Description
Product Description: This Gau Baden Badge is a very nice-looking and uncommon political award. It’s an early, high quality piece, made of die struck Tombak with a beautiful finish of thick silver electroplating. The badge shows only minimal wear, and virtually all of the original silver finish remains intact. There is very nice detailing to the obverse and only extremely slight surface toning from age. The unique art deco eagle design used for this award really stands out. The reverse of this attractive Gau Baden Badge is flat and smooth, and is maker marked behind the eagle with “Fr. Klett, Karlsruhe.” The reverse hardware features a round wire attachment pin with a Tombak hinge and “safety pin” style catch. The hardware is original and intact with no repairs. This is a choice example of a hard to find badge. The condition rates as excellent.
Historical Description: The German Third Reich broke down the geographical area of the nation into what is known as the “Gau”, the administrative equivalent of traditional German states. The leadership of each respective Gau was authorized to institute and award special awards, to recognize a variety of achievements while in the service of the Gau. The exact requirements for each award were determined by the leader of each Gau and could range from outstanding service to the local political organization, length of service to the Party, or participation in important historic events during the Party’s rise to power prior to 1933. Some Gau awards were issued in several grades to recognize different levels of experience or achievement. These badges could be worn on both military, and civilian, uniforms and were considered a mark of honor in the NSDAP. Twelve different Gau Honor Badges were designed for the intial 33 Gau districts, which after later territory gains would expand to 43, of Nazi Germany. Each were carefully designed with impressive symbolic designs to denote the highest levels of achievement for which they were awarded. The quality of these badges is usually of extremely high craftsmanship. While each type of Gau Honor Badge was awarded in varying numbers, they were awarded sparingly. Today any of the Gau Honor Badge types are not commonly encountered with many being exceedingly rare.
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