Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice WWII German Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labor Service or RAD) EM/NCO's Aluminum Belt Buckle (Koppelschloß) with correct leather belt. The central RAD logo features five sheaves of wheat surrounding a shovel head with an embossed, canted, pebbled, swas on a textured circular central field. This is an early, injection molded, natural aluminum box buckle with a pebbled base field and a circular, embossed central motif. Later models used a stamped buckle with a separate logo.

The back of the buckle is maker marked with L.G.S. 39. on the back of the "shovel" in the design, and it also still retains the original leather tag, which still has a clear maker marking:

L. GOTTLIEB & SÖHNE
1939
OBERSTEIN

The black patent leather belt measures 37” when fully extended, and is in very good condition, with the finish having cracked and checked due to degradation over the years. It looks like whoever last wore this belt was way too small for it, so the adjustment tab was completely removed, and a pair of holes put directly through the leather body, which the buckle is currently attached to. In this configuration, the belt is about 28 inches long when attached. The leather is a bit stiff, and it has been folded for a long tie, so it would need some time before it is able to be put around a mannequin for display.

Overall a great example of a hard to find WWII German Belt, reduced in length for a smaller owner.

The basis of the RAD, Reichsarbeitsdienst, (National Labor Service), dates back, at least, to 1929 with the formation of the AAD (Anhalt Arbeitsdienst) and the FAD-B (Freiwillingen Arbeitsdienst-Bayern). Shortly after AH’s appointment as Chancellor in Jan 1933, the NSDAP consolidated all labor organizations into the NSAD (Nationalsozialist Arbeitsdienst), a national labor service. It served as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarize the workforce and indoctrinate it with NSDAP ideology. It was the official state labor service, divided into separate sections for men and women.

On June 26 1935 the NSAD was officially re-designated RAD. Originally personnel serving with RAD wore a variety of earlier FAD/NSAD belt buckles until February 15TH 1936 when new pattern belt buckles for Officer’s and EM/NCO’s were introduced to provided uniformity in dress.