Gau Hannover Badge in Bronze

[Richard]

I have never seen a solid bronze version in my over 40 years of collecting. They have all been hollow. The golds I have seen were all solid. Silver seems almost non-existent.
Richard V

[Stan]

I too have never seen a solid Bronze version nor have I seen a solid Silver version that I was comfortable with.

Stan

[speedytop]

Hi Richard and Stan,

I have in my personal data base pictures of two solid Bronze versions, both are typical post war production from Souval.
See for that the book from Klietmann 1971, page 262:
" K [copies] Hergestellt von der Fa. Rudolf Souval in Wien seit 1967 ..."

And yes, I also have a problem with the silver badges; related to the existance, hollow or solid.

So far I have only seen one form of the award document, always without a grade. And as noted before, the Gauleiter of Ost-Hannover Telschow wrote in June 1937 "As the owner of the golden Medal of Honour of the Gau Ost-Hannover ..."

Uwe

[Richard]

I should clarify that I have never seen a solid bronze I thought was original. All the original bronze versions I have seen were hollow. I have only seen two award documents but they don't actually refer to a grade. I find this a curious anomaly as the Organisationsbuch clearly shows three grades. Oddly enough, I think this is the only Gau Ehrenzeichen that comes in three grades.
Richard V

[DanCz]

I have a silver hollow back example in my collection and i am perfectly happy that it is a period produced piece - - - i also have two bronze examples and i am happy with these as well. In my almost 50 years collecting i seen a handful of gold versions and these were all solid back (and very expensive!).

[Gregorio Torres]

As l said before... A lot of shadows. The small period info that we have doesnt seem to help, being even contradictory. We must wait for a more complete and ultimate find of documentation wich helps ti clarify the amazing enigma of this badge

[Stan]

In my opinion there were three badges- Bronze (hollow tinny) Silver (hollow tinny) and Gold (Solid award version).

Whilst the Urkunde does not state the grade of the award, the motif of the award is printed in Gold on the cover so one can assume that the Urkunde was issued for the Gold grade.

The certificate states that it is the Honour award of the Gau Ost Hannover which I take to mean that the Gold grade is the only version which can be considered the Honour award.

I have also seen an example of a hollow gold grade which I did not think was original. IMO all gold grades were solid.

Stan

[speedytop]

Hi Stan,

"... that the Gold grade is the only version which can be considered the Honour award."

Then you're implying, that the makers of the Organisationsbücher since 1938, the authors von Hessenthal und Schreiber and the "Unterstaatssekretär in der Präsidialkanzlei des Führers und Rechskanzlers SS-Oberfüher" Doehle are wrong?

I'm wondering about some comments here.

Uwe

[Stan]

Uwe,

All I am saying is that from a collectors perspective the only Gau Honour badge to have been awarded by the Gauleiter with a nice Urkunde was, in my opinion, the Gold grade.

That the Bronze and Silver grades were upgraded from mere tinnies to honour badges may indeed be correct.

Stan

[Gregorio Torres]

Not the first time that a small mistake in a old source create a chain of misunderstandings. Its very clear that there weren't three grades for this award, and its obvious that there were not awards for 100.000 persons, even when a part of them weren't awarded.
As happen with Gau Thuringen and Gau Essen badges, the true honour badges must be slightly diferent than the tinnies. In the case of the Gau Ost-hannover the differences must be gold colour and masive or solid construction.
On the other way, and l dont wanna hurt anybody, l think that trying to stablish that the hollow versions arent simply tinnies may be a attittude just to protect an investiment.

[speedytop]

Georgio,

"Not the first time that a small mistake in a old source create a chain of misunderstandings."

Small mistakes in 3 recognized contemporary books by 3(4) recognized specialists for medals and decorations? Uncorrected errors between 1938 and the end of 1944/beginning of 1945?
Dr. Waldemar von Hessenthal, Georg Schreiber and Dr. Ottfried Neubecker were recognized experts for medals and decorations in these years.
Doehle was the head of the Order Chancellery of the "Führer and Chancellor of the Reich". You will hardly find a more competent man than Doehle during this period.
[Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator]

Are you all right?

Uwe

[Gregorio Torres]

On the other hand... I've been looking for info directly in the Organizationbuch, 7. Auflage, and there isn't a reference to each Gau Honour badge.
Is there a description in another early auflage?

[Gregorio Torres]

.

[Gregorio Torres]

[QUOTE=

Are you all right?

Uwe[/QUOTE]

Yes, i'm fine, cause l'm not playing with my money in this discusion. I'm still with Stan, Detlev Niemann and many other who consider the hollow version as a simple tinnie, and we wouldn't be confortable with a hollow version in our awards collections, at the moment.

[Reinhard2]

Yes, i'm fine, cause l'm not playing with my money in this discusion. I'm still with Stan, Detlev Niemann and many other who consider the hollow version as a simple tinnie, and we wouldn't be confortable with a hollow version in our awards collections, at the moment.

Hi !
I only saw golden and full ones coming along with their documents, but I never saw a bronze or silver with document !