SS-Obergruppenführer & Gauleiter, Friedrich Hildebrandt

His Golden Party Badge for sale.

The 25mm (small-size), Gold Party Badge made by Deschler, with enamel  to the obverse  being  translucent and over a particularly fine, engine-turned base. The outer border with golden oakleaves. The reverse  with a jeweller replaced centre screw section, and impressed early membership number 3 653 to the lower portion. The badge complete with its circular back plate. 

Condition report: The Gold Party Badge for sale in overall very good to excellent condition. The badge with mercuric plating remaining in places. The gilting gone from most of the reverse, although visible within the impressed numbers. The enamel in very good condition, free from any major damage and with a fine sheen still apparent. Small chip at the 9.0 position between the swastika and red border.

Notes on Gauleiter Hildebrandt:  Born on 19th September 1898 in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Died 5th November 1948, Landsberg am Lech. was an SS Obergruppenführer, a Gauleiter and judged for war crimes in the time of the Third Reich.

Friedrich Hildebrandt entered service in the German Army on 19th April 1916 as a Kriegsfreiwilliger and subsequently assigned to Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 24 on the Western Front. He was severely gassed in Flanders in 1917 and was wounded twice before the end of the war. During January 1919, he returned to Mecklenburg and joined the 1.Kompanie/Freikorps "von Brandis" (in Schlesien and on the Baltic). He served there until his capture and imprisonment by the Red Army in Riga. Hildebrandt was later released and returned to Germany, being discharged from the German Army as a Vizefeldwebel in January, 1920.

From March, 1920 to June, 1920, Hildebrandt was a member of the Sicherheitspolizei in Halle, with which he participated in the suppression of the "Kapp-Putsch" in March, 1920. In the wake of the Putsch, he was tried for excessive brutality against captured Spartakists in Osterfeld/Weissenfels. Although acquitted, he was dismissed from police service.

Hildebrandt became an early NSDAP activist, later becoming Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Mecklenburg and until 1937 also of Lübeck.He joined the SS, and ended up as an SS-Obergruppenführer.

In 1948, after sentencing in the Allied Dachau Trials, and specifically in the Airmen's Trial, for contraventions of the Hague Conventions, Friedrich Hildebrandt was put to death.

Provenance: A quantity of Friedrich Hildebrandt's memorabilia was given over to Hanseatische Auctionshaus Hamburg by Hildebrandt's grandson Lawrence Hildebrandt. One of the many items included in the sale, was Hildebrandt's 25mm Golden Party Badge. This was sold in Auction 40, 7th September 1991, Lot 531 'D'. A copy of the relevant auction lot is included in the sale.