Original Item: One of a Kind. Here we have a very interesting framed German Weimar Period Red Cross Badge of Honor, which looks to have been presented to American Fred Soll of Stanton, Nebraska. it has a presentation document inside of the frame, along with the Red Cross badge of honor, and the text reads:

Translated, this reads:

As a token of the gratitude of the GERMAN RED CROSS and its recognition for special services to the Red Cross, the undersigned President has given himself the honor of

Mr. Fred Soll

To award the German Red Cross badge of honor. This certificate is to be regarded as a certificate of ownership of the award of honor.

The rear of the frame has an additional document from the Deutsches Generalkonsulat (German Consulate General) in Chicago, Illinois glued onto the back, dated 7. Maerz 1927  (March 7 1927.

The text of this document reads:

Es gereicht mir zur besonderen Ehre Ihnen mitzuteilen, dass Ihnen der Praesident des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes in dankbarer Anerkennung Ihrer dem Deutschen Roten Kreuz gewaehrten hochherzigen Unterstuetzung das Ehrenzeichen verliehen hat.

Indem ich das Ehrenzeichen und die Besitzunkunde anbei uebermittele, erlaube ich mir Ihnen meine besten Glueckwuensche auszusprechen.

Mit dem Ausdrucke meiner vorzueglichen Hochachtung, habe ich die Ehre zu sein,

This translates roughly to:

It is my special honor to inform you that the President of the German Red Cross has awarded you the badge of honor in gratitude for the generous support you have given to the German Red Cross.

By enclosing the badge of honor and the property information, I would like to extend my best congratulations to you.

In expressing my excellent respect, I have the honor of being...

It is addressed to Herrn Fred Soll, Stanton, Nebraska, and is signed by the Verweser des Generalkonsulats (Adminstator of the Consulate General). It is apparent that Fred Soll must have donated a significant amount to the German Red Cross during the Post WWI period, and was given the award in recognition of this.

Overall condition is very good, with the expected fading and deterioration from age. The frame measures approximately 17 1/4"H x 13"W x 1", and still has the original hanger wire on the back. It shows no sign of having been opened for a very long time.

A very nice and interesting named and framed Weimar Period German Red cross award, ready to research and display!

The Weimar Republic (German: Weimarer Republik), officially the German Reich (Deutsches Reich), also referred to as the German People's State (Deutscher Volksstaat) or simply the German Republic (Deutsche Republik), was the German state from 1918 to 1933. As a term, it is an unofficial historical designation that derives its name from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place. The official name of the republic remained the German Reich as it had been during the German Empire because of the German tradition of substates.

Although commonly translated as "German Empire," Reich here better translates as "realm" in that the term does not necessarily have monarchical connotations in itself. The Reich was changed from a constitutional monarchy into a republic. In English, the country was usually known simply as Germany, and the Weimar Republic name became mainstream only in the 1930s.