Description
Product Description: With only approximately 200 being awarded from 1944 to the end of the war, the Germanic SS Proficiency Runes (Germanische Leistungsrune) are amongst the rarest Third Reich Awards produced during the time period. With only 1 out of 50 encountered on the market actually being an original wartime produced piece, there are many collectors who have not had the opportunity to study an original to know what to look for, and so can be quite skeptical. Their construction is actually, comparatively speaking, quite simple. The base metal of this Germanic SS Proficiency Runes (Germanische Leistungsrune), is typical late war zinc which has been die-forged. The edges of the award show hand filing from the worker removing excess metal and imperfections during one of the stages of the finishing process. Much of the simple bronze wash has remained intact, with some very small areas of the badge having light zinc powder. The central “SS” runes, are die-struck from tombak (brass), and filled with black enamel. The black enamel remains mostly intact, with a small chip to the top of the right rune, and some light abrasion to the top of the left rune. The reverse hardware of the badge is unlike most other Third Reich produced badges and awards. The tombak hardware consists of a sheet metal hinge, fabricated to act like that of a simple barrel hinge, and large pedestal for securely soldering it to the badge’s zinc base. A tapered pin, with evidence of hand filing and finishing, is securely affixed to the hinge by means of a tombak retaining pin. A large flat “C” catch, very similar in shape to the catches used by some Gablonz manufacturers, is securely soldered to the round tombak solder plate. These solder plates are quite frequently found on zinc based badges, as the total area of the base plate in contact with the zinc was much larger than the base of a catch itself, giving a stronger weld. The tombak catch could then be soldered to the tombak base, giving a much stronger application than just soldering a small tombak catch base directly to the zinc. The reverse side also shows the insanely simple, and textbook, means to which the runes were affixed to the badge, which is just bent over and lightly peened tombak wire prongs. The reverse side of the runes still retains some of their original silver electroplating, with patina from age covering the remainder of the back side. The associated mark can be seen on the reverse of the runes (please inquire directly if you would like it pointed out to you in the photos). We are very happy to be able to offer a rare award ,such as these Germanic SS Proficiency Runes (Germanische Leistungsrune), on the market. We have not seen another untouched original like this offered for sale openly in many years.
Historical Description: On March 15, 1944, Heinrich Himmler awarded the first Germanic SS Proficiency Runes (Germanische Leistungsrune) to 95 German and Dutch recipients during his visit to SS school “Avegoor”, which was located near Arnhem. Up until this time, the SS did not have an award to recognize the achievements of German and the Germanic member of the SS across the Greater Reich for sport proficiency and National Socialist ideology. The award was created at the Reich School for Physical Training of the SS and Police in Prague in 1943 under the supervision of SS-LAH Hauptsturmführer Kurt von Eckenbrecher. The award was created in two grades, bronze and silver. A “prüfungsbuch” would also accompany the award giving information as to the tests the awardee had completed, as well as the proof of his eligibility for the badge. It is estimated that only approximately 200 awards in total were made between both the silver and bronze grades, making this one of the rarest and least awarded Third Reich awards known, rarer than any set of Oakleaves and even less so the Knights Cross. It is thought that only approximately half a dozen silver grades survive today.
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