Condition: Excellent
Maker: Deumer
Base Material: Tombak/Nickel Silver
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Product Description: This Deumer Fallschirmjäger Badge is a top quality award, complete with the case. The badge has outstanding character, with a Tombak eagle and nickel silver wreath. The badge shows some honest wear, with most of the gilding lost from the eagle. The wreath shows expected age toning, with burnishing remaining in the recesses of the design. The reverse of this desirable Deumer Fallschirmjäger Badge is maker marked behind the eagle with the stamped marking of “W. Deumer Lüdenscheid.” The hardware is textbook for this maker, and features a barrel hinge, and round wire pin and catch. The attachment pin is functional, and the hardware shows no signs of repair. The rivets are intact and are the correct Deumer style. The case for this badge is a mid-war type, with a treated cloth exterior and the award designation “Fallschirmschützen-Abzeichen” embossed in gold on the lid. The exterior retains strong original color, and nearly all of the original finish is intact, with only slight wear to edges. The hinge and push button show no issues. Inside, the beautiful badge rests on a high-quality flocked insert. The silk inside the lid is intact, but the covering for the hinge has split. The case displays the badge very well. Overall, this beautiful set is in excellent condition.
Historical Description: The German Paratrooper Badge (Fallschirmjäger Abzeichen) was first instituted on the 5th of November 1936, by order of Hermann Göring. It was originally awarded to Luftwaffe personnel after the completion of their training and the required six jumps. On September 1, 1937 the Heer (Army) version of the badge was instituted to recognize members of the Heer who had successfully qualified. However, by 1939 the Luftwaffe gained full control of all trained paratroopers and the small number of Heer Paratroopers were then absorbed into the ranks of the Luftwaffe.
The design of the badge features a diving eagle surrounded by a wreath. With this guideline in place, initially the Heer and Luftwaffe each had their own respective version of the Fallshirmjager Badge to call their own. The Luftwaffe’s version featured a gilded diving eagle clutching a swastika which was surrounded by a darkened wreath of laurel and oak leaves. (Please note that a specific maker exists which utilized a silvered wreath instead of the typical darkened wreath.) The earliest examples of the Luftwaffe Fallshirmjager badge were made of superior metals such as brass and nickel silver. As the war progressed, and the need to save precious metals became more of an obstacle, aluminum and zinc were substituted as replacements. The Heer Fallshirmjager Badge design was a silvered diving eagle surrounded by a wreath of gilded oak leaves with a national “Hoheitszeichen” positioned at the top of the wreath. The first Heer Paratrooper Badges were constructed of delicate aluminum, whose hardware was very prone to breaking. Early deluxe versions of the badge can be found made of “800” silver, such examples are extremely rare. The only known maker of the early Heer Paratrooper Badges is C.E. Juncker. The Heer Paratrooper Badge was discontinued in 1939 after the absorption of the Heer Fallshirmjager into the Luftwaffe, However, the badge was reinstituted in 1943 for members of the Heer who previously qualified and also for members of the Waffen-SS who qualified. These later badges were manufactured strictly in zinc. The only known manufacturers of the later Heer Paratrooper Badge is the firms of C.E. Juncker and Friedrich Linden, Ludenscheid (FLL). Cloth versions of both types of paratrooper badges exist in various forms of embroidery and bullion.
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