Under/Over Police Sleeve Insignia

[Dave C.]

Another amazing period photo has surfaced, here is a police sleeve insignia with embroidered lettering both over and under the eagle/wreath. Leave it the Feuerwehren to create an insignia to go against the normal & commonly accepted amongst Police insignia collectors. Only if it was legible, we could see if there is a possible factory connection. Thanks to W. Unland for spotting this one.

[W.Unland]

Thanks for posting that. I would guess this guy is a Werkfeuerwehr employee and that the naming on the insignia is possibly company name and location. This is the only photo showing such a "prohibited" over and under naming that I have ever seen. I'm afraid if the insignia itself were to come up it would be dismissed as fake.

Just more evidence that as far as the police and fire departments were concerned, you can never say NEVER.

Regards,
Bill Unland

[Tony T-S]

Almost needs to be pinned.

[Jamie7d7]

Great photo Dave.

I had a go at sharpening it up for you, I hope you don't mind.

Couldn't get any improvement on the insignia though, such a pity.

[Dave C.]

A shame the letters are not any clearer.

Posting the below link for a rank reference for Feuerwehrman:
http://www.lbsr.cz/dr/buffw/BuFFW_1934.html

[Mil-Archive]

This Might make it easier to read ... maybe a German speaker will recognise the shapes of the words here.

[Sonderkommando]

*

Looking at the enhanced pic, the top word seems to start with "Frei" so taking a huge guess it could read something like "Freiwillige Feuerwehr" (volunteer firefighter) or something similar to that.
The lower word is impossible to make out.


Or maybe the top words are "Freiwillige der" and the bottom word is "Feuerwehr"?

I don't know, just thinking out loud....

[Dave C.]

This Might make it easier to read ... maybe a German speaker will recognise the shapes of the words here.

Thanks for posting a better / more clear image. Now if someone just recognizes the name! I'm still curious if it happens to be factory related. And I take it by the watermark you bought the photo in question?

[Librarius13]

Does the pocket valve have an Austrian type? Perhaps he is from Austria?

[Mil-Archive]

Thanks for posting a better / more clear image. Now if someone just recognizes the name! I'm still curious if it happens to be factory related. And I take it by the watermark you bought the photo in question?

Hi Dave & yes indeed

[509thPIB]

Hi Dave & yes indeed

Was this portrait part of a larger group which could help in identifying it?

[W.Unland]

It is a shame that the photo didn't have a touch more depth of field. The top line of text does indeed seem to start with "Freid..." but really impossible to tell what the remainder is.

My experience with hundreds of these is that it is most likely a factory fireman. Volunteers usually had only the town or village name, it wasn't necessary to name them as volunteer firemen as everyone knew what the uniform was. Factories, however; were very fanciful with their insignia. This example has two lines, but underneath one another. The top line identifies the plant as the North Sugar Refinery, and the next line the name of the town. ( this refinery is still in business).

Factory fire service patches also sometimes are embroidered with the company logo.

I suspect the insignia in the OP is similar. Perhaps a factory or company name with a specific plant or location below. It is all conjecture.

Regards,
William Unland