Gold Party Badge awards

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Peter
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Gold Party Badge awards

#1

Post by Peter » 30 Nov 2003, 15:18

I know that the GPB was given to members with Party membership numbers below 100 000 and as Phil advised recently there were not a total of 100 000 members with those numbers because the NSDAP issued random inflated numbers to make it seem as if there were more members.

I also understand that GPB's (many dated 30 Jan 43) were issued to members with higher Party Membership numbers for "outstanding services".

Can anybody tell me why a member with a very low number may NOT have received the GPB. As an example I can see in the SS-DAL for Jan 1942

SS-Staf Walter Scholtz, Party Number 7 615 with no GPB
SS-Staf Franz Helldobler (Blutorden) Party No.792 with no GPB
SS-Staf Walter Turza, Party No. 51 282 with no GPB.
SS-Brig Anton Reinthaller , Party 83 421 with no GPB.

These a just a few examples.

I don not believe that its a printing error because these men and others do not have the GPB in earlier issues of the SS-DAL (who would want to be the printer who forgot Helldobler's GPB !!) so does anybody know if some members were excluded from the award, disciplinary ??

thanks
Pete

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Matt Gibbs
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Service requirements

#2

Post by Matt Gibbs » 30 Nov 2003, 16:37

You have forgotten one important aspect of the requirements! 8O

There were some restrictions that contributed to the rarity and significance of this award. Of the 100,000 persons who could or might have been qualified, the restrictions of active and unbroken membership reduced the number of awards to 22,282: 20,487 men and 1,795 women. 8) The Treasury Department of the NSDAP certified this.

The above award figures can be found in the publication: "NSDAP Partei-Statistik 1935," Vol. 1 published by the Zentralverlag of the NSDAP in 1936, and includes an exact breakdown of the Golden Party Badges awarded by location, percentile, sex, etc. [from GPBguy's website!]

The Golden Party Badge of the NSDAP was authorized by a Hitler decree of October 13, 1933 to ""honor those Party Members who, as of November 9, 1933, had a registered membership number under 100,000 - provided their party membership had been active and uninterrupted since the NSDAP's re-founding on February 17, 1925. ""
The NSDAP already numbered more than 100,000 members by September, 1930.

I guess the unbroken service woul dbe assessed form records of paid up membership, miss a couple of months, miss out !!! :lol:

The first badges given out for special Service to the party were in 1937, when all 16 members of the Reich Cabinet were awarded the badge. This continued until 1944.

Hope this helps in some way.

Regards
Matt Gibbs


Peter
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#3

Post by Peter » 30 Nov 2003, 16:44

Thanks Matt

I thought that if membership was broken then a new LATER number was issued to the person ?

Pete

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Matt Gibbs
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Broken

#4

Post by Matt Gibbs » 30 Nov 2003, 16:57

Pete;
This may be true, I am just citing the above facts as one reason why they never recieved the GPB.
I don't think a printer's error would carry through several Dienstaltersliste though, so perhaps try one for a different year, maybe '39 or something..?
Wish I could help more..!
Regards
Matt Gibbs

Peter
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#5

Post by Peter » 30 Nov 2003, 18:18

Thanks Matt, your advice is appreciated as always

I am working on a small project to ID the senior SS officers who had NSDAP numbers in the right range but no GPB, its a shame they were not shown in the 1934 DAL. I have 1938, 43, 44 etc. Do you have a DAL when they first showed the badges/medals, I dont know if they were given 1935-37 ? I have never seen a 1940 or 1941 and dont know if there was a 1943 ??

thanks
Pete

Phil Nix
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#6

Post by Phil Nix » 01 Dec 2003, 14:28

Further to the above Walter Turza Joined the Party Sept 1926. He was dismissed from the SS and the Party 9 November 1932. Re-admitted September 1937
Philmil

Peter
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#7

Post by Peter » 01 Dec 2003, 14:48

thanks Phil,

we seem to have a potential mixture of "dismissals" and also "lapsed membership fees". Do you know why Turza was allowed to retain his old membership number, I always thought that new numbers were issued.

Do you know which was the first DAL to give us the small icons to indicate awards etc.

cheers
Pete

Phil Nix
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#8

Post by Phil Nix » 01 Dec 2003, 15:01

Iltis wrote:thanks Phil,

we seem to have a potential mixture of "dismissals" and also "lapsed membership fees". Do you know why Turza was allowed to retain his old membership number, I always thought that new numbers were issued.

Do you know which was the first DAL to give us the small icons to indicate awards etc.

cheers
Pete
It was quiite common for a man who re-joined after leaving to retain his old number e.g. August Edler von Meyszner, Peter Hansen. Turza was dismissed but he always proclaimed his innocence and continued to work for the party in Austria.Himmler decided to re-admit him without loss of stauts of continuel service so he was re-admitted as if he had asked for leave of absence.
The first DAL to show medals was December 1937 before that only Blood Order and Cobuirg Honoyur badge were shown.
Phil

Phil Nix
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#9

Post by Phil Nix » 01 Dec 2003, 15:02

Iltis wrote:thanks Phil,

we seem to have a potential mixture of "dismissals" and also "lapsed membership fees". Do you know why Turza was allowed to retain his old membership number, I always thought that new numbers were issued.

