Original German WWII Red Cross DRK Belt with Aluminum Buckle by Overhoff & Cie. of Lüdenscheid

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice service used WWII German Red Cross (DRK) EM/NCO's Belt Buckle (Koppelschloß). This buckle features one-piece aluminum construction, with a 45mm, slightly convex, injection molded metal box buckle, and a front design introduced in 1938. The front of the buckle a large pebbled field, with an eagle with down-swept wings clutching a Balkan cross in its talons and with a mobile swas to its breast. This is all surrounded by an open-topped wreath of laurels.

The buckle is in very good condition, with a nice patina of age, though it does show a good amount of wear to the front, which has removed some of the detail from the design, including the swas (hook cross) on the breast of the eagle. The wear is consistent throughout the design, so it does not look to have been purposely defaced. There is also a lot of wear on the back of the buckle, with the clasp loop having been worn through, and then period repaired. The back of the buckle is also marked with OLC in a diamond, the mark of Overhoff & Cie. of Lüdenscheid, a city with a large garment accessory and part industry. Also on the back is GES. GESCH., for "Gesetzlich Geschützt" (By-law Protected).

The black leather belt measures 39.5” when fully extended, and is in very good condition. We did not see any maker markings and it has a different type of clip that we usually see on the end, which results in a very secure attachment. The leather is in great shape, with only light wear to the black finish.

A very nice example of a rare WWII German Red Cross (DRK) belt with a worn aluminum buckle, ready to research and display!

History of the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz:
Instituted in 1864 by Aaron Silverman of the Charité hospital of Berlin, the German Red Cross was a voluntary civil assistance organization officially acknowledged by the Geneva Convention in 1929.

One of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles prevented the DRK from having any involvement in military matters. As a result, during the Weimar Republic (1918 to 1933), under the leadership of Joachim von Winterfeldt-Mencken, the DRK became a national organization focusing on social welfare.

After the NSDAP Takeover:
In April 1933 the NSDAP Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick made it clear to Winterfeldt-Mencken that this policy would no longer apply; instead, the DRK would be expected to play its part in supporting the armed forces in any future conflict. Shortly after this the DRK was informed that the head of the SA Medical Corps, Dr. Paul Hocheisen had been given responsibility for voluntary nursing organizations.

On 11 June 1933 Frick was invited to speak at the Red Cross Day. He declared:
"The Red Cross is something like the conscience of the nation. ... Together with the nation, the Red Cross is ready to commit all its strength for the high goals of our leader, Adolf AH".

The DRK was quick to respond to the changed circumstances, indeed Winterfeldt-Mencken had always been opposed to the system of parliamentary democracy.[6] The Workers' Samaritan League, a left-wing humanitarian organization, had always been an unwelcome competitor to the DRK. Hocheisen very quickly arranged that it should be taken over by the DRK. Similarly, the DRK moved quickly to rid itself of left-wing members, and in June 1933 it also decided that the NSDAP "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" should be applied and dismissed its Jewish employees.

However the DRK was still a member of the Red Cross movement, and Germany remained a signatory to the Geneva Convention, so it was not possible for them to apply the same level of "Gleichschaltung" to the DRK as it was to other organizations. The attitude of the ICRC towards the DRK’s exclusion of the Jews was later expressed in a letter written by Max Huber in 1939. According to him, the primary obligation of neutral treatment as foreseen in the Geneva Convention was to the victims of war, and not to the helpers. He argued that as it was impossible to prescribe rules which were in conflict with the laws of a country, it was better to take a flexible approach than to risk the break-up of the universal Red Cross movement.

Despite Winterfeldt-Mencken’s professions of loyalty to the regime, they were not reciprocated and a replacement was sought. President Hindenburg was able to influence the decision, and selected Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who was Queen Victoria’s grandson, rather than Hocheisen. Charles Edward had moved from England to Germany at the age of 15, had subsequently served as a general in the German army in the First World War, and had long supported right-wing movements in general, and AH in particular. He was already honorary president of the National Socialist Motor Corps.

Charles Edward became President of the DRK in December 1933, while Hocheisen became his deputy. Not unsurprisingly, they did not work well together. There followed a typically NSDAP-Darwinist power struggle, in which Hocheisen was eventually able to assert his authority – only to be ousted by the top SS doctor Ernst-Robert Grawitz at the start of 1937. At the end of 1938 the German Red Cross officially came under the control of the Ministry of the Interior's Social Welfare Organization, becoming de facto a NSDAP entity, led by Grawitz in the role of 'acting president', with Oswald Pohl as chairman of the board of administration.

By this stage there was no doubt about who was in charge, though Charles Edward remained in his post until 1945. As he was related to European royalty and spoke good English, he was a useful figurehead for the DRK, but Grawitz was different – he would turn up to International Red Cross meetings in his SS uniform. Grawitz took a radical approach to his task. He introduced a hierarchical chain of command into the DRK, and arranged for a new large and imposing "representative"- presidential building to be constructed in Potsdam-Babelsberg, complete with a balcony from which speeches could be made. His ideal concept for the DRK was that of a "healthy structure which would fit itself organically into the laws of life in the National Socialist Third Reich".

In the years after the NSDAP takeover, as well as adopting NSDAP salutes and symbols, the DRK introduced NSDAP ideology into their education. Rescue teams were trained in military conduct, basic concepts of National Socialism, genetics, racial hygiene and demographic policy. More senior staff – doctors, nurses and managers were educated in demographic policy, racial history, racial hygiene, the biology of inheritance and the foundations of genetics. As a preparation for war, the DRK focused on training people to deal with air raids and gas attacks and organized joint exercises with the police and the fire brigades.