Three Views of the Blood Order

How to identify a fake Blood Order!

One of the rarest of the Third Reich political medals, the Blood Order, is one of the most widely reproduced. More properly identified as the "Ehrenzeichen vom 9.November 1923" (Decoration of November 9, 1923) it was originally created to honor the 800 or so members of the 1923 Putsch. (Incidentally, if you can find a copy of the 1933 edition of DAS BUCH DER NSDAP by Espe, you'll see some of the most remarkable period pictures of the putsch ever published.)

A few months ago I published in DG an ad asking for the loan of a real Blood Order for this article. Someone kindly responded. Meanwhile, John Pepera of Parma, Ohio, wrote me with some very interesting information that I do not believe has been published before, which I'll share with you and which could have a dramatic effect on the value of some Blood Orders! Just goes to show you that this can really be a fraternal group of collectors who share with one another for the common knowledge of all! (Also, Ed Zemaitis of Woodhaven, N.Y. sent me his real Blood Order which was fun to examine because it belonged to an SS photographer!)

Before sharing John Pepera's information, let's review the medal's history. It was struck in two versions, Type I and Type II. The design of the medal was ordered by Hitler from jeweler Josef Fuess of Munich. An initial order of 50,000 was entered but later withdrawn when 20,000 had been struck by the firm of E. Schmidhaussler of Pforzheim. Suddenly nothing more was heard of Josef Fuess, could he have been Jewish? At any rate, his name disappeared from type II when it was struck. Type I was awarded to the 800 or so people who were in the putsch attempt. The obverse features an eagle on a wreath with the date to the right. On the reverse is the Feldherrnhalle monument with a rising swastika over it. An issuance number is 'normally' below this (more on this feature in a moment) with the silver content number "990" and "J. FUESS MUNCHEN" at the lower rim. It is approximately 22mm thick and weighs 22.9 grams. Type II has only the silver content of "800" and the issuance number. It is about 1mm thicker than Type I but weighs only 17.5 grams. In addition to the thickness and weight differences, and the fact that Fuess' name has been omitted, the eagle's beak is shorter on Type II in its down-turned portion.

Note that some Blood Orders have no serial number, however, that's the part that John Pepera revealed to us. He owns the original handwritten Blood Order recipient listing and it shows that Hitler's Blood Order had no number, but neither did that of Schaub, Schwarz, Goring or Streicher! With the possible exception of Hitler's, Blood Orders without numbers are rarely seen.

In fairness, there is a serious discrepancy concerning at least the numbering of Hitler's Blood Order.

Mohawk Arms, one of the premiere auction houses, located in Utica, N.Y., believes it has Hitler's tunic with his Blood Order pinned to it, and it is undeniably numbered "1". (There is, of course, also the possibility that an unnumbered Blood Order is something along the lines of a "salesman's sample" without any number.) We don't know the answer to that idea, but isn't it interesting?

Here are some of the ways to identify the fakes. According to the Institute of Order Science, there are more than 21 varieties of fake Blood Orders in circulation! If you think you have a real one, turn to the reverse and look at the words "UND IHR HABT DOCH GESIEGT" (And yet you have conquered). The "I" looks like an English "J" but no matter. Look at the ray coming from the swastika. It should actually touch the lower left leg of the "H" in "IHR". And the second ray to the right of the center ray which comes up from the swastika should intersect the "D" in "DOCH" on the bottom left corner, not slightly to the right.

Now look at the Feldherrnhalle monument. It was a sacred building built in 1840-44 and patterned after the Loggia del Lanzi in Florence and its three statues were erected in honor of the heroes of the Franco-Prussian War. The statures are by Schwanthaler. The statue on the left is of Count Tilly, the one on the right is Prince Wrede, both Bavarian generals. The statue in the center is a victorious Bavarian Army warrior with helmet, rising his standard in the left hand and encircling and protecting Bavaria-- in the form of a beautiful maiden with a chaplet of leaves around her head-- with his shield grasped in his right hand. It is a magnificent, triumphant statement and jeweler Fuess reproduced it all with stylized intricacy.

