Badge ID required

[stuart c]

Hello
Can anybody identify this badge for me,I just bought it on EBAY but have no idea what it is ?The writing says :-

"Vereinigung Reichsdeutscher Bergfreunde"

[Mike Pinkus]

Stuart
great pin...
could you post a pic of the reverse...i am not sure it is ww2 era but it is close....it says something about being a friend of the mountains....a hiking club of some sort...
like the colors
mike

[stuart c]

Mike,the badge is in the post at the moment ,I will post a pic. of the reverse as soon as it arrives.I was hoping that the reference to "Reichdeutscher" meant that it was from the 33-45 period ?

[Mike Pinkus]

Stuart
good point....it might be earlier than 1933 than.
my guess is if it was third reich it should have a swaz.
like i said i really want to see the back
mike

[James Noble]

Mike you well have to admit that not all club pins made in the twenties & thirties an from the looks of the design of the pin that's the time frame I would place on it had swastika's on them.

Stuart the use of the phrase "Vereinigung Reichsdeutscher Bergfreunde" only means they were "friends of the mountains in the German realm" not necessarily in the Third Reich.

[VerKuilen Ager]

For what it's worth, this organization does not appear in the Heering/Hüsken catalog (covers about 5,000 organization pins from 1871-1945) nor does it appear to be in Heerings A to Z list of 10,000 organizations from the same period.

It certainly has a 1930s look, but could also be early post-W.W.II. Perhaps the back will provide us some clues.

[Ralph A]

Would love to see the reverse.

Certainly does look "'Thirty's-ish"

[stuart c]

Still waiting for the postman.......

[stuart c]

The postman calls at last ,here is the scan of the back of the badge,unfortunately no makers mark. It is a really nice looking badge in the hand,nice patination,and the enamel in the centre is beautiful.Any ideas now ?

[stuart c]

.

[Mike Pinkus]

Stuart
i am going to stick my neck out a bit and go with post world war 2 manufacture.....basing this on the hinge.
i have seen this on the hat pins i collect also.
mike

[Dietrich Maerz]

Post WW 2

Mike,

I'm absolutely no specialist in Tinnies and such, but - with all due respect- I seriously doubt very much that something with the inscription "Reichsdeutsch" would have been manufactured after the end of the 3rd Reich. Politically absolutely incorrect and even on the border of "against the law"

regards,

Dietrich

[Kai-Steffen M.]

dietrich, what you say is not absolutly correct- the term "reichsdeutsch" was used very commonly after the war (even by officials) for those people /refugees who came from the eastern occupied or lost territories- east prussia etc...
so i think this is a post war hiking club badge of a reichsdeutsche community in germany (they kept very much on their own- had their own clubs etc...)

Gruß,
KSM

ps: the development that everything with "reich" in it was bad and politically incorrect came later..

[Dietrich Maerz]

Reichsdeutscher

Hallo Kai,

now that you mention it I know what you mean. The Sudetendeutsche and such. As I mentioned above, shouldn't have confused the issue without firm knowledge.

Gruss von einem ehemaligen Badenser!

Dietrich

[Ralph A]

I'm with Mike.

That pin, with the double-loop in the "hinge" end, is not like anything I've seen over the years on the 1000's of pre-1945 badges, insignia and tinnies I've viewed or handled.

But....

a possibility is that the pin is a replacement... Put that into the equation and we're still scratching our heads.