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Description
Set of three ‘DAF Leistungsabzeichen’ (awards) for the following achievements:
Biography: Kurt Baer
– ‘Vorbildliche Sorge um die Volksgesundheit‘ (‘for Outstanding Contribution to Public Health’);
– ‘Vorbildliche Berufserziehung’ (‘for Outstanding Vocational Training Programms’);
– ‘Vorbildliche Förderung von Kraft durch Freude‘ (‘for Outstanding Support of the KdF organisation’).
Designed by Professor Kurt Baer, goldsmith in Berlin.
Large iron plaques (73 x 53 cm) weighting 21 kilogram each.
Works with a historical value, and aesthetical expressive design.
The DAF ‘Leistungsabzeichen Vorbildliche Sorge um die Volksgesundheit’ goes with the extremely rare DAF-brochure ‘Die Richtlinien zum Leistungsabzeichen für Volksgesundheid‘ (‘Guidelines for the Leistunsgabzeichen für Volksgesundheid‘).
Detail photos of the three plaques:
Special 32-pages DAF-brochure ‘Die Richtlinien zum Leistungsabzeichen für Volksgesundheid‘ (‘Guidelines for the Leistunsgabzeichen für Volksgesundheid‘).
The plaques are provided on the back with two marks from foundry Preussag, the ‘Preussische Bergwerks- und Hütten AG‘, founded at October 9, 1923 in Berlin:
1. the Preussag-schield (the Prussian coat of arms from 1933 to 1935 consisting of an eagle with a swastika, sword and lightning bolts, and below a hammer and pick);
2. the ‘Königliches Hüttenambt Gleiwitz’- stamp (crown and the letters HAG).
Left: the Preussag-schield.
Right: the ‘Königliches Hüttenambt Gleiwitz’- stamp.
Preussag advertising in the GDK-exhibition catalog 1941.
From Preussag to TUI…
In 1923 the Prussian state run coal mines, steel mills and salt works -not located in the Ruhr- were converted into stock corporations. Provided with a capital stock of 500.000 Goldmark ‘Preussag’ or the ‘Preussische Bergwerks- und Hütten Aktiengesellschaft’ entered into activity as a mining and steel company operating from Berlin (foundation October 9, 1923). Over time, the company grew out to an internationally operating conglomerate with interests in steel and other metals, mining, gas and oil exploration and production and other industrial activities. In 1997 the Preussag Group systematically repositioned itself. The acquisition of companies in tourism and the disposal of nearly all of its industrial operations created a new group, and in 2002 Preussag renamed itself TUI AG. Today Preussag Group/ TUI AG is an integrated European travel group, offering the full range of services, from its own fleets of charter airplanes to travel agencies, packaged tour operations, hotel and resort accommodations, and incoming services.
Similar to the Gaudiplom, the DAF issued from 1 May 1937 onwards four separate ‘Leistungsabzeichen’ (awards) for the following achievements:
1. ‘Vorbildliche Förderung von Kraft durch Freude‘ (‘for Outstanding Support of the KdF organisation’);
2. ‘Vorbildliche Heimstätten und Wohnungen‘ (‘for Providing Housing and Accommodation’);
3. ‘Vorbildliche Berufserziehung’ (‘for Outstanding Vocational Training Programms’);
4. ‘Vorbildliche Sorge um die Volksgesundheit‘ (‘for Outstanding Contribution to Public Health’).
All four plaques were designed by professor Kurt Baer, goldsmith in Berlin.
Displayed at the ‘Internationalen Ausstellung Freude und Arbeit’
The four awards were displayed in room II of the Deutschlandhalle at the exhibition ‘Der Internationalen Ausstellung Freude und Arbeit’, Bukarest, June-July 1939. Depicted and described in the exhibition catalogue: ‘In die Wände eingelassen sind vier von Professor Baer entworfene Ehrenzeichen, die von der Deutschen Arbeitsfront solchen Betriebe verliehen werden, die in der Förderung von ‘Kraft durch Freude’, in der Lehrlingausbildung, im Werksiedlungsbau und in der Durchführung von Gesundheitsmassnahmen Vorbildliches leisten’.
The files of the Süddeutsche Zeitung also mention Professor Kurt Baer as designer of the DAF-plaques.
In Bucharest the opening of the ‘Internationalen Ausstellung Freude und Arbeit’ (1939) took place in the presence of King Carol of Rumania. The photo (in possession of the New York Public Library) shows German Labor Front Leader Dr. Ley explaining a diorama of a Model Community in the German exhibit area to the King. A year earlier the exposition was held in the cities of Athens (May) and Rome (June).
Left: Leistungsabzeichen ‘für Vorbildliche Förderung von Kraft durch Freude‘. Depicted in ‘Betriebliche Sozialpolitik der Deutsche Werke Kiel AG 1933-1945‘, 2000, Magisterarbeit by Daniel Bejamin Roth.
Middle: Leistungsabzeichen ‘für Vorbildliche Förderung von Kraft durch Freude‘, depicted on the back of the magazin ‘Der Schulungsbrief’, – Der Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP, Edition 5, 1938.
Right: Leistungsabzeichen ‘für Vorbildliche Förderung von Kraft durch Freude‘, depicted in ‘Das Taschenbuch Schönheit der Arbeit’.
Left and middle: the Leistungsabzeichen ‘für Vorbildliche Förderung von Kraft durch Freude‘, depicted in the magazine ‘Kraft durch Freude‘, issued in June 1939 by the NSDAP, Gauleitung Wien, Die Deutsche Arbeitersfront.
Right: the Leistungsabzeichen depicted on the cover of the periodical of ‘Die Deutsche Arbeitsfront N.S.-Gemeinschaft, Kraft durch Freude. Gau Sachsen. Unterbezirk Dresden. März 1937.’
Left: Leistungsabzeichen ‘für Vorbildliche Heimstätten und Wohnungen‘. Depicted in ‘Betriebliche Sozialpolitik der Deutsche Werke Kiel AG 1933-1945‘, 2000, Magisterarbeit by Daniel Bejamin Roth.
Right: Leistungsabzeichen ‘für Vorbildliche Heimstätten und Wohnungen‘, depicted in the company magazine ‘Der Werkbote von Walshagen’, 14 April 1939.
Left: Leistungsabzeichen ‘für Vorbildliche Berufserziehung’, depicted in a company magazine of Hille Werke AG, Dresden, July 1940 (magazine is in the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum).
Right: Private First Class Arthur Wippman stands guard at the gate of a captured small-arms factory in Suhl. Date 4 April 1945 (Photographer: Pantallone, 166th Signal Photo Co; Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive). Notice at the wall (right) the DAF ‘Leistungsabzeichen’ for ‘Vorbildliche Berufserziehung’.
Left: ‘Leistungsabzeichen für Vorbildliche Sorge um die Volksgesundheit‘. Depicted in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, 1938.
Right: ‘Leistungsabzeichen für Vorbildliche Sorge um die Volksgesundheit‘ from the ‘Hugo Junkers Werke’ in Dessau. Photo: Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt.
The Leistungsabzeichen were awarded in very limited numbers (wikiedia).
| – condition | : II treated with a preserve (linseed oil and graphite, removable) |
| – size | : 73 x 53 cm |
| – signed | : created between 1937 and 1944. Two foundry marks at the back of Preussag |
| – type | : iron cast, weight 21 kg |
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