Newsletter 253 April 20, 2017
U-boat Badge with Diamonds Presentation Letter
The U-boat War Badge with Diamonds was instituted by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder and was a gold-plated silver version of the U-boat Badge in which the swastika was inlaid with diamonds.
The badge was a special issue award given to U-boat commanders who had received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. This version was made of gold plate over silver. It was manufactured only by the firm Schwerin u. Sohn of Berlin and is so marked on the reverse. The badge was the same as the basic pattern but with nine small diamonds inlaid in the appliqued swastika.
Original badges with diamonds were made only by Schwerin and 28 were awarded.
There was no award certificate for this badge but a covering letter signed by Eric Reader as CIC-Kriegmarine or later, by Karl Dönitz.
Recipients of the U-boat badge with Diamonds
- Albrecht Brandi
- Heinrich Bleichrodt
- Otto von Bülow
- Carl Emmermann
- Engelbert Endrass
- Friedrich Guggenberger
- Robert Gysae
- Reinhard Hardegen
- Werner Hartmann
- Werner Henke
- Otto Kretschmer
- Hans-Günther Lange
- Georg Lassen
- Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock
- Heinrich Liebe
- Wolfgang Lüth
- Johann Mohr
- Rolf Mützelburg
- Karl-Friedrich Merten
- Gunther Prien
- Joachim Schepke
- Adalbert Schnee
- Klaus Scholtz
- Viktor Schütze
- Herbert Schultze
- Reinhard Suhren
- Rolf Thomsen
- Erich Topp
English (United States) 
German
4 thoughts on “Newsletter 253 April 20, 2017”
One of Germany’s biggest dealers has a U Boat badge with diamonds he wants to sell me. It is only marked ‘800’ on the reverse and the swastika is larger than the ones shows in several books. He claims this is the “second issue” and he wants a great deal of money for it. What are your views on this?
EC
There never was a second issue of this piece.
Originals are always marked ‘Schwerin’ on the reverse and the diamond studded swastika is always very small.
The larger ones are post war fakes and the stones are not of the period because of their cut. This fake example has been sold in many auctions to unsuspecting collectors and a number of “expert” books have shown it thereby assisting dealer sales.
And remember that provenance is vital in very expensive items.
“I got it from a vet,” (or “the family”) are sure signs of a fake.
As as aside, I know a collector who claims to have the boots of SS-General Demelhuber.
When I asked him how he could be sure of this, he replied with a smug smile that the name was actually written inside one of the boots!
He assured me that this was all the proof he needed!
Another collector bought what he fondly believed was Field Marshal von Mannstein’s uniform.
When I pointed out that I had known the Field Marshal and he was about an American size 42 long and the uniform was a 38 regular, he became furious.
I told him that the uniform obviously had been given to von Mannstein when he was ten. Destroying dreams makes so many unhappy.
My advice is not to buy that alleged U-Boot badge with diamonds and if you really want to spend a good deal of money on bad fakes, I can send you a number of links to the Really Important Dealers and you could buy Himmler’s carved throne, a rare Hitler Youth Olympics Dagger or perhaps a Partisan Badge in Gold with Diamonds.
That these are all fake should not matter if you are truly happy with your purchase.
And there are always those wonderful “Normandy” or “Anzio” camouflaged helmets to consider!
ADR
Gentlemen:
I think you are wasting your time with your postings. Most collectors do not want to know good from bad and they certainly do not want to know that their “collection” is packed with recent fakes.
Everything is being faked now and it is interesting to consider that German items from the 1933-1945 period are old and getting older. Consider this and then look at all the brand-new things being offered for sale.
Along, of course, with repainted helmets, fake cast SS rings, boxes of fake SS insignia and so on.
You mention a new book.
Why waste your time with this?
Make a full and illustrated file with what is being faked and then show excerpts from the sales sites of the dealers and post that and send it out.
You won’t make any money out of it but neither will any dealer.
Robert
I am working this up even as I write. I would believe that a genuine collector knows his field and is not fooled but that beginning and trusting collectors do not know and are skinned regularly. And the “reference books” are nothing but sales catalogs. ADR