Early Hj membership badge opinions

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Jan 24, 2010
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Need some help with this early HJ badge
Cant see any markings on the back other than the
little "circle". How about the pin setup?

Good Bad??

thanks for looking

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Need better photos , can you photograph this badge without a flash ?
 
I dont :biggrin1:. Its without a doubt a good little HJ badge. I have heard explanations for the "o" recently, even from people who work in badge factories, and i am not sure i believe them all, the explanation for the single O was to identify a Plain, reverse in this case, die, that could be used for a variety of different badges providing the size was the same. I have never seen any other letters on badges, so i doubt this theory. The other, and more plausible explanation is that it was done to show the people who were attaching the attachment, which way to solder it on, as the badge would be lying face down by then. For example, if a person was soldering the whole day, or doing thousands of one particular set, he would know to position the badge with the "o" facing him, and solder the attachment on pointing North, or South etc etc........ i subscribe to this theory as well, in fact i am dead certain this is what the "markings" like this were for, and are still for today. I heard this from many people who work, and worked in the badges-trade and have observed this "o" on a multitude of original badges, not just an "o" but a line, of half-line as well, as well as "other" indicators.. below is an example i have, that shows a small star instead of a "o", and as i am sure you will agree, the star was not to symbolize Israel or even a company logo, that would just be, well too naff, to have a small star as your Trademark. This small star can also be found on NSDAP membership badge before, or around 1930-1932, as can the "o".

edit: maybe i have been around small badges too long, but i would not even need to see a picture of the reverse with this, even from the small front image, i can see that the badge is warm, it is just a feeling you will get after you spend a very long time looking at small badges in great detail. The warmth is there, the small picture shows it, the badge is telling you that its real. Its not really the color, its just a feeling, i guess the same way a Baker would know when his bread is baked just by looking at it through the oven door. Yes i know... i did loose it, long ago :-/

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Just to inform, not to further discuss:
in the earliest stage of manufacturing this badge was only allowed to be made
by the concern of Bauermann. he was the only manufacturer for a few years.
Later others came in.
This is noted in the "Verordnungsblatt der Reichsleitung der NSDAP" from
December 1931 with an order from december 7, 1931 amongst "Parteiamtliche
Abzeichen": Hitler-Jugend, Otto Baudermann (Erlach) ges.gesch.

And as such the first badges were marked!
 
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There are some Baudermann badges around for sale, not many though. The vast majority of these early HJ badges are marked anything but Baudermann, Assmann also made them, but was not supposed to, i think we discussed this sometime here last year, i remember uploading an example of an Assmann HJ-badge i have. The most common to find are marked Ges.Gesch only. There are fakes as well with no markings, and of course with stupid RZM codes like M1/4 etc.... For sure Baudermann is mentioned as being the only maker allowed to make them, but the reality was different, even makers like Bernhard Richter advertised them in their catalogs, and even as late as 1933-34.

If we can read the early RZM papers and accept that there were problems then with people doing what they were not supposed to, before 1933 it must have been like Every-man-for-himself, and surely with nowhere near the amount of control and RZM-prüfer that happened later from 1934/5 onwards..

Here is a thread on them, showing other makers, ; gustav Brehmer z.B and pictured below is the Assmann badge.

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