History

The RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst = Reich Labour Service) was officially established on June 26, 1935 as the sole, and compulsory, labour service of Germany. Its purposes were to help the economy, curb unemployment, and indoctrinate its members with the NSDAP ideology, as well as play its part in militarising the German population.

The FAD (Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst = Voluntary Labour Service) was the precursor of the RAD in the early 1930s. Official uniform regulations were first introduced on October 1, 1933, with modifications made in July 1934. It is also known as NSAD (Nationalsozialistischer Arbeitsdienst = National Socialist Labour Service).

The earliest uniforms were a not entirely successful attempt at standardisation. They gave way to a second wave of FAD uniforms that, when the RAD was established, experienced no significant changes.

The Reichsarbeitsdienst der weiblichen Jugend (RADwJ, Reich Labour Service of Female Youths) was the female branch of the RAD. It was smaller than the male branch. In accordance with the place of a woman within the nationalsocialist ideology, the tasks the young women were assigned were chosen to prepare them for a domestic life of caring and nurturing. They included, for example, light farm work, taking care of the young, the old, and the sick, and organising entertaining events. While outwardly organised in a similar manner as the male branch, including the wear of uniforms, the RADwJ was much less militarised.

The Deutscher Frauenarbeitsdienst (German Women’s Labour Service) was the precursor of the RADwJ. The brooch was used to distinguish between only three ranks, as there were no more in that early stage of the organisation. It was worn until August 1937 as a rank insignia. Afterwards it could be worn as a traditions decoration.

The brooch is a round, convex metal pin-back with a swastika in between six barley sheaves. The inscription around the rim is in Kurrent script (often incorrectly referred to as Sütterlin) and reads “Arbeit für dein Volk / Adelt dich selbst / Deutscher Frauenarbeitsdienst” (Work for your people / Ennobles yourself / German Women’s Labour Service). The brooches are serial numbered on the reverse.

Arbeitsmaiden wore a bronze-coloured brooch.