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?
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Here's a little info on these badges. Some of it may be new to some of you.
The Potsdam badge in silver was the one given to active participants on the day. The brown version (see picture) was available for purchase by spectators. Regulations dated 15.5.1937 were introduced to stop the brown version being worn from that year. The silver version was unaffected by this and could continue to be worn.
The Arbeiterjugend badge. This first appeared in September 19271 and after the full introduction of the standard diamond HJ membership badge in 1933 many HJ members continued to wear the Arbeiterjugend pin as an outward sign of their long service. When the HJ golden honour badge was introduced in 1934 it made the Arbeiterjugend pin (the regulation calls it the 'old HJ badge') irrelevant and it was no longer
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