UBB.threads Forums Uniform & Accessories Medals & Badges of the Third Reich Forum German / Austrian, N.S era Shooting awards.

Don,

I think I found them about 15 years ago in an antique store just down the Maria-Theresa Strasse from the Old City in Innsbruck. I do not know the name of the place or if the shop is still there. I wish I had bought more when they were available! At the time my kids were young and money was tight. Now my kids are older and money is tighter!

Best Regards,
Fred

As I mentioned on another thread I recently bought a large group of sports badges to get just one piece, a rare Landeck 1941 in gold with oakleaves.

As you will notice, there is no Swastika. Pieces without them are much harder to find, I guess they fall through the net because of this. GI's didn't bother to pick them up & Third Reich collectors aren't interested in them.

Cheers
Don

Reverse

That's a nice piece Don. I like the design. I assume there is also gold silver and bronze without the wreath?

--dj--Joe

Thank you Joe. Yes you are correct, they also came in bronze, silver & gold. Alas the hunt is still on for those grades

Don

Bringing this back around for any who may have missed it. I find it most interesting.

--dj--Joe

Joe, thanks for reminding me that I recently found the 1942 version as well..

Don, a nice one.

--dj--Joe

Time to revisit. Always in hopes of other collectors sharing something from their collections.

--dj--Joe

Will pin this topic for a time.

--dj--Joe

Hi Joe,

Here is a set that you may not have seen. I posted the silver grade here some years ago but have since managed to obtain the set.

Not from the Tirol, but Kaernten in Austria, which is better known in the West by it's English name of Carinthia.

Cheers
Don

Don,

A nice looking set. I do recall having seen your example from 2010. The design stuck with me. Thank you for sharing. Do they all share the distinctive pin retaining plate?

--dj--Joe

man! just when you think you've seen everything!! Excellent!
Thanks for showing Don!!

Thank you Joe & Gaspare.

Yes Joe the pins have the same style crimped plates often seen on Klammer made pieces.

I'll see if I can dig some other pieces out to post.

Thanks
Don

Good collection.

Had a few minutes to sort through my collection.

Here is a very rare set from Bruneck South Tirol in 1944.

As many small badge collectors know, the use of enamel was prohibited as the war progressed. In 1944 six Kreis from the South Tirol held Kreisschiessen for the first time (Bruneck, Salurn, Bozen, Meran, Brixen, & Schlanders). The importance of the addition of these areas to the shooting calender can been seen by the fact that all of their badges were enamelled...

Cheers
Don

Another South Tirol set, this one from Brixen, another tough one to find.... Again, fully enamelled.

Nice rare sets Don. I appreciate the chance to see them. Do I detect a line behind BRIXEN?

--dj--Joe

Thanks Joe,

Yes the line appears on all of the Briixen badges so was part of the die. However it doesn't appear in any of the line drawings for the badge so wasn't part of the design. See the ad below for the shoots.

In case you are wondering, the chap on the badge is Oswald von Wolkenstein, a poet & composer from the 15th Century.

No Badge for Meran?

--dj--Joe

Of course, here you go....

For some reason Meran badges are very hard to find in a decent condition. They tend to be de-Nazified, have damaged enamel or are corroded, I'm still looking to upgrade mine if I can...

Good looking badges Don. I like the dragon. I see very little damage, mostly confined to the bronze. Touch of corrosion to the Gold.

Thanks for sharing.

Any specific pieces you are searching for?

--dj--Joe

These are best condition ones that I have been able to find, some of the others have been in a terrible condition.....

There are still plenty of pieces I need, but of the South Tirol badges I'm only hunting for a couple from Bozen. I have the Silver (one of the first Kreisschiessen badges I found well over 10 years ago) & earlier this year I found the Gold with Oakleaves, but the Gold & Bronze grades have eluded me. I did hear from one of my friends this week that he thinks that he has found someone with a Bronze & will try to get it for me but I am not holding my breath.

Here is another tough set to find from the South Tirol, Salurn. As with the Brixen, these do not have the Swastika.

Don,
I remember when you showed the first Salurn badge. I looked it up then and again today. Interesting about Castle Salurn or Haderburg. Did you make a trek to Salurn?
The complete set looks impressive.

--dj--Joe

Joe,

No I haven't made it that far yet. I've been to Meran & Schlanders (& also to Glurns whose wappen was used for the Schlanders badge, but that's a story for a later time...)

Here are the Schlanders badges, again hard to find in a decent condition.

