INTRODUCTION
In addition to the numbered Golden Party Badges, Hitler reserved the right to award the same badge for special recognition of service to the Party or State, and used it politically to bring influential people into the NSDAP - some of whom had otherwise resisted or refused to join. Some brave souls in fact did turn down the Golden Party Badge award, including one early Reichs cabinet minister who ended up resigning rather than accept it.
These awards usually took place on the 30th of January of each year to German leaders who had demonstrated outstanding service to the Party or State. Recipients included senior Party officials, officers, senior SS, industrialists and other prominent Germans.
It appears the first honour award was given out in 1935 and continued until 1944. The 1939 dated badge appears to be the most common. Klaus Patzwall in his book "Das Goldene Parteiabzeichen" (Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall: 2004) counts a total of 902 awards of this badge, although I have seen a few dated awards that do not appear in his index.
Although it was essentially the same badge, it was officially referred to as the Goldene Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP, or Golden Honor Award of the NSDAP, instead of the "Golden Party Badge". It was awarded in the same combination of large and small badges by the maker Deschler. Fuess does not appear to have made the "AH" badges.
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THE REVERSE OF THE HONOR BADGE The reverse of the Golden Honor Award version is stamped with Hitler's initials "A.H." and the date of the award, which was typically the 30th of January of every year - the anniversary of the Nazi's assumption of power in Germany. Some awards were made on other dates, like the example below, either to commemorate a special event, like a military victory or even the recipient's birthday. Typically, these are the only badges can can be attributed once separated from their documents. There are also versions where the date is hand engraved above or below the pin in script, with a facsimile of Hitler's signature below. These are only found on the "special occasion" version, and not the badges issued on the 30th of January. There are also engraved versions of the January 30th badge, which may be replacement or additional badges. The lettering and date are found in both a straight version as well as a semi-circle on some of the smaller pins. The stamped numbers themselves are always in the same style of writing - the zeros are round, the fours have a gap at the top, smooth curves to the numbers, etc. The accepted style of the impressed "A.H." has periods after each letter and the "A" has a short flat top. The reverses are otherwise similar to the standard numbered badges. Honour versions should never have a member's party number appear on the back in addition to the "A.H." and date, although fakes have been known to display both. Recently there has come to light a Gold Party Badge with a number higher than 100,000 - in fact quite a bit higher. The below badge has number 5,773,545 impressed on the back. This unique badge belonged to Alfred Fuchs, a Sudenten German active before the annexation, and was awarded the badge on December 12, 1938. As a non-German, he could not join the NSDAP before the Czech annexation, and so entered with a number in the 5 million range. Because of his pro-German activities he was awarded what can only be considered an honour badge, but it is factory stamped with his NSDAP membership number.
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 25 mm badge by Deschler
badge by Deschler |
