German State RZM M1/122 I.Deutschbein G.m.b.H

[Jock Auld]

Guys,

 

I said the dodgey HJ badge has cost me 20 bucks so I owe it €20 of research but I am making no headway at all.  The town of Euskirchen during the war was not that big and I suppose survived relatively unscathed.  I have tried various searches for the above mentioned business that given its G.m.b.H. status would have been a successful small business, to give comparison today you need to clear €25k profit to even apply so it should be noteable within the town history.  To be fair there is not much on line.  Of note though is that there is a street named Agnes Deutschbein Strasse in the town so I wonder if the person was anything to do with this firm.  I shall contact the town museum to see if they have any details about the size of the business at that time.  If it was sizable and were successful then it would be fair to assume they had good equipment and tools ie good dies etc.

 

Being an M1 retailer and looking at the margin they would have to achieve as I am assuming which may be wrong but I would have thought the expected turnover of a firm GMBH would be comparable to todays standards?  I don't have that historical data but it would be a lot of badges if that was all they were making so I presume they made other things too?

 

Here's the thing though, I have not found a single considered to be original badge manufactured by this company, my question is does anyone have one out there and a picture of its markings?   I know it is only day one and I will do more searching but it just seems odd that if they were granted the M1 status that I can't find a badge so marked.  There are a lot of SS skulls that tip up on search but they are universally deamed fake so I am wondering exactly what did they make?

 

Lastly there are 3 names listed in the phone book in this town but I think it would be very rude to 'cold call' these folk on the off chance they are in some way connected to the wartime business, I would not want to cause offence.

 

Any suggestions gratefuly recieved.

 

Cheers

[Auseklis]

My google seems to better then yours...

 

http://www.industrie.lu/deutschbeinechternach.html

[Jock Auld]

My google seems to better then yours...

 

http://www.industrie.lu/deutschbeinechternach.html

Yours is better! I even made sure it was google and not that Bing thing.  I put he firm name, location and variations etc in and nothing comes up how did you do that have you any tips?

 

Thanks

Edited February 20, 2015 by Jock Auld

[Jock Auld]

Well straight away there is my first goose chase!  It is in actual fact J. Deutschbein. not I. Deutschbein as listed on all of the RZM lists that seem to be available to collectors!

[Auseklis]

I just googled "deutschbein gmbh" INCLUDING the quotation marks.

About the J/I matter: Remeber the problems so many people have with ID (Infantrie Division) wich appear as JD on german dogtags.

[Jock Auld]

Guys,

 

A bit more digging, I can't post links so I have done screen shots and if anyone wants to look further the address bar is visable.

 

The Genaral gist of things is that they are 1970s copies as a lot turned up then and were quite inexpensive, also the BM1/ part of the logo was never issued according to the RZM records that survive and lastly as yet I have found no reference to the emmbeded number 11 under the M on the RZM logo.

 

I have found an excellent site about the RZM and it is visable in the screen shots.  Of note is the fact that there does not seem to be much original surviving documentation on the RZM post 1939ish so that is half of its life and what does exist is by no means complete.  Another thing I found interesting was that small 11 embedded and it no doubt gives weight to the fantasy aspect of the badge as it has no function and did not exist in any shape or so I thought, except in the Betriebskontrollamtes der RZM (see image from  http://reichszeugmeisterei.npage.de/betriebskontrollamt-rzm/fuer-betr-und-vk-st.html).  Of note was the fact that a licence was issued anually and could be revoked at any point so the common list of makers to badge may be inherantly flawed as again on the above mentioned site there are examples of prosecution of defaulters that would in end effect result in their licence being pulled.  Quite a lot of gaps in the RZM history.  I will do some more digging as it would be useful to know who in the 70s were producing this copy.  Does anyone have a catalouge from then that may include any examples?

 

Images lifted from Militaria-Zeitschrift, Militaria fund Forum and lastly and best: http://reichszeugmeisterei.npage.de/

 

It seems I can do links again!

Edited March 7, 2015 by Jock Auld