Drk German Red Cross Insignia Questions

[Gerard/Relic Hunter]

Hi Guys, I bought a collection of German Red Cross insignia recently. Most is WW2 period, I belive, but there are a couple set of boards I am not sure about. Anyone have a collection of DRK insignia that is familiar with them? The armband is for midwife, I have never seen it before. Also, note the miniature (2/3 size) collar tabs and shoulder boards for an officer. Any comments welcome.

Gerard

[Gerard/Relic Hunter]

Here are the boards I am unsure of. The piping is silver on 2 pair and gray woven on the other one. The boards are dark charcoal gray, not black. Also, there is some longevity stripes, but they are gold not silver. Any DRK experts?




Gerard

[Diane]

DRK Insignia

Hello Gerard,

From what I can see the entire lot you posted is wartime issue. The smaller collar tabs are worn by Nurses on their smock. Often this type of smaller tab will have snaps on the reverse for easy removal when the garment was to be laundered.

The German Red Cross (Western Zones) did NOT wear any shoulder boards after 1945 and denoted their rank on the collar by the addition of metal bars (pips in Bavaria). Otherwise the uniforms were unchanged from from the wartime issue through 1960.

The East German Red Cross developed a rank scheme of tress, pips and oakleaves worn on their collar tabs. Their collar tabs were piped in Red, Blue, silver and gold denoting Kreis-Level, Bezirk-Level, National-Level and rank.

I hope this helps. I would be interested in the EM pair of boards with the horizontal silver braid loops and one pair of the silver piped straps w/o pip.

The Arm Triangle is nice too. My family comes from Ansbach / Bayreuth (a province of Prussia until 1947) and know the area well.

Sincerely,


Diane

[Gerard/Relic Hunter]

Diane,
Thanks for the info, it's very helpful. What about the lower photo with the EM boards and gold tresse? Are those boards wartime earlier also?



Gerard

[Diane]

Hello again,

The Em style boards with the silver piping are Red Cross but I am not sure what period - Weimar / III Reich. I have a pair in my collection with silver/green twist-cord piping and round pip which was used until 1935.

The gold tress is a Red Cross service stripe worn on the lower left sleeve. These stripes continued to be used until at least 1964.

A nice insignia grouping overall. Do you have the ANgolia book "In the Service of the Reich'?

Sincerely,

Diane

[Diane]

East German Red Cross Collar tabs for comparison

Kragenspiegel des DRK; Vors. des Kreiskomitees





Kragenspiegel des DRK; Vors. des Bezirkskomitees<o></o>