Organisational Badges Political Ribbon

[KDVR]

Interesting political ribbon - see the combination!

[Guest Rick Research]

And the BACK? :rolleyes:

[Paul R]

I am getting a bad vibe from this one..

[KDVR]

backside

[Guest Rick Research]

OK, these rather distant camera shots are not as helpful as if the ribbon bar was scanned, so reflections and patina render me uncertain about details I can't see clearly. The finish on the "Wehrmacht" eagle looks quite odd, but that may simply be the camera effect.

The "Wehrmacht 4 years service medal" ribbon in 5th place makes absolutely no sense, which was the first red flag. Even if that eagle was intended as an 18 years R.A.D. device (almost no ribbon bar outfitters had the correct eagle so the "close enough" army one was often used), THAT makes no sense since R.A.D./Party service was either/or not BOTH. I have never seen an R.A.D. officer wearing both-- right up to Konstantin Hierl.

There is ONE circumstance where that COULD have been possible-- if the wearer held an old Imperial army/navy IX years long service medal and had been called back up into the Wehrmacht (and ONLY the Wehrmacht) for the Second War. But that makes an award of the War Merit Cross WITHOUT swords impossible unless it had been earned BEFORE that-- since Wehrmacht members did not receive the civil without swords classes. Too many odd things need to have applied to force this Ribboned Biography into making sense.

The "Kleindekoration" for a Commander grade of the German Red Cross or Volkspflege Decoration in last place SHOULD be in front of the two 1938 "flowers campaign" medals. There are thousands of cast fake devices out there, but this one appears to be (distance and focus make me uncertain) a real device that has had every bit of black enamel picked out of the swastika. Quite a chore and one would wonder... why?

I cannot tell what the finish is on the NSDAP bronze eagle. Frankenstein bars almost invariably use never used 15 years silver devices PAINTED brown/bronze. If that is the case here, that would be the final nail in this one's coffin. No Third Reich ribbon bar device was painted.

I simply can't tell from these camera shots whether you have a good but damaged bar or a fraud using ever more clever parts.

BTW, have been looking at my own NSDAP long service ribbon bars and comparing them with scans I've made, and it is really hard from scans too, to "see" things as clearly as in hand. It is all but impossible to scan wear or corrosion that doesn't look like strangely surfaced bronze 10s. :beer: