Gau Baden Badge

Product Description: This Gau Baden Badge is a nice example of a hard-to-find and desirable political award, with a great look. The obverse depicts an Art Deco styled German eagle and swastika emblem within a wreath, with the wording “Gau Baden” below. It shows only minimal wear, with some built-up old patina in the recesses of the design, and all of the original detail is intact. The reverse of this rare Gau Baden Badge is flat and smooth, and is nicely maker marked behind the swastika with “Fr. Klett, Karlsruhe.” It has an uncleaned look, with some original shine peeking through an old patina. The hardware setup on this badge features an interesting narrow hinge and “safety pin” style catch. The round wire pin is functional, and there is no damage, and no repairs. Overall, this attractive, all-original badge remains in excellent condition.

Historical Description: The Nazi Party was organized geographically into districts. Below the national “Reich” level were the “Gau” districts. They were the Nazi era administrative equivalent of traditional German states. The leadership of each Gau was authorized to award special badges, to recognize a variety of achievements in the political realm. The exact requirements for each award were determined by the leader of each Gau and could range from outstanding service to the local political organization, to long service to the Party, or participation in important historic events during the Party’s time of struggle before 1933. Some Gau badges were issued in several grades to recognize different levels of experience or achievement. These badges were worn on military, and civilian, uniforms and were a mark of honor for the Nazi political elite. Twelve different Gau Honor Badges were designed for the 33 (later 43) Gau districts of Nazi Germany. They were carefully designed with impressive designs to denote the high levels of achievement for which they were awarded, and the quality of these badges is generally extremely high. These were awarded in limited numbers, and as a result, none of the Gau Honor Badge types are commonly encountered today.

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