In many of the fakes, the statues appear to be nothing more than blobs of pot metal. The lions flanking the steps often look like pigs of solder and often have large metal daubs that pass for full manes. In the real Blood Order the lions and their manes are sleek. Likewise, the two stylized Regenbogen on the frieze above the portals each feature four almost microscopic architectual "points" that are amazingly discernible under a glass.They are not just blurry round balls of metal. And all entablature features are perfectly finished off in great detail in the real medal.

Finally, a word about the value of this medal. Recent ads in this magazine and other sources have featured' medals, with documentation, from $3,000. up. Adrian Forman's book GUIDE TO THIRD REICH GERMAN AWARDS AND THEIR VALUES pegs the value of Type I medals at from $1,000. to $1,500.; Type II from $600., both of these with their original ribbons. So, the chances of you finding a real Blood Order at a 'garage sale are slim, what with 21 types of reproductions floating around. If you do locate one it will be a great find! Good luck!

Mickey Huffman

Two Blood Orders Number One?

When I unpacked a large collection of relics that once belonged to former SA Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Brueckner, Hitler's Chief Adjutant, I got more than I bargained for. His son had listed a Blood Order in the inventory, but I was astounded when I saw the medal bore the stamped number "1". As many collectors know, there is already a Blood Order with serial number "1" in the possession of Mohawk Anns. The question which may now be logically asked is: "Which Blood Order is real?" First, let us consider the Blood Order owned by Mohawk Arms. This medal was part of a large collection of relics taken from Hitler's Munich apartment by former Lt. Phillip Ben Lieber at the end of the war. It is unusual in that the serial number is hand engraved not stamped. Some collectors have wondered about this anomaly, even suggesting that the number was added post-1945. However, such speculation is completely without foundation. I knew Phillip Ben Lieber and I personally inspected and photographed his entire collection in 1959, long before it came to the attention of collectors and dealers. When Lieber first showed me the Blood Order now owned by Mohawk Arms, it was already marked with the number "1". When I saw the Blood Order again two years ago, I recognized it as the one I saw and photographed in 1959. There is, therefore, no question that the Blood Order number "I" now in the possession of Mohawk Arms is genuine. How, then, could Brueckner have been in possession of another Blood Order number "I"? Klaus Patzwall's, DAS EHRENZEICHEN YOM 9. NOVEMBER 1923, provides a logical explanation. According to Patzwall's research, the Blood Order given to Hitler was issued without number. The author suggests that the Blood Order bearing the stamped number "1" was originally intended for Ernst Roehm. (There is a blank beside serial number "1" in the official list of recipients.) As there seems to exist no photograph of Roehm actually wearing a Blood Order, it is likely that he was shot before the medal was given to him. If this was the case, the Blood Order intended for Roehm undoubtedly was withdrawn from issue, ending up in someone's desk drawer or safe with all the other Blood Orders originally intended for those shot or dismissed during the Roehm Purge of 1934. The most logical person to have come into possession of these revoked awards was Brueckner, the ranking man on the commission appointed by Hitler to award the Blood Orders, number "1002" was included in another large collection of Brueckner items purchased by Bob Kraus many years ago. According to the list in Patzwall's book, this Blood Order was intended for a Franz Kastcnberger, a former member of the SA-Regiment Munchen, the unit commanded by Brueckner during the 1923 Putsch. It is not known for sure, but perhaps Kastenberger suffered the same fate as Roehm. In any case, Brueckner came into possession of at least two Blood Orders, number "1" and "1002", neither originally intended for him. (According to the list in Patzwall's book, Brueckner's own Blood Order was number "7".) With Roehm dead, Blood Order number "I" was unissued, and his name was removed from the list of recipients, leaving a blank beside that number. It must have been decided that this prestigious number be reassigned to someone, and if this were the case, the number could have gone to no one other than Hitler himself.

Therefore, it may safely be theorized that Hitler's previously unnumbered Blood Order was later hand engraved with the serial number "1", the condition in which it was found by Lieber in Hitler's apartment in 1945. No other explanation makes any sense.

Which Blood Order number "I" is real? The answer is that they both are!

