Information over badges Kreissieger, Gausieger and Reichssieger

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Hi meine Kameraden,
I would love to have more information about those amazing badges, i.e. History, years, etc. Do you know sources like books that i can look at/for?
Thanks in advance
 
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.
 
Great info garry:thumbup1:

im surprised it was open to all youths to participate in, do you think this was done to encourage more youngsters to join the HJ...


steve
 
Cheers Steve. Well, von Schirach believed that those in the Hitler Youth should all be volunteers - that they should believe in the idea and be a willing part of the HJ as opposed to being forced to join as they were in the later years but there was competition between those in the HJ and the 'civilians'. The RJF made much of the results achieved by the HJ members in the competition. In some quarters it was believed that the HJ would embarrass itself due to the fact that much of its membership came from the working-class but there is a quote from von Schirach which shows that actually, the vast majority of the Reichssieger came from the ranks of the Hitler Youth.
 
Thank you Garry!!!!!!!!!!

Information is brilliant, I have learnt many things thanks to you, Garry.

Obviously, I will try to find more info because it is realy interesting to have infor about what you dream (to have one of those badges!!)

Regards

Antonio
 
hi gar

in your great piece on the games you mentioned only reichssiegers where awarded for the 44 games, as you well know the gausieger for the 44 games was also awarded and only the kreissieger was not awarded, also in the names of makers you missed out one, the makers basically break down like this::

1938 kreiss- brehmer
1938 gau - brehmer
1938 reichs - brehmer


1939 kreiss- aurich, tham,wagner
1939 gau - brehmer
1939 reichs - brehemer


1944 kreiss - not awarded
1944 gau - brehmer
1944 reichs - brehmer

as a side note all badge for 1938 and 1939 where enamel while all gau and reich for 1944 where painted
 
Last edited:
Cheers Stu. Excellent info :thumbup1:

Actually I didn't know about the Gau 44 :) I'm probably going to kick myself when you show one but I can't recall ever having seen one myself.

EDIT: what a d*** I am sometimes. Of course I've seen the Gau - I sold you one :)

I'll amend my first post to include your info mate.
 
Brilliant general Stu!!!

Excellent piece of information all together so thanks again Garr y and Stu.

Regards

Antonio
 
Thanks once again for the information.

So far, I have decided to save money for a couple of months and then I will buy a Kreissieger. At the moment I am just saving all of the pictures of real Kreissieger from all of the makers, at least to have a minimum knowledge also to compare. So far I have seen many pictures and one Kreissieger 1939 Aurich for sale for a good price... but I have to wait a good while!!

In the meantime, hopefully tomorrow I will be receiving my latest tinnie. The I will make a break for the Kreissieger and then, I will continue with tinnies.

Regards

Antonio
 
Great information. I also did not know that non-HJ youth were allowed in the competition.
 
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