Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice WWII German Reichsarbeitsdienst (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 marked R S & S on the shovel logo, which is for Richard Sieper & Söhne of Lüdenscheid.

The belt itself measures 33” when fully extended, and is marked 90 on the buckle end. It is also marked CROUPON and 979 on the buckle tab. The leather is definitely worn, but condition is solid with no holes or tears, though cracking is present, and leather is soft and pliable. Overall a great example of a hard to find WW2 German Belt.

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.