Ben Swearingen

The Blood Order

The Blood Order was instituted in March of 1934 and was awarded for loyal participation in Hitler's attempted "Bear Hall Putsch". There are two distinctive types of this decoration, the earlier type 1, and the later issued type 2, to use collector's terminology. The first type was initially awarded for service as stated above and in certain circumstances for rendering an outstanding service that benefited the Nazi Party. The second type was basically the same as the first type except for the absence of the manufacturer's trade mark and a lowering of the silver content from "990" as on type one, to "800". The reverse of both types are identical. The type one medals are all serial numbered from "I" through "1500". Not all of these first 1500 pieces were awarded. In addition to these first 1500 numbered pieces there were at least 5 pieces with no serial number. Such a piece was given to Adolf Hitler and four others, In addition to these there were 3 pieces awarded with "0" serial numbers. I have not been able to discover the purpose of these, Blood Order number "335" was the first one with its serial number impressed on the obverse side of the medal directly below the Feldherrnhalle monument.

Directly below this number is the "990" silver content, and below that the manufacturer's logo "J. Feuss, Munchen". This first type lies loosely in its compartment case along with the ribbon in the same compartment.

The case is dark burgundy simulated leather. The date "8.9. November 1923" is embossed in gold on the case lid and there is also a gold border around the top edge of the lid. The reverse of the case has a paper tag with the serial number of the medal printed in pale blue letters.

Alfons Brundl was born on March 16, 1909 and joined the Hitler Youth at age 13. At 16 he joined the SA and remained a member until 1931. One March 27, 1931 Brundl joined the SS and on December 12, 1934 was awarded Blood Order number "335", Brundl had many aspirations as a loyal Party member and was very active in Party Organizations usch as; Peoples Welfare Associtation, The Reich Air Patrol, The Association for Physical Exercise, The Reich Cultural Organization, Reich Music Association and was propaganda chief for local party group Glockenbach. In 1940 at the age of 31, SS Sutrmman Brundl died in action. His Blood Order was brought home after the war by an American Serviceman.

John Pepera

All 3 articles published in DER GAULEITER, 1989

Hitler's Gold Party Badges

The most valuable Golden Party Badges in the world changed hands in April in Hamburger, Germany, for more than $15,000 They were a 23.5 mm badge and a 30.5 mm badge belonging to Adolf Hitler and numbered "7". Their appearance solved a mystery regarding the numbering of Hiter's badges.

Oh, but you say you had read that Hitler gave Magda Geobbels his personal Golden Party Badge in the bunker just before the fall of Berlin. He did. And that one was made of solid gold, and it disappeared, probably forever, in the flames covering her body in the bunker yard.

These two recently surfaced badges belonged in the collection of Elfriede and Leo Raubal, the children of Angela Hitler, a daughter of the marriage of Alois Hitler (Adolf's father) with Franziska Merlelsberger. She kept house for her half brother Adolf until 1936. Her second daughter, Angela (Geli) was Hitler's great love, who committed suicide.

Before attempting to clarify the differences between real and fake Golden party badges, there are some other discrepancies that need our attention, referring to the number on Hitler's badge and, indeed, his ranking in the Party.

First, on page 236 of Volume l of "Mein Kampf", Hitler states; So I enrolled myself as a member of the German working class party and received provisional membership card with number "7".

The golden party badges belonging to Elfriede and Leo bear the number "7", and have been thoroughly authenticated. They came into the market with a large horde of very personal items belonging to the family, including Geli's personal photo album, itself extremely rare and valuable.

The appearance of these badges solves some puzzles.

In his excellent reference book for Fuhrer and Fatherland, Political and Civil Awards of the Third Reich, Ltc. Angolia points out that party members up to number 100,000 (who had uninteripted service from February 27, 1925 toNovember 9, 1933) received the Golden Party badges on that November 9, the 10th anniversary of the Munich Beer Hall putsch.

Hitler received these two badges. They are numbered "7" and are bronze with fire-gilding and enamelled center. On the plate of the pins is the marking ''Deschler & Son, Munich 9. GES. GESCH.'' and, of course, the number "7".

