1936 Berufswettkampf participant/officials badge

It is known and documented that participants and officials at the national finals of the Reichsberufswettkampf (National Trades Competition) were given a special badge to wear for the duration of those finals for the years 1937, 1938 and 1939 and many examples of these badges are in collections today. However, nothing appeared to be known about the badges for the competitions between 1934 and 1936. A discussion was started here on the forum to see whether any new information could be brought to light.

The photograph (left) is shown in Artur Axmann's 1938 book 'Der Reichsberufswettkampf' and it depicts a BDM girl wearing the pre-1938 pattern Reichssieger badge. As you can see, above that she is also wearing another badge. Could this have been the mysterious 1936 participants'/officials' badge?

The answer was eventually to come during a discussion with militaria dealer Helmut Weitze who mentioned that he had recently sold a badge which fitted the description. After a short wait he sent pictures of the item and a comparison with the photograph above confirmed that it was indeed the badge worn at the 1936 Reichsberufswettkampf finals in 1936. Mystery solved.


As you can see the backing is made of a type of plastic and on the picture below you can see what look to be cracks radiating from the central pin hole. This may be the reason for the rarity of these badges as they may simply have been thrown away after the backing disintegrated. Who knows but whatever the reason these badges are very scarce so if you come across one snap it up. They were presented to those who had made it to the finals of the 1936 Reichsberufswettkampf and were also worn by the competition staff so for 1936 this meant 671 badges for the finalists plus an unknown number for the officials.

A further bonus was that it could now be confirmed that the Reichssieger in the 1936 competition were awarded a Reichssieger badge as opposed to simply a certificate.


If you'd like to read the original thread please click on the link below: