Original Item: Only One Available. The NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, (National Socialist German Worker’s Party), was originally founded in Munich as the DAP, Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, (German Worker’s Party), on January 5TH 1919. When Adolf AH joined the DAP in the autumn of 1919 he was to reform what was basically a debating society into an active political party. Appointed as the first chairman of the party on July 29TH 1921 AH was to restructure it along para-military lines in a hierarchy of four levels of government.

This is a very nice original German WWII Era NSDAP Enameled Small Golden Party Badge (Klein Goldenes Parteiabzeichen), also referred to in official documents as the Small Golden Honor Badge (Klein Goldenes Ehrenzeichen). These were issued to longtime continuous party members with membership numbers under 100,000 in 1933. The back has the following manufacturer information:

Josef Fuess of Munich is a known maker of these badges, and, and they made them with horizontal "safety pin" style attachments.

This example was awarded to party member 44113, identified as Fritz Eisenhauer on the included documentation copies. He was born on 15 November 1903, and then joined the NSDAP on 20. Sep. 1926. We can see that he was first awarded the badge on 18 December 1933, however also included with the badge is paperwork concerning Eisenhauer and his party badge, which actually indicates that on 26 March 1939, he had LOST his gold party badge. He was then issued another one in the following months, and there are additional included copies of original NSDAP documents regarding this. Definitely a fantastic translation and research opportunity!

This example is a classic example of the small Golden membership badge, awarded to only around 24,000 people total. It is overall 23mm in diameter, inset with a 18mm (0.945in) die struck alloy NSDAP membership badge with multi-colored enamel work. The badge features a white circular border, inside of which is a translucent red ring with embossed golden script, NATIONAL-SOZIALSTISCHE-D.A.P.. This encompasses a white enamel field with canted black enamel Swas (swas). Condition of the membership badge is very good, but definitely shows wear, as much of the gold wash is missing. Eisenhauer, who had lost his original badge, must have worn his extensively during the Third Reich era. The enamel shows wear as well, but no major chipping.

A great identified example of a rare NSDAP award, more than ready for further research and display!

More on the NSDAP Golden Party Membership Badge:

The Golden Party Badge (Goldenes Parteiabzeichen) was instituted by Adolf AH on October 13TH 1933 to reward those NSDAP members who had served the party continuously from February 27TH 1925, and held a party membership number of 100,000, or below. The originally bestowal of the badges was on November 9TH 1933, and further regulations dictated that AH held the right to render the award to personnel who had provided exemplary service to the NSDAP or Greater Germany. These secondary awards were bestowed annually on January 30TH and differ slightly from the original badges.

The difference in the original issue badges and the secondary issue was that the original issues had the members NSDAP party number engraved on the reverse while the secondary, January 30TH issued badges had AH’s initials and the exact date of the award engraved to the reverse. The badge was awarded in two sizes with a small, 1", (25mm), diameter badge for wear on civilian clothing and a larger, 1 1/4", (30.5mm), badge for wear on political or military uniforms.

The introductory regulations stated that the recipient must have continuous, unbroken service with the party and on leaving the party the badge could no longer be worn. The regulations also stipulated that on the death of the recipient the family may keep the badge as a memento. Of Note: Due to the "continuous" service clause in the award criteria, anyone who’s service time had been interrupted were ineligible for award of the badge. As a result of this criteria it is estimated that only about 24,000 badges were awarded out of the possible 100,000.