Bill Shea....51 Morgan Road....Hubbardston, Massachusetts 01452-1602....Telephone (978) 928-4495....FAX (978) 928-5278

Last Updated: 05/11/08 12:46 PM

In order to make it easier to find exactly what you are looking for, we have separated the Medals & Badges section into categories:

Awards and Decorations 1933 through 1939       Awards of the NSDAP       Campaign Shields       German Tinnies       Iron Crosses      Medal Bars      Miscellaneous Awards and Decorations        National Sozialistische Frauenschaft (NSF) Insignia        Special Offerings       Sports Awards       Stick Pins and Pinbacks       War Badges - Army/SS       War Badges - Luftwaffe       
War Badges - Navy       Wound Badges       Youth Badges and Awards    

SPECIAL OFFERINGS

I have decided to create a section of the medals and badges for some choice and select pieces.  This initial offering represents several pieces from my personal collection which I have decided to sell.  I have always firmly believed that we really do not own these pieces.  We simply lease them!  As I continue to add items to my "inner sanctum" I have looked a few pieces over and decided that the lease was up and it was time for me to allow the next temporary custodian these opportunities.  Many of these items are "indirect" Veteran purchases (one step removed from the actual Veteran who brought them home or a member of his family).  Each piece will be carefully described and a written affidavit will be offered with every one of these items from this section.  This was the lineage and pedigree will continue.  This paperwork will prove to be very valuable down the road.  Enjoy your tour!

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Iron Crosses

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Awards of the NSDAP

Youth Badges and Awards

Sports Awards

Campaign Shields

War Badges - Luftwaffe

War Badges - Navy

War Badges - Army/SS

Wound Badges

Awards and Decorations 1933 through 1939

Miscellaneous Awards and Decorations

Medal Bars

Stick Pins and Pinbacks

The following is a grouping of German Third Reich stick pins or small pinbacks. Collecting these items can be very exciting and what's even better, not too expensive. Every organization, association, combat badge, achievement award or party affiliated decoration had a miniature stick pin or pinback style. All of the following feature a knurled pin (circular ridges for better holding) and are maker marked unless otherwise noted.
These, just like all of our merchandise, are guaranteed 100% pre-May 1945 manufacture so order with confidence.

National Sozialistische Frauenschaft (NSF) Insignia 

Ruptured Duck Note:  Part of our job here at The Ruptured Duck is to provide our customers with background information so that they can learn about some of the less well-known, yet intriguing articles we offer. For your collecting pleasure, I have assembled a large number of pins used by the women’s organization known as the National Sozialistische Frauenschaft”, or "National Socialist Womenhood". In keeping with our goal of providing you with background knowledge, here is the scoop on the NSF:

The NSF was formed in 1931, after Gregor Strasser disbanded a number of competing socialist women’s organizations (among these the DFO - Deutsche Frauenordens) and unified them into the only women’s organization thenceforth recognized by the NSDAP as being distinctly National Socialist-oriented. This was called the National Sozilialistische Frauenschaft. Nearly all of these women were highly sympathetic to the Nazi party, if not Party Members. Other women’s groups not specifically allied with the Nazi party fell under the auspices of the “Deutsche Frauenwerks” (DFW) – the Women’s Welfare Organization.
In addition, there was also a women’s bureau within the DAF organization. In 1934, Mrs. Gertrud Klink-Scholz, a schoolteacher and journalist, was named as the first (and only) Reichsführerin (National Leader) of the NSF, as well as Leiterin (Director) of the DFW. Mrs. Scholz had been an NSDAP lobbyist and supporter from the early days (joined in 1929) and her rise had been fairly meteoric; that same year she was also made leader of the National Women’s League of the German Red Cross and Director for the Women’s Bureau of the DAF.  Mrs. Scholz had now effectively become the most influential woman in the Reich. In 1940 after a divorce from second husband Scholz (first husband Klink died of a heart attack in 1930), she re-married  -Obergruppenführer and General of Police Heißmeyer (who was the head of the NS Adolf Hitler School). Frau Scholz survived the war, but spent post-war time in prison for aiding the Nazis. Part of her punishment included being banned from the teaching or journalism professions for life.
In 1935, the NSF became an official party organ of the NSDAP. It had a triangular membership pin, (the point oriented downward). From 1935, the NSF’s structure was organized in the same manner and using the same associated level colors as the country’s political / administrative structure – that is, REICH Level (the highest), with yellow insignia edges, GAU Level with red insignia edges, KREIS Level with white insignia edges (black on early pins; this color was changed to white in 1938) and ORT Level, with blue insignia edges. Leadership positions usually involved adding an extra border in silver, around the outside of the pin and for higher leaders, a silver oak leaf border. Early pins were beautifully made in fine quality enamels with nickel-silver; late-war pins were often made of zinc, with the colors painted.
At the high point of the Third Reich with some 4 million organized women, approximately 2.3 million of these were NSF members. These pins are a unique collectible; the NSF organizational system was complex and this offers a great deal of room for various collecting tastes.
The NSF pins can be categorized in four basic groups, one of which is not directly NSF: 

1. NSF Membership Pins, (a) Standard, and (b) for members of the “Women’s Order of the Red Swastika”  (c) for young women in the National Sozialistische Jung-Mädchenschaft (girls below the qualifying age for entry in the NSF): 

 (a) The standard pin came in two sizes:   medium and small. It had a triangular shape, with a very slight arch (like a shield). The triangle had a very narrow silver border edge, and a silver colored bar across the top with red letters reading: “N.S. Frauenschaft” (in Fraktur – gothic – font). The rest of the triangle was filled with glossy black enamel around a “sunwheel” swastika and beneath this an eolh” rune  (the runic letter “X”) rendered in silver. 

(b) The Women’s Order of the Red Swastika was a triangular metal pin, slightly arched, showing a white enamel cross on a glossy black enamel background, with a red swastika at the center of the cross and nickel silver letters “G”, “H”, “L” on the cross arms and foot (in gothic font). A white band runs across the top with the words “NAT. SOZ. FRAUENSCHAFT” in silver, Roman font. This type of pin has various markings on the back ranging from “Ges. Gesch.” (Patented), to an RZM mark and maker code or a maker’s name. The large version of this pin is in fact the largest pin of any type used by any sub-agency of the NSF. The pin also came in a medium-size and a small-size version. See all three sizes side-by-side. 

(c) National Sozialistische Mädchenschaft:  This pin is exactly the same size and image format as the small-sized Frauenschaft pin described above, but with the words and initials “N.S. Mädchenschaft” across the top, instead of “Frauenschaft”.  A very seldom-encou