Cased L/11 First Class Spange – Deumer

Product Description: The First Class Iron Cross Spange can be a surprisingly difficult award to find, especially with the original case, and this Cased L/11 First Class Spange by Deumer is a choice piece. It’s an early, top quality example, made of a brass alloy, Tombak. The obverse of this Spange retains full original finish, with original luster to the brightly polished silver highlights. It’s a very crisp strike, and shows virtually no wear. The reverse has a typical appearance, with a flat back, and light toning to the intact finish. The back of the wreathed swastika is neatly maker marked with a stamped “L/11” in a box, the maker code for the firm of Wilhelm Deumer in Lüdenscheid. This Cased L/11 First Class Spange has a textbook hardware setup, with no sign of damage or repairs. The pin is round wire, and the catch is a sheet metal type; the block hinge and catch are very neatly soldered and totally original. It would be hard to find a crisper example of one of these. The badge rests on a black flocked insert, in an original black case of issue. The case is marked on the bottom “L/11” with a white ink stamp, making this a rare matching set. The case retains all of the original surface to the leatherette covering, with an embossed silver LDO logo of the “Leistungsgemeinschaft der deutscher Ordenshersteller” on the top. The bottom retains the original paper price tag, showing a purchase price of 2.90 Reichsmark. The push-button closure and hinge are intact and functional. This hard-to-find set is in incredible near mint condition overall.

Historical Description: When Adolf Hitler reinstituted the historical Iron Cross was decoration on September 1, 1939, he also instituted a special new award, the “Wiederholungsspange,” to recognize people who had earned the 1914 Iron Cross during WWI and whose actions in this new war merited being awarded the Iron Cross again. There were two different patterns of this Spange, for the First and Second Classes of the Iron Cross. Both of them took the form of a German national eagle and swastika emblem, with outstretched wings, over a bar with the date “1939.” The First Class award had a pin attachment or screwback, to enable it to be worn on the uniform pocket over the 1914 Iron Cross. Some combo-type awards are also known, with the Spange fastened to the top arm of the 1914 cross. The Second Class Spange had two or four prongs on the reverse, and was affixed to a length of 1914 pattern Iron Cross ribbon. Most of the Spange awards were made of a brass alloy (Buntmetall) with a silver finish, while late war examples were produced from zinc. As with most German combat awards, there were many variations of the Spange produced, including miniature awards for the ribbon bar.

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