Nightwatchmen buckle

[lach470]

I do not like a dim indistinct mark of the manufacturer. The mark of the manufacturer on all buckles so is very badly visible? Certainly not.

It is possible....it could be a simple matter of wear to the buckle. If you look at my example. It is quite hard to make out the writing on the front because of the wear......as already mentioned on numerous occasions: your buckle is indeed a good one.

Rob

[Ben Evans]

Not to go off topic, but I have a question:

Is it possible that he could have worn one of these buckles?

It could be so, IMO depending where he served, in the homeland in Germany very possible, if he was guarding in the Ukraine then I would imagine not

[Kurt D]

Here's pictures of my buckle.

Kind regards
Kurt

[Buckle1]

Kurt,

thanks for the great explanation on both these buckles. . As far as I am concerned all of the buckles shown on this thread appear to be pre 1945 era buckles. Bye the way nice Berlin marked buckle.

Bill

[maxrsx]

The mark of the manufacturer wasn't wearing it so is badly made. As I have understood buckles without an inscription are made post war. Shown by me made in postwar Germany.

[Ben Evans]

Shown by me made in postwar Germany.

No, the buckle you have shown is an original made by Christian Theodore Dicke and was made in the WW2 era 1339-1945.

[maxrsx]

I trust you a buckle the original I will buy if it won't buy before me. Now I will place a photo on a forum of two buckles(SA and STAHLHELM). I have made photos at the dealer in my opinion of a buckle fake. your see opinion.

[Ben Evans]

Post the buckles in a new thread then guys can give you their opinions

[Wilhelm Saris]

Reichsverband is the united organization since about 1935 for the watchmen's guild, which
included about 10.000 uniformed watchmen. It was known as a "Zwangsorganisation".

The inner of the buckle is the official symbol for this union, showing a factory with
on top of it a bird, as used during the TR and officially also worn with the headgear
(visored cap). It included its lettering since 1935 around the edge of the symbol in
a band.

Dicke continued making these buckles after the war, but then no name in it while
the Reichsverband apparently did not exist anymore. This was mentioned by some
of their employees. If they were made before 1945 without the name, the employees
from Dicke I have spoken with, did not remember this anymore!

[Wilhelm Saris]

The Reichsverband for watchmen, the united organization from Berlin, existed from about 375 companies in summer 1935. With a special branch practically the same amount of watchmen for car-guards existed, known as Fahrzeugwachen. The amount of uniformed men was mentioned as above about 10,000 members.
For years one tried to arrange a sort of unified uniform for the whole of Germany. The sanctioning for this uniform may have taken place in early 1935. In smaller cities most often the members were not uniformed at all!

Due to the crisis from that moment it was difficult to find funds to uniform all. Later larger concerns arranged their own guards, known as Werkschutz in the later 1930's and next to the Reichsverband existed the well-known "Wach- und Schliessgesellschaften", which members largely took care for controlling of doors from shops and smaller industries were closed. They often did wear crossed keys
with their worn headgear (and upon buckles). Such buckles also existed after WWII.
The entire guarding-system was centralized in the (Deutsche Arbeits-Front) Reichsbetriebesgemeinschaft 17 (trade) in the section "business aids" (Kaufmännische Hilfsgewerbe).

As far as I was able to have a look the Reichsverband did not exist anymore in this form after the end
of WWII.