Original Item: Only One Available. This is an original German Treudienst-Ehrenzeichen Sonderstufe für 50 Jahre, or Faithful Service Decoration Special Grade for 50 Years, instituted in 1938 for long-serving employees and workers in the private economy. This distinctive special grade is readily identified by its silver-colored cross, gilt oak-leaf wreath, gilt 50 on the upper arm, and black enameled central swas. emblem.

The reverse carries the characteristic three-line raised inscription:

Für
treue
Arbeit

or “For Faithful Work.”

This wording is particularly important to the identification. The corresponding public-service grades bore the inscription Für treue Dienste (“For Faithful Service”), whereas the 50-year special grade intended for private-sector workers and employees used Für treue Arbeit. The decoration is suspended from its cornflower-blue ribbon, the prescribed ribbon color for the Treudienst-Ehrenzeichen.

The medal remains in very good overall condition, showing expected age and handling wear. The silver-colored surfaces have developed an attractive muted patina with scattered finish loss and oxidation, while a substantial amount of the contrasting gilt finish remains visible on the oak wreath and raised “50.” The black enamel center remains especially well preserved and visually strong. The ribbon shows light soiling, minor edge wear, and some fraying or irregularity at the upper end, but remains substantially intact and firmly attached to the suspension ring.

Historical Context

The Treudienst-Ehrenzeichen was formally instituted on January 30, 1938, through a decree published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. The award system was intended to recognize exceptionally long periods of employment and public service. The governing statute divided the decoration into several grades according to both length and type of service. Public employees, officials, and workers could receive the silver grade after 25 years and the gold grade after 40 years, while a separate Sonderstufe, or special grade, was established for employees and workers in the private economy who had served the same employer, firm, or establishment for 50 years.

The contemporary announcement of January 1938 described this 50-year private-sector award in unusually specific terms. It stated that employees and workers who had remained with the same employer or enterprise for five decades would receive a silver cross bearing a gilt 50 on the upper arm and a gilt oak-leaf wreath. The same announcement noted that the decorations were to be worn from a cornflower-blue ribbon.

The special grade was therefore not simply a higher version of the ordinary 25- and 40-year public-service crosses. It represented a distinct category within the award system, recognizing exceptionally long employment in the freie Wirtschaft, or private economy. The differentiation was reinforced directly on the decoration itself. Whereas the public-service versions were inscribed Für treue Dienste, the special 50-year grade bore Für treue Arbeit, literally “For Faithful Work.” That wording is visible on the present example and is one of the clearest diagnostic features separating the private-sector special grade from the public-service forms.

Under the original regulations, eligibility centered on continuity of service rather than military achievement or political office. An employee or worker had to have served the same employer, proprietor, or enterprise for 50 years. The implementing regulations also established administrative procedures for determining qualifying service, submitting nominations, and issuing the decoration. The award was therefore conceived as a state recognition of exceptionally prolonged occupational loyalty rather than as a military decoration.

The design belonged to a broader group of service decorations introduced or reorganized in 1938. At the same time, separate long-service systems existed for the police, Reich Labor Service, military, and SS organizations, each with its own eligibility rules and insignia. The Treudienst-Ehrenzeichen occupied the civilian side of this broader structure, applying primarily to government employees and, in the special 50-year form, workers in private industry and commerce. Contemporary press coverage explicitly distinguished these groups when announcing the new awards.

The decoration's physical form was prescribed by regulation. The standard Treudienst cross measured approximately 41 mm square, with slightly flared cross arms and an oak-leaf wreath surrounding the central black enameled emblem. For the 50-year Sonderstufe, the body remained silver-colored while the surrounding oak wreath and numeral “50” were gilt. The cornflower-blue ribbon was approximately 35 mm wide, and the decoration was worn on the left breast.

The requirement for 50 years with a single employer meant that recipients necessarily represented careers beginning decades before the decoration itself was created. Someone qualifying upon its introduction in 1938 would ordinarily have entered the same firm or establishment by approximately 1888. In this respect, the medal commemorated working lives that often extended from the late Imperial German period, through the First World War and Weimar Republic, and into the late 1930s.