German Money Belt?

[christek]

Hello all,

An interesting item. In the style of a 'hate belt' or souvenir belt. It has a mix of allied badges, buttons and insignia; at least a couple of which are post war. I am actually more interested in the belt itself. It appears as a German imperial era money belt but there are no obvious markings and this is not an era I am very familiar with. It is very old.

Apologies about the pics, not the best, my phone is playing up at present.

Any ideas? Cheers.

[drmessimer]

Certainly a very interesting collection of several sorts of Allied, mostly British it appears, and German insignia badges, but why do you think it's a money belt? Is there a long, narrow pocket built into the backside of the belt? That belt has a history. I hope you can find out more about its background and post it. Dwight

[Kohima]

These things are of commercial manufacture and, as such, countless variations existed.
The pockets were certainly intended for money, train tickets, and the like - whatever the soldier wanted or needed to keep safe.
A very nice example, extremely unlikely to have belonged to a German, but rather an Australian, British or Commonwealth soldier.
The term ‘hate belt’ is a ridiculous misnomer, however (coined by someone who has no concept of how these souvenir items came about), and deserves to die out. There is no hate involved in the exchange and collection of cap badges and buttons from your own army and allied soldiers - a memento of all the people and regiments you have met or served with.

[reneblacky]

Any markings on the snap buttons? I've a few money belts somewhere in my lot (not like this one with it's embellishments) all Aussie made.

[reneblacky]

Here's one given by a local council to servicemen of the district WW2 period.

[Anderson]

The practice extended to fitting badge souvenirs to a captured German service belt during WW2. In fact such belts often appear on the market minus the badges that once adorned it, but numerous holes in the leather.