According to Geil's mother, Hitler donated these badges to the Party several years later (presumably he or Treasurer Schwarz actually gave them to Geli's mother as a memento), and in exchange Hitler received two new Golden Party badges of solid gold. These were almost certainly renumbered "7", one of which he gave to Magda Goebbels during the Golterdmmerung; the other to Frau Hess under far different circumstances, at the peak of his career in the late 1930's. (Frau Hess has sworn Hitler did give her his Golden Party Badge at that time and that it was definitely numbered "1" and not "7".)

These badges had not surfaced for some 43 years and Author Angolia almost certainly did not know of them when he wrote that Hiter never held Party number 7.

(As an interesting aside, Hitler's personal Blood Order badge had no number. It was thought Number 1 belonged to Rohm and Number 2 to Hess, and Himmler had number 3. All according to Patzwail's "Der Blutorden der NSDAP".)

But back to the Golden Party Badges. While most collectors know that Party members up to number 100,000 (who had the uninterupted service) received golden Party Badges on November 9, 1933, and that many other honorary Golden Party Badges were later awarded, the enigma of "real" versus ''fake'' has always been a struggle for them. While the comments below are not meant to be a definite dissertation on Golden Party Badge fakes, perhaps some of the more obvious differences will help you distinguish the genuine from the replica. A well made fake, particularly when you do not have a original with which to compare it, looks very real.

In the photo are three badges. One is fake. Can you identify it? It's the large one at the bottom.

Look very closely and I'll point out some discrepancies (always compare apples to apples... the large badge to the large badge in this instance.)

First, look at the "O" in Solialislische. The real one (in the large badge) is a circle, in the fake it's an oval. Now look at the swastika.Thin in the fake; stubby and fat in the real badge. Also obvious, when you look closely , are problems with the oakleaves. The real badge featured double lobed leaves, with the topmost of one leaf virtually lying over the stem and lower lobe of the leaf underit . (There were two versions of oak leaf patterns, one with pointed leaves and one with rounded ones.) At any rate, look for that overlay, much like a ''spread'' of a deck of cards, one lying over the bottom third of the one below in. In the fake badge the leaves not only look different, they do not appear to be ''overlaid'' with one another. They also appear to have a vein pattern and in fact a ''ridge'' down the center. On the real badge they are smooth. Finally, the fake badge has a ridged ''border'' all the way around it. The real one does not.

A myth exists about the pins on the backs of the badges in that all real badges should have safety type pins. This is not true. The early badges all had horizontal "safety pin" type catches. But these broke easily and later badges had the vertical stronger pin, as does this fake. Most of the honorary badges as illustrated in Angola's book, have the vertical pins.

We do not have a small fake pin for comparison in this photo, but the one in the picture is real. Its leaves are more like darts and they lie on a ridded partern like a closely-tied railroad track.

Mickey Huffman, "THE MOST VALUABLE GOLDEN PARTY BADGES AND THE MYSTERY THEY SOLVED", Der Gauleiter, 1988

Note: The photos above were taken from this article in "Der Gauleiter". Unfortunatley, 1988 was before we had digital photography and reproducing photos was alway a problem in printing the magazine. I did the best I could with them. If you want to see more you can search the net and find pictures of both original and fake badges. Bob

Nazi Party Membership Badges

National Socialist German Worker's Party Badge (Abzeichen der National-Socialistischen Deutschen Arbeiter Partei)

Over the years there has been a flood of material published about the now infamous Nazi party. Based upon the ideals promulgated by Richard Wagner, Dietrich Eckhart and H.S. Chamberlain, the N.S.D.A.P. became a hurricane that was to sweep the Germanic Lands.

The National Socialist party was born in the post World War I years of late 1918 or early 1919. One little-known fact points to the movement itself being started in Austria as an alternative to their peculiar political situation, and not as an answer to the entire Deutsche Republik. This was to be the political party for the working people, and not for the bureaucracy.

