Deutsche Reichsbahn Buckle - Original?

[Scott R.]

A fellow collector advised me to post this buckle and get some opinions as he thought it suspect. I picked it up at a Gun Show a few years back and never gave it much thought due to the condition. I would have thought a repro would be more minty looking.
Opinions appreciated.
Thanks,

[Scott R.]

The Back

[Scott R.]

The markings

[Kurt Doench]

Scott,

What you have there is very probably a original buckle box with a fake roundel attached and fantsay maker's marks applied to make it more saleable. The box could have come from an SA or any number of Weimar or early Nazi buckles. Notice the holes for the solder are unfilled but there are remains of solder on the edges? JFS stands for Joseph Feix Söhne, a real and well known Third Reich-era manfucturer who did also produce belt buckles, to include SS ones, based in Gablonz an der Neiße. Gablonz is a city that belonged to the Austrian Empire until the end of WW1 and was given to the then newly formed state of Czeckoslovakia by the peace treaty of St. Germain (the Austrian equivalent to the Versailles treaty with Germany). Gablonz is part of the Sudetenland with at that time a mostly Geman population. Hitler took it into the Deutsches Reich after the Munich peace accord in 1938. It is not conceivable that the firm of Joseph Feix could have received German government contracts before that time, and again incoceivable that a 1938 + contract could have been for a brass buckle. Also note the style of marking (maker's initials and date) which is evocative of early Third Reich markings but still quite wrong.

Kind regards,

Karl

[Scott R.]

Thanks,
that is a wealth of info.

Scott,

What you have there is very probably a original buckle box with a fake roundel attached and fantsay maker's marks applied to make it more saleable. The box could have come from an SA or any number of Weimar or early Nazi buckles. Notice the holes for the solder are unfilled but there are remains of solder on the edges? JFS stands for Joseph Feix Söhne, a real and well known Third Reich-era manfucturer who did also produce belt buckles, to include SS ones, based in Gablonz an der Neiße. Gablonz is a city that belonged to the Austrian Empire until the end of WW1 and was given to the then newly formed state of Czeckoslovakia by the peace treaty of St. Germain (the Austrian equivalent to the Versailles treaty with Germany). Gablonz is part of the Sudetenland with at that time a mostly Geman population. Hitler took it into the Deutsches Reich after the Munich peace accord in 1938. It is not conceivable that the firm of Joseph Feix could have received German government contracts before that time, and again incoceivable that a 1938 + contract could have been for a brass buckle. Also note the style of marking (maker's initials and date) which is evocative of early Third Reich markings but still quite wrong.

Kind regards,

Karl