WehrWirtschaftFuhrer Abzeichen

[Saladin]

Hello All,
A friend asked me about one of these badges so as this seems to be the correct forum I thought I would start a thread featuring one of these not too common badges.
This particular example is the aluminium type.
As luck would have it I saw that it needed a vaseline bath so it is bathing away now!

All the best
Doug

[matthew]

Textbook badge. It should be cupal rather than straight alu though, which I believe this one is.
Incredibly uncommon badge- congrats on a great score!


cheers

Matt

[Saladin]

Hello Matt,
thanks for your input.
Going off the Niemann catalogue badges were produced in Aluminium and in Tombak.
The weight of this one makes me think it is one of the aluminium examples.
The picture is excellent showing the badge in wear...Not sure who or what rank he is but I was always lead to believe that the badge afforded the awardee something like Army General status.

All the best
Doug

[harryamb2]

he's a Standartenfuher SS.probably Honory SS.

[HPL2008]

The man in the photograph is Hans Kehrl.

Hans Kehrl

[matthew]

If you look closely at the top portion of letter F in 'wirtschaft' part of your badge, you can see a bit of exposed copper layer. It is better visible on the pin, where the gilt is missing in larger areas.
They have been reproduced in tombak post war with varying degree of success but to date no cupal repros have been encountered, making them preferred choice to most collectors. There are at least two distinctively different variants of this decoration in cupal, presumably by two different makers- attributed by some to companies of Juncker and Funcke & Brunninghaus. Whether any originals were made in tombak prior to 1945 is hard to establish but there seem to be no documented tombak badges that have surfaced thus far.

Then there is a mini of the same award, which is equally stunning piece- sadly still missing from my collection. Those have been reproduced post war by R. Souval in zinc.
Still largely unresearched and enigmatic award IMO, and one I had little luck in finding details about.

cheers

Matt

[matthew]

Here's the other variant of this decoration for your reference.
Picture credit: e-militaria.com

cheers

Matt

[bittaker]

i have never seen this badge before. thanx for showing it : )
Stig

[Saladin]

Thanks for all the info Matt.
Most of my research was done using Wiki and the Detlev Niemann catalogue.
It is still bathing away but when I pull it out and rub it off I'll get a weight for the badge and that may indicate what the badge is made out of.

The other thing (I know of the pin miniature) I have been trying to discover is what sort of box was this badge awarded in.
I am thinking it was a red leatherette which held both badge and mini.
Have you ever seen one?

All the best
Doug

[matthew]

Hi Doug,

I have seen those with red, burgundy, navy blue and black cases of issue. No idea which, if any (or all) are the correct/original boxes for those awards but if I had to guess I would say they probably did differ over the span of years during which those badges were awarded. I have seen one in friends collection (same type as mine and yours) that he purchased with a small wax envelope- anything is possible, I suppose, but for something this prestigious- having hard time convincing myself of that one.
To the best of my knowledge, none of those decorations have surfaced in either fitted or inscribed boxes of issue.

cheers

Matt