Luftschutz buckle

[bronkie]

i find this also a nice one, only pitty is the removal from the inscription "luftschutz" from the outside,(lucky not the swastica) but on the inside you still can see the negativ print.

[Ben Evans]

Moved the buckle to the general buckle thread as it is not a brocade. ref the buckle its a nice buckle, very strange how the Luftshutz has been removed but not the swastika! Quite bizarre!

[Ben Evans]

BTW welcome to the forum

[maximus71]

why in the world would anyone remove the Luftschutz but not the swaz? could it have been period done to be used by a different service??

[David North]

I personally think that the aluminium version of this buckle is really quite rare.

How interesting though that the Luftschutz declaration has been very carefully erased whilst the swastika remains fully intact. I think that maximus 71 in post 4 has posed a very good question.

This buckle is often associated with the SHD (Sicherheits und Hilfdienst) rather than the RLB (Reichs Luftschutz Bund) proper, although the buckle does apparently have other organisation associations. The SHD was formed in either 1935 or 1937 and continued to perform civil defense type duties through until 1942. These duties included fire fighting, search and rescue, logistical support in relation to emergency and disaster supplies, rubble and debris clearance, undertaking emergency structural repairs, etc. Perhaps the original owner of the buckle which started this thread was proud of his SHD membership and at times hazardous duties and did not wish to be associated with air defense?

The aluminium SHD is cleverly faked and were abundant around 10 years ago, however have now been absorbed into collections by unsuspecting collectors. The fakes are "good quality" insofar as they are cast in an unusually white alloy. Cast bubbles exist and I have seen fakes painted with a silver grey paint, as per the originals. There are however three instantly recognisable indicators on the fakes as (1) fakes are under size by several mm, (2) fakes when originally cast have no trace whatsoever of a silver grey paint and (3), fakes have some defects to the obverse emblem and most noticeably, to the oak leaf sprig end.

Regards,

David

[David North]

Original

[David North]

Fake

[yellow12]

Hello,

yes i agree full with David . This is the rarest variation of SHD / RLB .

Your buckle is a worn piece and therefor the swas is worn-out a little .

But is Aluminium and it's relatively smooth .

My congratulation to this fine lovely buckle .

Here mine also to compare :

[David North]

Dear Markus

Thankyou for your kind words of support and thankyou for showing a super example of the aluminium SHD.

One comment that I do not fully agree with is your feeling that the aluminium version of this buckle is the most rare.

A little academic for myself at least the pecking order, however I think that the SHD buckle which was manufactured in a zinc type metal is jolly difficult to find and is actually not well known or documented.

Attached are images of one that I hold.

Regards,

David

[yellow12]

Dear Markus

Thankyou for your kind words of support and thankyou for showing a super example of the aluminium SHD.

One comment that I do not fully agree with is your feeling that the aluminium version of this buckle is the most rare.

A little academic for myself at least the pecking order, however I think that the SHD buckle which was manufactured in a zinc type metal is jolly difficult to find and is actually not well known or documented.

Attached are images of one that I hold.

Regards,

David

Hello David ,

thank you for share with us this very rare buckle .

I've never see bevor on made from zinc .

But you must agree that the Aluminium type are very rarer than the steel variation .

Can i see RS&S production characteristics on this buckles ?