robert

[Nick]

I have seen many of these badges up for sale over the summer, which is never a good sign for a potentially scarce item. This has led me to steer clear of them because of a lack of knowledge over what is deemed original or fake.

Interestingly David Littlejohn's new (and sadly last) book <i>Protecting the Reich </i> shows this version as being the 1st type of design for the DLB. He mentions the second design in Oct 1938 matched that of the RLB with no differences, but to tell you the truth it is not very clear in his book because he seems to be referring to the eagle and star design of the Amtsträger badge ? He also mentions the possibility of an Amtsträger badge with a Royal Blue background instead of the above white, but no version has so far been recorded ? Considering the DLB had 42,000 members in 1933 there is every likelyhood that this badge existed, but it would be nice to see a photograph of one in wear to confirm it, especially considering the rest of the DLB uniform was identical to the RLB.

[Nick]

Here is the other pin design courtesy of Helmut Weitze

[Scowen]

Thanks Nick, I was wondering whether these were covered in the new book, I haven't got around to buying it yet

Cheers

Don

[Matthew Macleod]

The original example of this pin that I have seen, featured slightly uneven lettering to both sides. It was also individually numbered on the verso with a font resembling that of a Golden Party Badge. Also, the blue enamel filled the voids between the star's rays- those areas that have taken on a white/silver hue (plating?) on the above example.

Unmarked, with a "Ges. Gesch." on the verso. Even though the pin in question was a ground-dug example and not in the best of shapes, it did feature what appeared to be a translucent blue enamel surrounded by a opaque white one, like the one above.

To date, it was the only one that I believe was an original example of this badge. Unfortunately, it was not available for purchase.