BACKGROUND: "Der Stahlhelmbund" (The Steel-helmet-league) was conceived as a national veterans’ organization by Franz Seldte in November of 1918, and was officially founded on Christmas day of that year. It was mostly comprised of WWI veterans trying to assimilate back into what was then a devastated society. The Stahlhelm became the largest of the post-war veterans’ groups, incorporating many of the smaller Freikorps groups into it. Most of its members were assimilated by the SA in 1933, and it was disbanded in 1935, with its remaining members absorbed by the DRKB ("Deutscher Reichskriegerbund"), which, in turn, was absorbed by the NS-RKB ("Nationalsozialistische - Reichskriegerbund") in 1938.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: A stamped, nickel-silver alloy pin, in the form of a profiled M16 helmet, above whose chin strap rivet is stamped an Iron Cross followed by "Der Stahlhelm" in Gothic script. The recessed Iron Cross (which establishes the pin as that worn by front soldiers and Free Corps combatants from 1929 to 1933) and lettering have been darkened in a way that highlight them. Complete with original pin.