Do you know which was the first DAL to give us the small icons to indicate awards etc.

cheers
Pete
It was quiite common for a man who re-joined after leaving to retain his old number e.g. August Edler von Meyszner, Peter Hansen. Turza was dismissed but he always proclaimed his innocence and continued to work for the party in Austria.Himmler decided to re-admit him without loss of stauts of continuel service so he was re-admitted as if he had asked for leave of absence.
The first DAL to show medals was December 1937 before that only Blood Order and Cobuirg Honoyur badge were shown.
Phil

Peter
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#10

Post by Peter » 01 Dec 2003, 15:26

The mists are beginning to clear and I'm beginning to understand, thanks again.

When did the Blood Order & Coburg Badge first show then Phil ? My 1934 doesnt have any indications at all.

Was there a full DAL other than the 1934 & Dec 1938 (ie: SS-Ustuf to Reichsfuhrer) ?

Cheers
Pete

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#11

Post by Veteran » 01 Dec 2003, 18:30

Lets see how it looks like: The Golden Party Badge of the NSDAP:

Image
Image

Peter
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#12

Post by Peter » 01 Dec 2003, 18:51

That is very nice, do you know who these badges were presented to ?

thanks
Pete

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#13

Post by Veteran » 01 Dec 2003, 21:14

The answer on your question is here:
The Golden Party Badge of the NSDAP was authorized by a Hitler decree of October 13, 1933 to honor those Party Members who, as of November 9, 1933, had a registered membership number under 100,000 - provided their party membership had been active and uninterrupted since the NSDAP's re-founding on February 17, 1925. In fact, the NSDAP had already exceeded 100,000 members by September, 1930. On November 9, 1933 the Treasury Department of the NSDAP certified only 22,282 of the first 100,000 NSDAP members eligible for the badge. This included 1,795 women.

The first awards were made November 9, 1933, on the 10th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. Award documents show awards were frequently presented on significant dates in the Nazi calendar - Nov. 9, Jan. 30, April 20, etc., as well as throughout the year. Since people were anxious to get this prestigious award, the bulk of the numbered Golden Party Badges were presented in 1933 and 1934, with relatively few additional ones after that date. This accounts for the consistency in quality of the badges.

The above award figures can be found in the publication: "NSDAP Partei-Statistik 1935," Vol. 1 published by the Zentralverlag of the NSDAP in 1936, and includes an exact breakdown of the Golden Party Badges awarded by location, percentile, sex, etc. Sadly it does not break it down by name. As far as can be told, there is no complete listing of holders of the Golden Party Badge, although the "SS Dienstaltersliste" lists several thousand members of the SS who were holders of the Golden Party Badge and gives their corresponding NSDAP membership numbers.

Hitler reserved the right to award the badge for special recognition of service to the Party or State, and used it politically to bring people into the NSDAP who had otherwise resisted or refused to join. These awards usually took place on the 30th of January of each year to anyone who had demonstrated outstanding service to the Party or State.

Although it was essentially the same badge, it was referred to as the Goldene Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP, or Golden Honor Award of the NSDAP, instead of the "Golden Party Badge". According to author Detlev Niemann, there were only about 650 such honor awards made, although a review of the SS Dienstaltersliste appears to show more than this number.

They appear to have begun in 1937 with an award to all 16 members of the Reich Cabinet and likely ended in 1944.

By decree the Golden Party Badge outranked most awards, including the Iron Cross and was to be worn above or beside this prestigious military decoration. As a Party award, it ranked only below the Blood Order. It was formally recognized as one of the 10 "Honor Badges" of the NSDAP in a Hitler Decree of November 6, 1936.

No other party pin was supposed to be worn when wearing the Golden Party Badge. When worn on civilian attire, the small Golden Party Badge was to be worn on the lapel.

For some unknown reason, Hitler did not start wearing his own Golden Party Badge until some time in 1936 - well after the first awards.

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Matt Gibbs
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Nice looking

#14

Post by Matt Gibbs » 02 Dec 2003, 01:12

I ave always liked the GPB and those look nice. Some members looking to buy one [including me] should note closely the features of the small Fuess marked one and the critical things to look for in these badges, I love those 'railroad ties'.!
Regards
Matt Gibbs

thomas
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#15

Post by thomas » 02 Dec 2003, 08:28

Dear Matt

You said that only ca 23'000 persons have received the golden party badge. How can then have a golden party badge have a number higher then 40'000 and one even more then 90'000 ?

Thanks for a short answer.

Greetings

thomas

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