Political Badges of the NSDAP

Huffman's 10 Axioms On How To Examine A German Badge

1. ALWAYS COMPARE APPLES TO APPLES. You now have this book in your hands. Use its photos to help you study a badge you find at a show if you do not already have a real one with you. It is sometimes difficult even for experienced collectors to note discrepancies if one badge is standing alone, with nothing to compare it.

2. REMEMBER GERMAN CRAFTSMANSHIP. The badge must be well crafted with intricate details. The political badges were made in quieter times, before the War, and this was not "trench art", but deliberately planned and monitored craftsmanship at all levels.

3. EXAMINE THE OBVERSE FIRST. Obvious, but true. If the obverse of the badge doesn't look right, it doesn't matter whether it has the right pin on the back or not. Every badge has some tell-tale "roadsigns" (which are mentioned in this book). Examine them critically.

4. EXAMINE THE REVERSE A LITTLE MORE CASUALLY. Pins broke off during wear and were resoldered. Some wearers had their own types of "IDs" or numbers stamped in the back for personal identification. Not that the reverse isn't important. . . it is, but it is secondary to the obverse.

5. IF IT LOOKS RIGHT EXCEPT FOR "JUST ONE THING": Read the discussion on "Variations" on following pages.

6. DEALERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO. Be kind to the dealer selling you the badge. He doesn't know everything. No one does. This hobby is filled with honest collector/dealers. It also has some dishonest ones. Your dealer may honestly feel the badge is real, based on his own personal knowledge. The honest dealer will also tell you he's not certain, if indeed he is not, and will encourage you to check it out elsewhere. He should always offer you a money-back guarantee, at least for a short period of time while you do your research.

7. WHAT DOES VET-PURCHASED MEAN? It means someone bought it from a vet who may have bought it from someone else. A notarized letter from the American sergeant who took it off Dr. Ley in 1945 is something else, however.

8. USE COMMON SENSE. You find a Golden Party Badge in pristine condition, and it is numbered "8", and is offered for $350. I don't think this point needs to be belabored, do you?

9. IF YOU ARE ABOUT TO BUY. Take your time. Examine it carefully. Check it with others whom you believe might know about it (always remembering they could be dead wrong). Ask for a money-back guarantee for a short period of time. Buy it if you like it and don't lose any sleep over it.

10. IF YOU ALREADY OWN IT. You now check it over and it doesn't look right. Don't panic. Don't rush to sell or give it away. Continue the checking process. If you actually like the badge, if you feel good about it even though you now question it, keep it in your collection. The world will not end.

A Word About "Variations"

In all of the discussion about Third Reich badges and decorations - whether or not they are real or fake or "variations" - I think there is one person everyone is overlooking... Adolf Hitler.
Some historians say Hitler was the world's greatest orator. Some say he was the greatest politician. (The word "great" does not connote "good" but "exceptionally successful".)
I have a different thought. I believe he was the greatest "Rewarder of Men."
The children of the 1960s claim they founded the "me" generation. Adolf Hitler founded the "we" generation. He, alone, made the Nazi movement a "we" movement. In doing so, he discovered the idea of badges and decorations as rewards - as substitute religious objects - and he pinned them on the chest of everyone in sight: the big man (Goering), and the little man (the anonymous SA man in the rally.)

And like the lonelyheart who says to a lover "Whisper in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere," Hitler did just that to his followers. He pinned his badges on their chests and they followed him everywhere, even to Gotterdammerung. These badges and decorations were important to Hitler. He wanted them made with precision, with magnificent Germanic flair for exquisite detail. And, considering the fact that he thought of himself as one of the greatest artists of the world, he not only reserved to himself the right of veto on the design of most decorations, he actually personally designed some of them.

To further illustrate this point, an issue of ORDEN-MILITARIA-MAGAZIN, published in Germany and the authentic historical German medal and order journal, in 1982 presented the complete history of the creation of the Coburg Badge. It was originally designed by the Burgermeister of Coburg in 1932 and the design was submitted to Hitler for his "ideas" and "changes, if any". Hitler did make changes and notations and the design of the Coburg Badge you see today was his final version. This drawing has been preserved.

And that brings us to today's militaria collector or dealer in the U.S. who says he has a variation of any of these finely detailed badges. A variation? What can he mean? Does he mean some idiot in a manufacturing plant - a plant authorized by Hitler's regime to produce the badge to a specific design - decided, on his own, to change the design of the leaves on the Golden Party Badge? Perhaps to put a little ridge on them to make them fancier? Or is he thinking of some small-time Nazi politician, who, passed over for a Blood Order, has his jeweler brother-in-law design one for him - slightly different, of course- so he can wear it in the parade down the streets of Munich?

The above questions are not facetious! Where, we must ask, do today's collectors, 50 years after the events, think their "variations" come from? It is a very real question!

The collector today who insists his "variation" is correct, solely because he thinks it is so, reminds me of the Ugly American Tourist. (I was on a visit to Germany a few years ago and saw some of those types of American tourists. We arrived at the ancient and magnificent city of Worms, on the Rhine, and as we stood silently in awe, admiring the ancient architecture and thinking of the city's history, we heard one absurd cameraclad tourist make this statement: "Seems like they could have chosen a different name other than Worms. . . ugh.")
Americans sometimes think they have the only answer to language.

And sometimes they think they have the only answer to the Third Reich decorations. If they don't like what they hear, they invent a reason to differ. (One well-known [but sometimes not highly regarded] collector/dealer in the U.S. cleverly coined a new phrase for me when I questioned some of his badges. He called them "non authorized versions, but real, O.K.)

I think it is time for all militaria collectors to grow up in this hobby and admit that perhaps it is time to go back to basics. If we continue to insist on "variations" then we are only kidding ourselves.

This does not mean there were not different types of the same badge - it does mean that once a design was standardized for a Type, rarely, if ever, did it vary. (Yes, I'm aware the "variations" actually began in Europe as the War ended. I'm just disgusted with the fact that so many American collectors have blindly followed the "variation" path without taking the time and trouble to do any research on the subject.)

The only variations I agree to believe in are variations caused by wear. In the case of the Golden Party Badges, there is some justification in the fact that the silver may wear off of the border around the swastika revealing the brass underneath, but even in this instance I believe it is reaching to believe it happened often. And of course while on the GPBs, it is true that the pins broke on the back and were replaced with sturdier ones.

We must remember that the Nazis were so serious about order, discipline, and following the rules, that they invented the RZM (Reichszeugmeisterei) for that very purpose in 1934, to exercise strict controls over the manufacture and quality control of Party items. One must also remember that these political badges were not created during the War - they were not trench art - and were designed by careful artists (Hitler notwithstanding) and manufactured according to the most strict procedures.

So if no one approved of variations, where does one go to find out what the badges really looked like? I decided the best place to find out about the real Nazi badges were in the period books and documents of the time, where the badges were actually reproduced in detail.

Mickey Huffman "Hitler's Favorite Political Badges and Decorations", The Promethian Press, 1990