Original Item. One of a Kind Set. Here we have a lovely pair of German WWII Period RAD National Labor Service framed items, which look to be a 1939 dated wedding photograph, and a service completion award. The wedding photograph measures 6 5/8" x 9" and is mounted in a 11 1/2" x 15" decorative frame. As best we can tell, the groom is holds the NCO rank of Unterfeldmeister (Junior field master), roughly equivalent to a Hauptfeldwebel, just under a Leutnant. We can see the unit number 351 on their sleeve, and they also have a 223 cuff title and subordinate level hewer. There looks to be a name signed at the lower right, next to a 1939 date.

The second item is a service completion certificate for Vormann Wilhem Ferling, which indicates where he served, and his term of service dates, which were 5. April 1938 to 25. Oktober 1938. It gives more personal information such as their birthdate and location, as well as where they completed their service. It measures 13 5/8" x 20" in the frame.

A lovely pair of German RAD framed items, ready to research and display!

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, and from then onward, men aged between 18 and 25 may have served six months before their military service. During World War II compulsory service also included young women and the RAD developed to an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht armed forces. The RAD was divided into two major sections, one for men (Reichsarbeitsdienst Männer - RAD/M) and the voluntary, from 1939 compulsory, section for young women (Reichsarbeitsdienst der weiblichen Jugend - RAD/wJ).