1939-1940 Commemorative medal

[matthew4108]

A piece that went somewhat past its prototype stage, yet the tide of war prevented it from being issued.

Pretty interesting construction method was used on those- it was made from layered iron as shown in the first picture. The process was described in one of the books, just don't remember which now, but few pieces were made using the same method- NSFK glider badge, etc. Similar to cupal but iron and of course magnetic.

Hope you like it!

[Hans1906]

Hi matthew4108,

the official german designation was "Medaille zur Erinnerung an den Krieg 1939/1940"

The 1939/1940 War Memorial Medal was a planned but not realized German war decoration during World War II.

Source and link: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medaille_ ... _1939/1940 (Only av. in German)

Weitze in Hamburg: https://www.weitze.net/militaria/24/Weh ... 29424.html

Translation from the Weitze website:

This is the planned war commemorative coin, which was to be issued to the Wehrmacht after the French campaign in 1940. Bronzed iron, with band ring. Slight signs of age, without ribbon. state 2
From the war commemorative coin, only a few samples were blackened in iron, bronzed in iron and silver-plated in non-ferrous metal. Very rare.

I'll spare you a comment, not only paper, but also metal is patient...

No offense!
Hans

[matthew4108]

I'll spare you a comment, not only paper, but also metal is patient...

Don't be shy on my account, go ahead, enlighten me

[Hans1906]

I'm not the "expert", just a novice reader.


Hans

[matthew4108]

We all know that but why start saying something and not finish.

[Hans1906]

The answer is simple, I only know of one specimen in a German collection, the collector is a north German gentleman who owns one of the largest collections on the subject.
The specimen in his collection is doubtful, according to this collector's earlier statement, that should suffice.

Incidentally, the gentleman has never been active on the Internet, which is very typical for many collectors, not just German collectors.


Hans

[matthew4108]

You should get out more, Hans.

Weidmann alone made few hundred of those medals, and the company was by no means a sole manufacturer of them. All 4 variations exist and are known in collections around the world. Mine is one of them.
If the medal in your friends collection is doubtful, I'd suggest him to get on the internet and educate himself to minimize his future mistakes but what does that have to do with my piece?

[Hans1906]

matthew,

you just have to accept, that some collectors are not active on the internet, this is not new.
Many have been collecting since the early post-war period, and some of these collections are very complex.
An online evaluation of your medal is hardly possible, if you are doing well with this award, then that's okay with you.

With this in mind, a friendly greeting to you!


Hans
P.S. A well-known German quote reads: "Man hat schon Pferde kotzen sehen!"
That stands for something unbelievable, good old wisdom, not only in a relation to german militaria.

[Hans1906]

I've given up the habit of judging Third Reich decorations online, and for good reason.

In the last 50 years we've sunk hundreds of thousands of euros and dollars into copies, very often.

The really rare pieces don't even appear on the internet, they aren't traded at all.
That was already the case in the 1960s and 1970s, and little has changed.

Hans

[matthew4108]

I'm doing very well with it. So well in fact that I decided to post it for posterity, not evaluation. I don't collect by consensus or opinions of some people in far away lands that refuse to use newest info because it happens to be in digital form.

I have seen vets with medals as fake as 3 dollar bill swearing they took them off dead Germans themselves, perfectly original pieces that were dug out by beginners talked down to the fake level. And everything in between.

I don't know everything but I try to educate myself before sending payment and the fact that someone is collecting longer or his collection is bigger means absolutely nothing to me.

Normally, I'd finish with "Happy Collecting" but you're not a collector so "Good Day" will have to do.

[Hans1906]

Happy to leave it to you, we children and young people knew and saw these men every day, the men were often drunk and they boasted of their awards, and alone they cried into their pillows, legless, blind, being cared for by their beloved wives until the end, that was our childhood, that's how it was.

Heroism was over, most men died lonely.
Tortured people who had not internalized anything, these men had never read "Mein Kampf".

Money and payment weren't even an issue when my best friend's father rolled around in his self-propelled vehicle without legs and was constantly drunk, the man was done, DONE!


Hans

[matthew4108]

Growing up 50 kilometers from Auschwitz, there isn't really anything that you can tell me about German troops and their problems that would phase me. Whether they read Mein Kampf or not is of no interest to me, obviously they did not learn their lesson during the WW1, they decided to start a fire under Europe's ass again and they had to deal with consequences of that later.

But that has nothing to do with medals or badges or why we're here so if you have some lingering problems on the subject, you should probably seek help elsewhere.

[Hans1906]

"you should probably seek help elsewhere."

Exactly, we maintain our fatherland complex, welcome to the topic!

Is growing up near Auschwitz a privilege, or what's the point?

Do you even realize the nonsense, you're spouting here, I guess, you don't...

Hans

[matthew4108]

Axis awards is the name of this section. Can you point me to ONE thread you started here where you presented the forum with one award for everyone's else knowledge or enjoyment? Or are you here to bait others? Looking for friends? Keep looking, I got enough...

[Hans1906]

Axis awards is the name of this section. Can you point me to ONE thread you started here where you presented the forum with one award for everyone's else knowledge or enjoyment? Or are you here to bait others? Looking for friends? Keep looking, I got enough...

That's not my job here, whoever makes a fool of me here in the forum, I'll make a fool of them too.
It's not my job to play the expert or the prompter.
I'm a reader, nothing more, nothing less.
I know some things, many things are still foreign to me today, and none of us is infallible.

As a German user, you are regularly pissed on your leg here, normal, we are still responsible for the misdeeds of our ancestors, you put up with it, more or less.


Hans