OK, here we go, hope it makes sense.
Just to be clear, we are not talking about the Purple, green, yellow, black, blue or whatever fantasy color HJ badges there are, they don't have anything to do with the Third Reich, despite the fact that a Dealer called Germania.intl or something like that offers sets of them at every SOS % MAX show with the story that they were for the 1936 Olympics and how he got boxes of them off a vet Decades ago. (pic of the silly ones below)
Look at some facts first.
On
this thread, an
Assmann marked Arbeiter Jugend badge is mentioned, but nobody has seen one yet, well now you have, this is mine, and the only one i have ever seen as well, but proves that Assmann did make them when he was not allowed too, only Baudermann was as per the RZM regulations.
The Richter Fahnenfabrik catalog
i uploaded here, shows that He made them as well when he was not allowed to. I have seen a Badge marked with their company logo, but i sadly have no photos, anyway, the Period catalog is enough proof.
The RZM regulations should also be enough proof of the makers who were making items that they were not supposed to.
So to conclude, it is a proven fact that makers made items with no permission, marked, as is the case with Assmann, or also unmarked as is the case with many Arbeiterjugend badges.
On to the the Diamond shaped Hitlerjugend badge now.
Fact is that early versions marked by Ferdinand Hoffstätter [not that easy to find] and marked by Zeugmeisterei Österreich [even harder to find] are known, so its proven that makers were marking them with their name back in early 1933, and not just with Ges. Gesch or unmarked, as are also encountered, but not often.
Now on to Otto Hoffmann.
Fact is that this company did exist, they also made BDM and HJ items, as well as SA brown-shirts.
Fact is also, as you will see from the
Richter Catalog, that makers who made cloth items back in the early days, also made everything else from Enameled badges to flags, hats, posters, Kitsch... etc etc
All we have at the moment on Otto Hoffmann, is that he existed under that name, and made HJ cloth items. Now bear in mind, that old Adverts would never depict everything that
that company made, For example we use Hermann Aurich, who, depending on what Catalog, paper etc.. he was advertising in, his advert would read very differently, like.. "Small badge specialist" or "Cooler-Grill specialist" you get the picture i hope? So until someone does more research on Otto Hoffmann, and finds more adverts or info, we cant say if he made badges or not, or even helmets, or silver-wares etc etc, that's a definite possibility and would not surprise in the least. Richter did, others did as we read from old adverts, so why not Otto Hoffmann as well ? Remember, i took this advert from a Uniform magazine, so he would have specifically been advertising his Uniform/Cloth wares in this !
More research, old telephone directories also help out here to see what their main business was, as they usually advertised under that in the local Telephone directory. (for example)
To conclude
Up until now, i have never actually paid Otto Hoffmann badges any attention, basically because of the Multicolored pins that have somehow branded it in my skull that the makers name is automatically associated with fake items. But it would not be a bad idea to group all the Red HJ Hoffmann marked badges together for future research, as the possibility that he made a few in 1933 and marked them Otto Hoffmann can not be 100% ruled out just because of the Multicolored pins.
The Otto Hoffmann advert is taken from a 1939 Uniform-Markt. The Assmann badge is mine, and the Multicolored pins i stole from ioffer.
You don't have permission to view attachments.
You don't have permission to view attachments.
You don't have permission to view attachments.
You don't have permission to view attachments.