Like with all mythical things there is some truth to the story, in the 1930's there were enemal signs, the Black Forest area made beautiful woodcarving sculptures, they made porcelain dishes,....etc; I read about the NSDAP anti kitsch laws when I was 14 years old or so in a book about the rise of Facsime in Europe and never forget about it, it seems the suppliers of the fake dealers did too and they used the examples in this book as a template for their rubish that they peddle with solid vet provenance or "I found it in an attic in Europe".
This is perhaps the most important part of that online article I posted:
"After the seizure of power, various items such as jewelry, boxes, thimbles, egg cups, clothes buttons, Christmas baubles, wine bottles, shoehorns, plates and cutlery with swastikas, images of the leader and various Nazi symbols were produced, exhibited and offered for sale. A law was supposed to prevent the National Socialist state or the
NSDAP from being “dragged through the mud” or made ridiculous.
Lists with the objected and prohibited items were published in the
Reichsanzeiger and in the Reichsministerialblatt."
The "Reichsministerialblatt" is the perfect document to make forgeries because it gives you a list of what was actually made and sold prior to May 1933 before it became illegal, all kinds of cheaply made and easy to (re)produce things, the fakers guideline for all kinds of objects modern day swastika lovers like and the famous Swastike Christmas baubles are on this list, btw so is that Hitler head Christmas bauble.
So M45, I did more to proof that they existed, that they were made and sold prior to May 1933 then you did, because you didn't go any further then "it is real because I got them from a vet", a line we all have heard too many times to proof dodgy stuff is authentic.
Back to the Swastika Christmas baubles, so they were produced and sold prior to May 1933, because Christmas is celebrated in December and people in Germany put up there traditional Christmas tree a week or two before Christmas we can safely asume that they were sold just prior to this date.
Now their are some questions:
- How many were made?
- How successfull was the sale of these?
- And the main question is how many did survive?
If we approach these questions with the same attitude most collectors of 3R objects have when it comes to other Nazi related objects like SA-daggers, German Cross in Gold medals,....etc the production run must have been large, almost all homes in Germany had them, thousends of GI's took them back to the USA with them after 1945 as warsouvenirs and most importantly Walter K found the unsold stock a few years ago, so they are available for the masses.
The Nazi kitsch item is a kind of religious token, you believe in them or you don't because their is no way to proof that in this case a cheaply made Christmas bauble with a large swastika on it was made in 1932 or in 2002, simply because it is still made in the same way now as it was in the 1930's, perhaps not in Germany but in a factory in China, who is going to pay for a scientific investigation of a 2€ object to proof its authenticity?
Just like I can't proof that the ground dug canonball in my display cabinet is from the Waterloo campaign, M45 can't proof to us that his Chrimas baubles are pre 1932, in both cases we either believe the story of the guy that found it or we don't.
This is also a good example that the fake peddler Walter K does more damage to the hobby then what we see at first glance.
as if they had been there to verify it.