Original World War Two German Luftwaffe Two Place Medal Bar.
Featuring a Luftwaffe Four Year Service Medal and a 1st October 1938 Anschluss Medal. The medal bar retains its original pin and cloth backing.
On March 16, 1936, following the restoration of military conscription, Adolf Hitler reinstated a tradition from the Imperial German Army by introducing the Armed Forces Long Service Awards. These awards were created to acknowledge military personnel across all branches for their dedicated service. The awards were categorized into four classes corresponding to four, twelve, eighteen, and twenty-five years of service. The design of the Armed Forces Long Service Awards was executed by the distinguished graphic artist Professor Richard Klein from Munich, with each of the four grades suspended from a cornflower blue ribbon featuring a national eagle cipher. Luftwaffe awards utilized the Luftwaffe pattern eagle cypher. On March 10th 1939 Hitler expanded the series of Armed Forces Long Service Awards with the introduction of a gilt oak-leave cypher device to be attached to the ribbon of the twenty-five year service award to indicate forty years service. Criteria for bestowal of an Armed Forces Long Service Award stated that the individual must be on active service as of the introductory date, (March 16th 1936). An article in the introductory order indicated that two of the Armed Forces Long Service Awards could be worn at the same time in a prescribed manner. As with other armed forces awards the Long Service Awards were issued with a possession/award certificate and a notation was entered in the recipient’s official service record.
The Commemorative Medal of 1st October 1938 was the second of the "Anschluss", (Union/Annexation), medal series and was introduced on October 18th 1938, for award to civilians and military personnel who participated in the "return" of the Sudetenland to Germany. The award followed the same design as the earlier, "13th März" medal, that commemorated the annexation of Austria into Greater Germany. The Sudetenland, with over three million German inhabitants, was a section of Bohemia that had been awarded to Czechoslovakia in 1919 by the treaty of Saint Germain en Laye signed between Austria and the allies at the end of WWI. Hitler claimed that the Germanic Sudetens were being persecuted by the Czech’s as the main premise for the annexation of the area into greater Germany. Hitler also contended that the Sudentenland would be his final territorial claim in Europe. At a meeting in Munich on September 29TH 1938 between Britain’s Chamberlain, France’s Daladier, Italy’s Mussolini and Hitler, without Czechoslovakian input, it was decided that the Sudentenland would be "returned" to Germany and German troops marched into the region on October 1st 1938. Of Note: On May 1st 1939 Hitler extended award of the 1st October 1938 medal to personnel who had participated in the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Personnel who participated in the creation of the Protectorate, and who had already been awarded the 1st October 1938 medal were awarded the Prague Castle bar which was to be attached to the ribbon of their 1st October 1938 medal.
