Early Hitler Youth or Student ?

[David North]

My own thoughts are that this buckle is early NS Youth associated and not Students League or similar, as all the reference works appear to advise.

Any comments or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

David

[David North]

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[Chad Williams]

David
I think this is a very interesting theory.. and I am eager to hear what the forum has to think... My own personal thoughts are that it is absolutely possible..I have never seen any written documentation that specifically called out the buckles which you have so kindly shown; as studentbund.. you are correct in the fact that all of the reference books do call these buckles out as studentbund; and it is possible that an old reference made this mistake and the rest followed..I have also seen pictures of undoubtedly HJ kids wearing these buckles.. I hope that Christian sees this thread and chimes in with a few of the amazing photos he holds..I am thinking of one in particular which had a group of DJ kids wearing all kind of different Dj buckles 35mm ,45mm, black DJ !! and one or two of these large diamond buckles. Chad

[KC1]

David / Chad,

Long time since we last spoke. Hope all is well.

You pose a very good question surrounding this rare and elusive buckle on whether it belonged to the Studentenbund or Hitler Youth Orgs. For me, I tend to believe this buckle was definitely associated with the NPEA... but with this caveat. Mind you, I do not have a shred of evidence towards my reasoning but I believe the local HJ Staff chose certain HJ members by observing certain qualities and traits to be trained as future leaders while still maintaining there status within their respective HJ units. Realizing that the NPEA trained youths from the ages of 10-18 for future Wehrmacht leadership roles, HJ units had to have a discipline to search and sort for these individuals at a very early age.

Seeing group photos of these youths wearing HJ, DJ and NPEA buckles would not seem out of the norm to me but rather a distinction of rank.

Just my $.02 to add to this great discussion.

A few more buckles to add:

The first is a 35mm buckle with the alligator catch

[KC1]

brass on brass- 45mm

[KC1]

reverse

[KC1]

silver brass - 45mm

[KC1]

rev

[lach470]

Awesome buckles guys! You have too many - think it's time you sold me one!
As for the connection to NS youth and NPEA...could it first have been used by the Youth movement and then the NPEA once the youth movement "changed" buckles? David - on one of your examples...it even looks like there may have been some red "paint" (or something) added to the buckle to make it look like the HJ diamond....
Very interesting discussion - and very nice buckles!
Cheers!
Rob

[Wickie]

Hi collectors!

I think it is the best to see the pure facts...the buckle has the HJ symbol on the front and several photos show this buckle worn by HJ members. Why should it be anything else than HJ??? The story of the "Studentenbund 1.type" is imaginary, you can put it in one box with the "NSFK" buckle, Marine HJ, Dräger factory protection, the 1927 introduced SS buckle and several other story written in the past years.

I can see absolute no link to the NS Studentenbund and I doubt that the NPEA members ever had an officially buckle.

If somebody has an evidence which proves that I'm wrong I would glad to see it.

Christian