German DRKB Deutscher Reichskriegerbund Membership Stickpin

Enameled Tombac stickpin. Gilt and marked Ges Gesch and 9 – transitional period badge 1933-1935. Badge is 16mm; 50mm with stickpin. This variant was only used from 1933 to 1938 when the DRKB was incorporated into the NSRKB.

The Kyffhäuserbund’s origins lie in a section of the Deutscher Kriegerbund (English: German Warrior League) that established a league in 1900 that would unite the formerly scattered German war veterans’ associations. Some of these organizations had already been administering the maintenance of the memorial together. The league was initially named Kyffhäuser League of the German Countries’ Warriors Associations (German: Kyffhäuserbund der deutschen Landeskriegerverbände), a name that became later abbreviated to Kyffhäuserbund. By 1913, this umbrella organization had already 2.8 million war veterans as its members and it had become one of the largest societies in Germany. During the time of the German Empire, the Kyffhäuserbund was instrumentalized against the growing social democratic movement in Germany.

The difficult circumstances of World War I’s postwar years led to a significant shrinking of the veterans’ associations and their role. During the Weimar Republic in 1921, this organization shed its federal structure and centralized itself under a common leadership. Following this step, it changed its name to German Warriors Association Kyffhäuser (German: Deutscher Reichskriegerbund Kyffhäuser e.V.). In the name of Gleichschaltung, the Kyffhäuserbund was nazified after the Nazi takeover of power in 1933. Five years later, its name was altered to Nationalsocialist Reich Warriors Association Kyffhäuser (German: NS-Reichskriegerbund Kyffhäuser e.V.), becoming the sole and exclusive organization representing the veterans’ interests in the Third Reich.