D

That's an eagle on the Meran badge also isn't it. Guess I had dragons on my mind that day.
Bronze and silver badges seem to stand out to normally catch my eye but in the case of the Schlanders badge, it's the gold with oak leaves.

Were the 1944 shoots well attended?

--dj--Joe

I prefer the bronze & silver grades as well.

The shoots were surprisingly well attended considering that during May 1944 when these shoots were taking place the Allies were pushing up through Italy & were on the outskirts of Rome. At the Brixen Kreisschiessen for example 2616 marksmen shot at the KK stand & 1157 marksmen at the full bore stand. 249 Gold with Oakleaf badges were awarded, 236 Gold, 335 Silver & 280 Bronze....

D

That is quite an event considering all the officials and support staff along with the marksmen.

--dj--Joe

Yes, these were big, important festivals. Not only for propaganda, but also for morale which is why they allowed the use of enamel on the South Tirol pieces in 1944.

Below are the only Kreisschiessen badges from the East Tirol, Lienz to be exact. 1944 was also their first official Kreisschiessen. I say "official" because they also held one in 1943, but did not have badges of their own to award, they used the small shield shaped general gauleistung lapel badges given out in Tirol-Vorarlberg. I haven't discovered an documented reason for this yet, but I suspect it was down to either late planning of the shoot of lack of funds....

Don

I recall you wrote elsewhere that a number of these showed up over a two year period. Over ordered surplus stored away and forgotten?

--dj--Joe

That is correct Joe. Ten years or so ago these were amongst the rarest of the Kreisschiessen badges, but these days the bronze, silver & gold grades are fairly common. This is due to a hoard being released onto the market a few years ago. I have managed to track down the person who obtained them from source & according to him a bag of badges were passed to him from someone connected with the current Lienzer shooting club. In the bag were a large number of bronze, silver & gold grades, but only 4 of the gold with oakleaf grade Kreismeister badges. There were also a large number of the 1943 lapel badges I mentioned earlier which ties in with the reports of these being issued at the 1943 Kreisschiessen.

These badges are undoubtedly genuine as die characteristics match between known awarded pieces. However at some stage many of the hoard were, lets say, "refurbished"..... It seems that over the years somehow some of the paint seems to have been lost some how & the badges have been "touched up" or repainted to a degree. I have attached a picture showing one of the Kreismeister from the hoard beside a known awarded piece, the difference in the colours can clearly been seen so a collector can easily tell between badges from the hoard & awarded pieces. I must emphasize here that BOTH badges are GENUINE, & the die characteristics are clearly visable on both pieces.

As to the reason for the hoard, according to period newspapers the badges were not available for the shoot (no reason was given). Sometime after the festival (I cannot remember exactly how long off the top of my head), a small advertisement appeared in the newspapers announcing that the badges were now available for collection on production of a score card showing eligibility to receive one.

I imagine that the local marksmen would have collected their badges, but as many participants would have travelled quite large distances to attend, would they have bothered or been able to return to collect a badge? Also would everyone entitled to a badge have kept their score card?

Don

Don, I see the gold finish does not fare so well on many of these. I wonder why? They are magnetic so it's not due to zinc content leaching the finish.

--dj--Joe

Indeed Joe, especially on the later badges from 1943 & 1944. With pieces like the Lienz Gold with Oakleaves, I believe that they were only very slightly sprayed with gold paint around the very edge of the Oakleaf wreath. All of the examples that I have seen of these are the same. Some of the Gold with Oakleaf badges were not painted with gold at all, even though they were referred to as such in the documentation, again I assume that it was down to war shortages etc but the Gold grades were painted but not the Oakleaf version. For example see the Dornbirn 1944 set below.

Some of the badges were zinc based, such as the ones for Bludenz, Imst, & Reutte in 1943, these haven't lasted at all well & we often have to rely on the pin & plate to establish the grade.

D

Been a while since I have been able to complete a set, but this last couple of weeks I've managed to complete 2....

Landeck 1941

And Schwaz 1941.....

Don, You always make my day, I love it every time you post.

Thank you Mikee, it's very kind of you to say so..... And would you believe it, another piece arrived in the post this morning which will complete another set. I'll post that one later.... It will probably be another year before I find another piece that I need.

Cheers
Don

Very nice Don.

Thamk you Joe,

As mentioned yesterday, here is the set for Reutte 1944 which I was able to complete this week with the addition of the bronze grade. I've been searching for it for almost 10 years....

Cheers
Don