Hungarian Gorget – Csendor

Product Description: This is a nice example of the rare Hungarian Gorget – Csendor. The Csendőr (Gendarme) was the Hungarian military police during WWII. Prior to the war, the Hungarian military police wore an enameled breast badge. In August of 1944, they adopted this gorget, which was based on the German military police gorget. This Csendőr gorget is made out of aluminum. The front features an attractive and very nicely detailed Hungarian coat of arms, flanked with oak leaves. Below this is a scroll with the word “Csendőr,” which retains most of the original black paint to the recessed area. The reverse of this gorget is flat, and is without a backing cloth, which is how these were issued. It’s marked with the serial number 8135, and has three hooks, two for the chain and one for affixing it to a uniform. The original and correct steel chain is present and is complete, with no condition issues. This Hungarian Gorget – Csendor shows only light, even wear, and remains an excellent example of a hard to find item of wartime Hungarian military police regalia.

Historical Description: Gorgets were originally part of a knight’s armor during medieval times. Long after suits of armor were abandoned, the gorget continued to be used in many European armies as a form of military insignia. In the Imperial German Army until 1914, gorgets were worn as a special mark of distinction by certain elite units. Following WWI, German paramilitary and police organizations used gorgets for standard bearers, as insignia, and to denote personnel assigned special tasks. Following the Nazi rise to power, there was a vast increase in the number of uniformed organizations, and a variety of new gorgets were instituted for use by these civil, political and paramilitary organizations, as well as by the military. Standard bearers of most organizations, who were entrusted with carrying flags at rallies and in parades, wore gorgets. Other gorgets indicated assignment to guard or security forces. The military police personnel of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS had their own gorgets as a part of their uniforms and were nicknamed “chained dogs” by the troops, due to the chain used to suspend the gorget around the wearer’s neck. Because gorgets were never general issue to all personnel of any organization or military branch, they were manufactured in limited numbers, and are generally scarce to encounter today.

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