BACKGROUND: Free Trade Unions in Germany were dissolved when the Nazis came to power in 1933, their members being absorbed into the newly created DAF, "Deutsche Arbeitsfront" (German Labor-front). The DAF was originally a sub-section of the NSDAP, but became an affiliated organization by 1936, and was the largest of all of the various Nazi organizations. The stated aims of the DAF were to create a national community of German professional and manual laborers, and to educate them in National Socialist principles. Membership was voluntary, but most workers chose to join to take advantage of the entertainment, sport, and travel opportunities provided by the attached KdF, "Kraft durch Freude" (Strength through Joy), welfare organization. The Volkswagen, for example, was a KdF project designed to provide German workers with a reliable and inexpensive vehicle, initially being called the "KdF Wagen."

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Die-struck aluminum badge in the form of an oval, 40mm tall. Factory motif to the center with the KdF logo. The KdF logo is comprised of a mobile swastika, within a fourteen-toothed cog, and with arching lines radiating out from four of its extremities, creating a sunwheel swastika. Scrolled along the top of the badge "‘NS.G. KRAFT DURCH FREUDE HESSEN NASSAU". To the reverse is is crimped a vertical pin-back device, with the makers mark "Wiedmann Franfurt". Nice example.

GRADE ****                             PRICE $42.00