Tunnerbund pants buckle-comments please!

[Buckle1]

I just picked this buckle up, only the second one I have ever seen and the 2nd is shown in "Patzwald's book. It is the standard small pants buckle construction with the rondell FF w/"S" over top of the FF letters and below in a wreath the word "Freiheit". Anyway an interesting and very nice addition to my collection. Any one ever see this buckle?? Guido, Kirby, Ben. David we talked about this prior to my getting it.

Thanks,
Bill

[lach470]

I can't say much on this one.....I've never seen one of these before....but what a cool looking buckle. Certainly looks like a Tunnerbund trouser buckle. Love the motto and the colour! Nice score!!

Rob

[Ben Evans]

Sorry Bill but I have never seen one! Very nice buckle though

[David North]

Bill

The strong possibility that this "Gürtelschließe" relates to the Arbeiter-Turn-und-Sportbund (ATSB).

Regards,

David

[Kurt D]

David

That's it. The ATSB was a "proletarian" organisation that was close to the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and stood in opposition to the "bourgeois/patriotic" Deutsche Turnerschaft (the organisation that everybody keeps calling (Deutscher) Turnerbund but was only so named after WW2 in West Germany). The ATSB was banned in 1933 and was not revived post-war. There was a similar organisation in Austria, the ASKÖ (Arbeiterbund für Sport- und Körperkultur).

Here is my buckle

[Buckle1]

David, Kurt, etal,

Thanks very much for responding to my thread and giving me a positive Id on my buckle. Patswall states in his book that the buckle is in fact what you have identified it as being. David where in the world did you find those two "gurtelschlieBe"? Anyway I have to assume that this buckle is not readily found on the market.

Thanks again,

Bill