NSFK Badge

[Mike H]

Gentlemen,

Here is an NSFK badge in my collection. I attended a recent show and saw one of these for sale and was astonished at the price. Can anyone give me some background on this piece and the going price for one of these beauties? It is my favorite.

I put this under "General Wehrmacht Awards" as well ... but then realized it probably belongs here.

Mike Heuer

[Mike H]

Reverse

Photo of the reverse. The piece is in mint condition, as it was carefully stored in a box with tissue since it was first given in 1938 to a friend of mine.

Mike Heuer

[Ken Jasper]

Mike, see my reply in the other thread.

[Mike H]

More comments?

Gentlemen,

Moving this back up to the top .... see the thread on the "General Wehrmacht Awards" forum. Sorry, but I should have put that in here.

I am surprised there are no more comments on these NSFK badges. All three of mine came from the original owner --- a family friend who still lives in Munich and just turned 80. I hope I look as good as he does when I am that age. They were presented to me as a gift when we saw each other in Budapest in 1998. We get together every year.

As I mentioned, these are not "fantasy" pieces --- if I told that to my friend, who was present at these NSFK events, I am sure he would be amused.

Best regards,

Mike

[Richard]

Mike, there are a whole series of badges similar to the ones you posted that have long been looked upon as fantasy pieces as none of the competitions or events could be verified. Since your pieces have provenance, it may lend credence to support the camp that believes these to be real issued pieces. I can certainly see some difference in detail on the badge you posted vs. the one that I posted. All in all, I have always liked the look and construction of these and had a hard time believing these to be anything but real. Even with less detail to the head, my badge is first quality, solid construction. I can't imagine someone going to this trouble for a $40 badge.
Richard V

[Ken Jasper]

As I mentioned in my other thread, I sold three similar badges with the note that I thought they might be repros. A close friend who bought one sent it to Detlev Niemann for his thoughts. Niemann said that many of these badges have been made in Germany in recent years which accounts for their fine quality. The one I sold was one of these repros/fantasy pieces.

Mike, I am not saying yours is bad, and I agree with Richard that the lineage it has is encouraging. I am just posting a warning that the many similar badges that show up on some auction sites and dealer sits should be approasched with caution.

[Mike H]

More soon ...

All,

Thanks for the comments. I have no doubt pieces like this have been faked --- well, everything else has. No surprise there.

I will contact my friend in Munich --- who I deeply respect as he was a Luftwaffe pilot in the war and a successful engineer in the decades following --- and get more information from him as to these NSFK events from which the badges came.

Then we will all have the information and we can go forward from here --- knowing there are real as well as fake items out there. Everyone will be the richer for the knowledge.

Best,

Mike

[D Niemann]

Dear Mike.
Your badge is beautiful and one of the rarer ones.I have never seen this badges faked before and would say yours is 99,99% pure original.There is no more background other than written on the badge as such.I would guess a rough value with 200-300 US
regards
detlev

[Mike H]

More info ...

Everyone,

Well, it has been a while since this thread started and in the meantime, as I promised, I wrote my friend in Munich who was a Luftwaffe pilot in the war (flying JU-88s and ME-262s) who gave me these badges when we were together in Budapest in 1998. He was amused that someone could think these were things of "fantasy" since they were given to him in 1938.

He provided some interesting details which I include below. These are the sorts of pieces of information which can make collecting so fascinating. As follows:


"Dear Mike,

The three badges are only keepsakes , souvenirs to Championships (= Wettbewerb) in model-aircrafts (= Flugmodelle) , given to each participant.

The championships were national, for german boys and men, living in the "Reich", that means Germany. There were no championships international or continental at this time. I think, the NSFK = Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps, who was the organiser, was afraid there could be better models outside Germany.

To become a participant, you had to be member of a group of modelmakers. I was "leader" of a group of boys - 13 to 15 years old - inside the "Jungvolk" (first NS-youthmovement from 10 to 14, followed by the "Hitler-Jugend" starting with 14/15. Workshop and material were free for participants of
Reichswettbewerbe.

One could make models privately, but it was not possible to join a
championship without being a member of one of the NSFK-divisions, the official organisations for all purposes in flying (models> gliders> aircrafts with engines).

I don't remember, but I think the badges top right and at the bottom belong together, because they are both from 1938 and the same event. It happened in Borkenberge (Westfalen), a glider-school (The Fighter-General A. Galland learned to fly there, because his father was the director of the school.

I had a model with elastics (rubber) - but it didn't fly long enough . . .

The badge top left is quite interesting: It was a competition for
"Saalflugmodelle". A "Saal" is a big room, in this case a cupola 20 m 0 and 30 m high without obstacles and with quiet air.

The weight of a model lies between 10 and 30 g, "elastic engine" two revol. per sec., endurance some minutes. We had to build the models with only "German" materials: blade of straw for the fuselage, pine (1 x 1 mm) for the structure of wings and propeller, covered with a very thin film, weighing nothing, but no bamboo, no balsa. I didn't win a price, but to take part was exciting enough. The number on the back is a numbering.

When we wll meet in summer we can talk about other details, if I can dig it out of my brain.

Best regards

Ernst

[Mike H]

Photo

I forgot to mention, Ernst makes reference to a photo I sent him of the badges and which is included below.

Mike

[James Noble]

Mike, Those are truely beauitful badges you very fortunate to have them. And to know someone who was there and can relay their knowledge of the time to you.

[Richard]

Mike, it was very interesting to read your friend's comments. I had often wondered what events prompted the issuance of these badges. As I stated before, many feel these are "fantasy" pieces but this may, no doubt, be due to the fact that so little is known about them. It is pretty hard to dismiss them as fantasy since yours have known provenance. It is interesting to find out that they were issued as keepsakes for participants in model airplane competitions. I have always liked the badge that I obtained in the 80's and thought is was a very nicely and artistically executed piece. It would be great if others who have badges of this type could post pictures so that we could see how many varieties potentially exist. Thanks for sharing the pics and the story.
Richard V

[cking1975]

Nice story of this badge

So the are we saying these badges are authentic ? I have been told many fakes have been made and mine could be one. Although I have no idea why someone would go through the trouble of making a badge like this to make a quick dolllar. This is really heavy nickel (probably stop a bullet) 2 piece badge that would not be cheap to make.

http://www.snapfish.com/slideshow/Al...43/t_=37934943

[Mark Holmes]

I camme across this thread in an internet search trying to find information on the NSFK set which i own . Here are some pics anyway.
I am also posting the description from the sellers advert . The only info i have to hand at the moment.
Cased set of NSFK and DLV non-portable badges.

The DLV badge is in white porcelain and is marked with the "i" and "r" initials as well as a rose (maybe Rosenthal?). It has a small metal hanging device and is undamaged.

The NSFK badge is in blued metal, is marked "Brehmer Markneukirchen" and is undamaged.

The period case is made to house the 2 above mentioned badges and is in very good condition. The side of the case in which the hinge is fixed, has come loose but is still attached to the rest of the case. In fact the case still closes like it should. The case liner has some smudges. On the obverse outside of the case, there are about 5 pinholes. The case could easily be restored to its former glory but I leave that to the new owner.


Everybody is familiar with the cased oval NSFK badge which pops up now and then on dealers sites; these usually command a price between 400 and 700 euros and are not rare at all.
Compared to these, this case is UNIQUE and BARGAIN priced!

[Mark Holmes]

Badge