Gau Thüringen - Erfurt Meeting Badge 1933

German WWII > Awards and Medals > Tinnies, Pins and Stickpin > Tinnies

Gau Thüringen - Erfurt Treffen Abzeichen June 1933. The design of this Meeting Badge was used as the model for the Gau Honor Thüringen Traditions Badge. There are two variations of this badge, with only a small difference in the date “6.33.” and “4.6.33.”. It is constructed out a die stamped nickel-silver base that has been chemically burnished. The obverse features a large right facing eagle with its left wing pointing horizontally, its right wing downward, its tail feathers coming out the bottom left and is clutching, in its talons, a stagnant swastika with a six spoked wheel and “Thür-” (to the top portion), “Gau Treffen” (center) and “Erfurt 6. 33.” (bottom). The hollow back reverse features a horizontally soldered-on pin, hinge, and catch assembly. It measures 1 7/8 inches wide by 1 5/8 inches tall.

Erfurt under National Socialism: From time to time, the Reich Governor and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel allowed the unloved Erfurt to participate, for example at the Thuringian SA Gau meeting in June 1933. Here it was probably the expected crowds that spoke in favor of the much larger Thuringian metropolis, which had the corresponding capacities. The TAZ (Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung) proudly announced that it was “the largest SA march that has taken place throughout Germany since the victory of the national uprising”. This event was to become the absolute climax of National Socialist demonstrations of power and mass mobilization in Erfurt. Starting with the plentiful doubling of the population that weekend 17./18. June 1933 – “300,000 pay homage to Hitler in Erfurt”, according to the headline of the TAZ - which means a remarkable organizational achievement, almost all the obligatory elements can be found: spectacular flying in of the “Führer” at the airfield on the Red Mountain, which opened in 1925; smooth march of around 60,000 SA men through the city and in the stadium, which was inaugurated two years previously; Acceptance of the parade by Justice Minister Frick, Gauleiter Sauckel , Hitler and Hungary's Prime Minister Gömbös in front of the cathedral; cheering, enthusiastic crowds everywhere; nightly torchlight procession and fireworks; Honoring the Führer with honorary citizenship and entry in the city's Golden Book.