Original Items: Only One Lot of 2 Available. The "armband system" was instituted by the NSDAP Party in 1939 at the same time that the political leadership ranks were expanded into their final form. The purpose of the armband system was to denote positional titles within the NSDAP Party in contrast to a party member's political rank.

There were three groupings of armbands, classified as "operational", "administrative", and "command". The operational armbands were used by NSDAP Party political leaders on the local and county levels and were worn by those Party leaders directly engaged in implementing Party policies to the public. During World War II, this was most often associated with food rationing, war relief efforts, and civil defense.

The administrative armbands were worn by office staff across all levels of the party, although mostly were used by the regional staff of the Gauleiters. The third, and least common of the armbands, were the command armbands worn by the Deputy Gauleiters, Gauleiters, and Reichsleiters.

The NSDAP Party armbands were intended for immediate implementation upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, although it was not until 1943 that the system was in total effect. Even then, photographic evidence reveals it was not uncommon for some political leaders to simply wear the pre-1939 bare swas armband, with some photographs as late as 1945 revealing political leaders failing to wear the appropriate NSDAP positional armband.

The Armbands In This Lot:
- Technical Emergency Corps TeNo Cloth Armband - Technische Nothilfe: Technische Nothilfe was a German organization. It began as a strikebreaker organization after the First World War, but developed into a volunteer emergency response unit. During the NSDAP period the TN became in charge of technical civil defense.

This 16” x 4” cotton embroidered armband features a lovely machine embroidered TeNo “Cogwheel” with N and T (hammer) insignia in the center with a black mobile swas. Excellent condition.

- DRKB, Deutscher Reichskriegerbund (Kyffhäuserbund) Veterans Association Wool Armband: The DRKB, Deutscher Reichskriegerbund (Kyffhäuserbund), (German National Association of Veterans, Kyffhäuser Association), was formed during WWI, and was based on the DKB, Deutscher Kriegerbund (German Veterans Association), originally formed after the war of 1870-71. The addition of "Kyffhäuser" in the associations name referred to the Kyffhäuser mountain where a large war memorial had been erected. The goal of the association was to preserve the morale and comradeship of former soldiers and to financially assist its members if required. On March 29TH 1938 the DRKB was renamed NS-RKB, Nationalsozialistische-Reichskriegerbund, (National Socialist-State Soldiers League), by the NSDAP and amalgamated with most of the earlier veterans associations into one national organization. Uniform and headgear regulations of the DRKB/NS-RKB were introduced prior to 1933 and were modified again in 1936 and 1938.

The armband is a 1938 pattern and was worn on the lower right sleeve of the service tunic by NS-RKB enlisted ranks. Navy blue wool armband with machine woven NS-RKB insignia. Insignia consists of a white bordered, red shield with white bordered, black Iron Cross with white circular centerpiece featuring a black, canted swas to center. Insignia is hand stitched to armband. This is an issued example with moderate wear, staining and minimal moth nips present. 15” x 3 ½”.

These are both wonderful examples of mid and late war German armbands from WWII. Both come more than ready for display!