Party member 555, a painter from Vienna, would emerge as the driving force that would catapult the Nazis into newspaper headlines around the world. His name was Adolf Hitler. N.S.D.A.P. hierarchy, in order to promulgate party ideals, decided upon the official decoration to be an attractive enamel/silver badge measuring only 23mm across. The central theme of this party decoration was a centered black enamel swastika. This "hakenkruez" was surrounded by a white (or off-white) enamel field 14.5mm in diameter inside the badge. A doughnut-shaped ring of transparent maroonred enamel then surrounded this. Inside this red circle were the words "National-Sozialistische D.A.P." The swastika, white field, lettering, and outer rim were all trimmed in silver.

In the early years this party badge was produced in a fairly high content silver/nickel metal, though it never carried an actual silver content stamp such as "800", In the late '30s thc basic metal base was changed to a higher content of nickel alloyed with a small percentage of zinc, and only a small amount of real silver. These badges were silver plated on the highlights. About 1942 the base metal was again switched to copper/nickel with a silver plate overlay. In the later stages of the war 1944-45, the badges were solid zinc with painted surfaces where enamel used to be.

In all there were over 2,500,000 N .S.D.A.P. badges produccd from 1921 to 1945. The badges were given to actual members upon their entry into the party.

Generally the device was produced in one form only: as a spring pin/ catch back badge. Throughout the course of events however other variants showed up such as a round dome postbacked badge for lapel buttonholes. Some badges were even mounted as stickpins, though this was done privately by jewelers rather than an official variation. There was also a half size badge that could be purchased as a private acquisition item only. It was meant to be worn on civilian dress rather than as a military accouterment, but if worn on a political uniform it was to be worn on the black tie. Military regulations stated no political decorations, at least "unofficial" badges, were to be worn on military uniforms. Official party decorations like the Golden Party Badge could be worn on a military tunic.

After assuming the title of Reich Chancellor in 1933 one of the first actions of Adolf Hitler was to establish many new party and state decorations and badges. This had been spelled out in Mein Kampf as a means of giving the people back their pride and self-worth. On October 13th of that year Der Fuehrer signed into law a decree bringing the Golden Party Badge into existence. This official N.S.D.A.P. decoration was to be presented to all qualifying party members with membership numbers of 100,000 or less. The official dates regulating time frame of this award were anyone who joined between Feb. 27. 1925 and Oct. 13. 1933. One of the decree's stipulations, however, stated that service had to be uninterrupted, and this disqualified many members. Party membership had hit 100,000 by September 1930 and was over 700,000 by 1933. In all only 22,282 of this service longevity award were presented.

The decoration itself was virtually a carbon copy of the standard party badge. It had the addition of a golden oakleaf wreath surrounding the basic design.

There were also two types of the Golden Party Badge presented during the history of the Third Reich. Both were identical on the obverse but had slightly different reverses. On the first type, the long service version, the reverse bore the typical spring pin/catch as seen on many small enameled badges. The patent pending code "Ges. Gesch." was found to be stamped on the pin base plate in many examples in lieu of the maker's hallmark. Original badges are marked one way or the other, possibly both. The member's party number can be found stamped on the reverse, usually on the bottom part of the back. On the Type II, awarded on the 30th of January each year until the end of the war for exemplary service, the solid vertical semi-wide, flat pin and catch (as found on some combat badges) was utilized instead of the spring pin/catch. Directly below the pin's base at the top usually could be found Ges. Gesch. followed by the initials "A.H." and the date of presentation inscribed below this. On some examples the A.H. is replaced with a facsimile of Hitler's signature. It is believed that these were given to very high and important friends of Hitler, due to the fact he retained the honor of presenting these awards personally. Armaments Minister Albert Speer was the recipient of such a badge from Hitler.

Both types of the Golden Party Badge were produced in two sizes: 30.5mm and 25mm. The larger version was intended to be worn on military and political uniforms, and to be placed on the left breast pocket. It ranked above all other badges and decorations except the HJ Golden Badge of Honor with Oakleaves. The smaller 25mm version was designed and specified for civilian clothing on jacket lapels, or the upper left breast area of a woman's blouse should she not be wearing a jacket. Each decoration was presented in a small black leatherette case along with an official award document.

J.R. Cone: "One People, One Reich - Enameled Organizational Badges of Germany 1918-1945" MCN Press, 1983