As far as the competition itself is concerned Antonio the best
book I have found was written by the then
Obergebietsführer Axmann. The Reichsberufswettkampf was his 'baby' and his 1938 book 'Der Reichsberufswettkampf' goes into great detail on the competition from it's origins up to the 1938 competition.
Axmann provided the initial impulse for the Reichsberufswettkampf during private discussions with von Schirach in 1933 who liked the idea and approached Dr Robert Ley with a view to realising the competition. The official announcement came on the 8th of December 1933.
The idea behind the Reichsberufswettkampf was to raise the standard of trade proficiency through competition and to provide a springboard onto greater achievement as the youth entered the world of employment proper. Winners at the various levels were fast-tracked and received varying sums of money with which they could finance training courses leading to higher qualifications. The participants competed at three levels: Ort, Gau and Reich. The winners at the Orts level received the Kreissieger badge and went on to represent their district at the Gau level. The winners there (Gausieger) went on to compete in the final competition which decided who would become Reichssieger in his/her respective trade group and class.
The number of participants increased between 1934 and 1938 as follows (number of Reichssieger for each year in brackets):
1934 - 500000
1935 - 750000
1936 - 1036000
1937 - 1800000
1938 - 2800000 (including 618767 adults)
The Berufswettkampf was a youth-only competition from 1934 until 1937 and was open to all German youth including those who were not members of the Hitler Youth movement. The 1938 competition permitted adults to compete for the first time and this was continued for the 1939 event. Axmann suspended the competition on the outbreak of war but in 1943 Hitler surprisingly resurrected the event. This competion was renamed to 'Kriegsberufswettkampf' by Axmann and the finals were held in 1944.
The 1944 Berufswettkampf was different in many ways to the competitions which had been held in peacetime and also marked a return to the competition's roots in that once again, only the youth took part. It was deemed too dangerous to run a centralised final competion in 1944 so this final was effectively a paper exercise where the best of the Gausieger were named Reichssieger by committee. In effect then, the Gau level of the competition was in fact the final. Only the Reichssieger and Gausieger badges were awarded in 1944.
There were Reichssieger badges for 1936 and 1937 but no Kreis or Gau badges.
In 1938 and 1939 badges were awarded for all three winner levels: Kreissieger, Gausieger and Reichssieger and there are only three makers known: Brehmer, AG Tham and Aurich. I think Brehmer was the main maker with the manufacture of the lower-level badges often being sub-contracted to Tham and Aurich. (edit: this info is incomplete. Please See Stu's post below for the full manufacturer list!)
There are stacks of fakes out there all with their particular characteristics but some are very easy to spot because they have an impossible year on them. Any badge (of the design introduced in 1938) with anything other than 1938 or 1939 on it is a bad badge. The 1944 Reichssieger and Gausieger badges were painted so should never be seen in enamel.