Golden Honourring of the city of Frankfurt, Ehrenring der Stadt des Deutschen Handwerks 1938

[gerrit]

Honour Ring of the City Of Frankfurt, instituted in 1936 / Ehrenring der Stadt des Deutschen Handwerks.

First of all i wanna thank Dr.Gunter Stemmler for his kind cooperation.
His published papers “ Der Ehrenring- Eine junge Auszeichung” has been a great help.
Also many thanks to the “institut für stadtgeschichte frankfurt” for helping me out with the documents i needed from the city archivs.
All original documents and pictures source ( copy rights reserved): ISG Frankfurt am Main & Dr.Gunter Stemmler.

Frankfurt received the honour title “ Stadt des Deutschen Handwerks” in 1935.
Such a city needed a Third Reich award: the story begins when the Reichshandwerkmeister on the april 29th 1936 proposed to create a Honour Ring.

Mastergoldsmith Julius Fuchs from Wiesbaden designed that ring ( *0) and send 3 photographs of the prototype to the council in 1936.
A first batch of 23 rings was ordered (*1)

The Ring:
Total awarded: 35 or 36 ( note (*2). 1936 (10x), 1937(9x), 1938(6x nominated,5x issued),
1939-1944 (12x)
Most famous reciever: Hermann Goring in 1939
Weight: 16-17 gramms depending on size ( individual ones where made, when a batch was completely awarded.
Material: Gold 585/1000 ( 14crt) in white, yellow, green and red.
Seizes: top plate 15x15mm, ringsize ( mine of 1938) is 21mm, height: 27 mm, wide: 26mm
Symbols: Top: the Franfurt Eagle in white gold, (design dates back to the 13th century)
Left: “ Handwerker” Symbol: craftsman Guild, red gold.
Right: “DAF” symbol, German labour front, red gold.
Both symbols are surrounded with oak leaves and acorns, green gold: symbols of strenght and loyalty
Price(*3): labour RM 262 + additional RM160 (more gold was needed as expected)
The gold was donated by the City of Frankfurt.

M. Bäcker gave me a nice clue when he replied on my first Ring post, and pointed out this the webste " Zentralverband der Deutschen Goldschmiede, Silberschmiede und Juweliere e.V.:n
They have a historic chapter called cronics, this was published in 1936:

Frankfurt / M., am Sonntag den 7. Juni. Im Rahmen des Reichshandwerkertages finden auch Arbeitstagungen des Reichsinnungsverbandes statt. Der Geschäftsführer der *Fachuntergruppe Juwelen, Gold- und Silberwaren und des Reichsinnungsverbandes Leidicke legt der Versammlung Einzelheiten über die Edelmetallbewirtschaftung dar.

Verleihung des Ehrenringes des Deutschen Handwerks an 10 verdiente Bürger im alt*historischen Römer der Stadt. Die Ehrenringe, die von Goldschmiedemeistern gefertigt wurden, zeigen beste deutsche Handwerksarbeit. Der Festumzug mit dem Goldschmiedewagen wird trotz strömenden Regens begeistert empfangen.

Roughly translated: in frankfurts historical Center 10 people were awarded with the Handerwerker Ring, the Rings shows the best German craftmanship, during the parade it was raining cats and dogs.

(*4)
The documents of the “ Hauptverwaltungsamt II/SPr./L of 6. Juli 1938, Vermerk:show the names of the nominated persons of 1938 named: 1-4
2) Reiner did already recieve a ring in 1936, his ring was kept apart and was later given to 3) Beckerle.
Only 23 rings were made in 1936, awarded in 1936/37 already 19 times only 4 were left.
With 3 awarded, and 1 on hold ( Reiners ring) the batch was empty.
On personal recommendation of the “ Oberburgemeister” 2 more Rings were awarded in 1938:
I.Vermerk, august 29th 1938 (*5) See: a) and b)
They now asked back the rings given to Beckerle and Linder, and gave them to Reichsjugendfuhrer Baldur von Schirach and Reichssportfuhrer Tschammer und Osten.
The ring that was kept apart for Reiner was given later to Beckerle, so they came 1 ring short.

On order of the Oberburgemeister another ring was ordered for Gauleiter/Burgemeister Linder.
This ring was individually made for him (*4 lower page) , i believe i have this ring in my possession, why?
My ring differs from the ones that are known: the original prototype and the one from 1941.
They both have the full acorn on the left side of the symbol and the empty shell on the right.
Mine has it vise versa, second thing is: the Craftsman Guild symbol is more detailled then the other ones, all rings are handmade, but making one, can leave room for individual details, like the symbol.

Since this ring is the only one in 1938 that was ordered outside the first batch of 23 rings ( see G.Stemmler) and differs from them, i can assume that this is the ring that i own.
In a batch of 23 rings ordered in as 1 batch, we can assume there were no differences between the rings tolerated.

Ger

source/ quelle :
(*0) master mark J.Fuchs, see picture innerside of the ring
(*1) page 245 Dr. Gunter Stemmler- Der Ehrenring-Eine junge Auszeichung (*2) page 247 (*3) page 246
(*4) Vermerk, 6 juli 1938, (*5) Vermerk, 29 th of august, 1938.

[bigmacglenn]

A Beauty! The workmanship and detail are incredibly good! Thanks for sharing this rare treasure, a first for me...
Glenn

[TrondK]

Very interesting information. Would love to have this ring in my collection!

[Wagriff]

You've finally nailed down the recipient's name for this ring! Great detective work! Congratulations! What do you have in mind to do with it now that it's been identified?

[Adrian]

Well done Ger! I'm really pleased you've managed to find out all this information which has narrowed down the recipient. Thank you for posting it here and sharing your treasure with us.

I'll add the link to the original thread about this ring:

Golden Honourring of the city of Frankfurt, Ehrenring der Stadt des Deutschen Handwerks 1938

[thekid]

Beautiful ring! Must of cost a pretty penny, but definitely worth every cent.

All the best,
Stefan

[big ned]

Well done Ger!

Here's your chap, in the centre, Befehlsleiter Friedrich Karl Wilhelm Linder.

Born: 05.04.1900 in Frankfurt am Main / Hessen.
Died: 17.03.1979 in Gross Bieberau.

NSDAP-Nr.: 5 284 (First joined, 00.09.1923; Party banned following the “München-Putsch” of 09.11.1923; Re-enrolled with Nr. 5 284, 02.06.1925)

And from then on, onwards and upwards.....

The fellow on the right is HJ Hauptbannfuhrer Dr.Karl Werner Gauhl leader of the HJ of Gebiet Hessen-Nassau.

I wonder if the ring Linder's wearing in this photo is the one you now own.....?

[Badto666]

WOW ! Just beautiful! I would love to own that ring

[Walkwolf]

Well, the research paid off.........!

[gerrit]

You've finally nailed down the recipient's name for this ring! Great detective work! Congratulations! What do you have in mind to do with it now that it's been identified?

- - Updated - -

You were one of the first to reply to my first post about this ring, your advice: do proper research and show it to experts in the field, make sure its real.
Well i did all that! LOL

Now that all the research is done there's that big black hole........LOL
I will just look at it.....its so beautiful......
I guess i just need a new challenge!

Ger