Class II "25" General Assault Badge, Rudolf Karneth

[Burkhard45]

Hello everyone,

I figured I would share one of my latest pickups. A "25" General Assault Badge by Rudolf Karneth.

The wreath had a crack of some kind. Crack does not appear to be completely through the wreath. It has been repaired. Does this repair appear factory done? It looks like it to me, considering the smoothness and the filling.

Thanks,
Hayden

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[Burkhard45]

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[Burkhard45]

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[Jeff V]

Very nice!

[Giel VW]

Textbook piece! Wondered what caused that damage on the reverse, probably someone tested the material.

[Burkhard45]

To me, it looks like a part of the repair. It almost looks like the crack was filled/soldered, and the excess was smoothed out.

Textbook piece! Wondered what caused that damage on the reverse, probably someone tested the material.

[Bruce Simcox]

Hi Hayden

......The German WWII manufacturer that used the maker mark RK in a circle has not yet been identified. To state that it is Karneth is incorrect at this time.

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Hayden,


I can only agree with the others, a very nice original Karneth in great condition. You can see where it was cracked on the side and was probably soldered to reinforce it. Nicely done little repair.


Tom

[Bruce Simcox]

Hi Tom

.......Do you by some chance have compelling evidence to support the claim that Karneth IS the manufacturer of RK in a circle marked badges?

If you do, then please, by all means share this information with us, if you wouldn't mind.

I only ask, because according to Pavel Strej, the foremost researcher of Gablonz area manufactured badges, the following information seems to be the most current available:

Originally Posted by pavels_2005
I studied all the Karneth company documents that I have available, .... The documents don't show many war records. The records start mainly after the war when the Karneth factory was confiscated by the Czech state. But what I can definitely see there is, that Karneth supplied to AGMuk, to Heeresgruppe Mitte Liberec ( Reichenberg) and to Rüstungsinspektion Liberec (Reichenberg). He worked also a lot with Julius Pietsch (Gablonz) but this is not strange as they were neighbours - their factories were next door.

There is also a record that R. Kreisel was customer of Karneth. But this is no big surprise usually the Supplier/Customer lists of Gablonz companies show many other Gablonz names, as the cooperation between Gablonz companies was very common also in the in the times before war.

Futhermore, from Norm F is the following:

In the the KM badge world, there are "R.K." U-Boat and Minesweeper badges (and in other spheres there are also other R.K. marked products like the PAB, numbered GAB and RO/AG, not to mention metal breast and cap eagles, etc.), all showing typical features of Gablonz production.

For some time, collectors have jumped to the conclusion that the mysterious "R.K." was mostly likely the initials of "Rudolf A. Karneth & Sohn" whose Gablonz Metallwarenfabrik was assigned the Präsidialkanzlei Lieferant number 61. However, in more recent years the competing theory arose of "R.K" perhaps representing Robert Kreisel, another known Gablonz manufacturer with the same initials who was assigned the PK number 67.

But furthermore, given that there are no less than 9 sets of tooling for the R.K. Minesweeper badge, one also cannot rule out the possibility that the "R.K" mark appeared on products produced by a consortium, similar to the situation with "A.G.M.u.K." marked products.

So that's where we stand today. There is no proof yet for the RK attribution to any one maker (as duly noted in the KM reference books in the context of the "RK" U-boat and Minesweeper badges), and it's even possible that RK-marked products were produced by a number of subcontracted firms.

Best regards

[Ludwig]

Those production related cracks are not uncommon, but I doubt that the badge left the factory that way. The producer´s logo has been damaged as well, and that I don´t believe would be accepted. Otherwise a good oroginal badge – no matter what RK stands for