Original Item: Only One Available. The Kyffhäuserbund (English: Kyffhäuser League) is an umbrella organization for war veterans' and reservists' associations in Germany, founded in 1900 to unify the various veteran's groups in Germany. It owes its name to the Kyffhäuser Monument (German: Kyffhäuserdenkmal), a memorial built on the summit of the 473 m high Kyffhäuser mountain near Bad Frankenhausen, in the state of Thuringia in central Germany. It was not a political affiliated organization, and was open to all German war veterans.

When the National Socialist party came into party however, as with all national organizations, the group was absorbed under the NSDAP umbrella. In the name of Gleichschaltung (Co-Ordination or NSDAPfication), the Kyffhäuserbund was after the NSDAP takeover of power in 1933. Five years later, its name was altered to NS-Reichskriegerbund ‘Kyffhäuser’ e.V. (National Socialist Reich Warriors Association ‘Kyffhäuser‘), becoming the sole and exclusive organization representing the Veterans´ interests in the Third Reich. The organization would then be disbanded in March of 1943 and its members would be drafted into Volksturm service in 1945, as the fall of WWII Germany approached.

What we have here is an extremely rare cutoff lower section of a "Funeral Flag Pillow", which is used to display awards during the member's funeral. It is constructed entirely of what looks to be black cotton and wool, with lots of silver bullion embroidered. It measures about 15 1/4" inches wide by 9 1/2", and is only the "flag" portion, missing the upper "sleeve" that would have been put around a pillow and used to display the awards.

This portion is the lower 9 inches of the flag would hang off the edge of the display table, and shows a very well-executed NSRKB "Kyffhäuser’ Eagle, which is standard to the regular party eagle, but features another Iron Cross in the center, over crossed swords. The end of the flag has a lovely silver bullion fringe on it, which is about 1 1/2 inches long. Overall the flag is in excellent condition, with just a few small holes, probably from storage or moth. The top is a bit frayed where it was cut off.

These are extremely rare, and this is only the second example that we have handled.