During my research of the Landesschießen events held in Innsbruck from 1938-1944 (for use in a possible future publication) I was fortunate to come across some documents relating to the Meisterschütze & Gaumeister badges.

As a result I am now able to supply names of many of the recipients of the numbered Meisterschütze & Gaumeister badges issued from 1941-1944. The lists I currently have are unfortunately not complete for all years, however I do have the full roll call for the 1944 Meisterschütze & Gaumeister badges.

The lists are long comprising of well over 2,000 names in alphabetical, not numerical order, so take quite sometime to research. However if anyone would like me to look up a number please let me know.

Below: Meisterschütze 1942, #1043 issued to Karl Quooß, of Bregenz.........

Complete cased set 1941-1944 (includes a 3 year Gaumeister not shown), plus 4 year spange, all issued to Josef Flotzinger of Munich.

Don,

Very, neat. I recently picked up a 1943 example
that's numbered 694. Anything on that number?

Thanks and best regards!

Bill Warda

Indeed there is Bill.

#694 issued to Josef Wiedemann of Innsbruck. He also achieved another in 1944.

May we see a picture of it?

Cheers
Don

Hi Don, Can you check for the ones I have when you get a chance.
Meisterschütze 1942 #1236

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Meisterschütze 1943 # 2349

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Meisterschütze 1944 #2357

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Hi Raymond,

Sorry for the delay, I forget how long it takes to go through the lists.

1942, #1236 issued to Friedrich Kleißl of Innsbruck. He achieved two more Meisterschütze in the following two years plus the 3 year Gaumeister in 1944.

Nothing for either of the other two I'm afraid. As I said before, the lists are incomplete for '41-'43 so I still maybe able to turn up something for the 1943 if I find more lists. However the roll is complete for 1944 so I can confidently say that #2357 was either a replacement/extra purchased piece, or it was unissued.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Cheers
Don

Don,

Very nice, thank you!

Ray, thanks for the additional photos.

Something striking is/are the different types of pin attachment plates.

Don, keep up the great work!

Bill

2/2

My pleasure Bill. It's nice to be able to give something in return for all the help you guys have given me over the years.

The style of pin plate used on these is usually fairly consistent. The type on Raymonds '44 is the first I've seen like that.

Cheers
Don

O.K Don, hope you can help with my 1944 dated set, from top and clockwise the numbers are
2593 - 668 - 1021 - 2741.

Reverse

Thanks Don.Every little bit of information is appreciated .I think we have the makings of another informative thread. What is the highest awarded number in 1944?

Not a great deal of success I'm afraid Gary.

1944, #668 issued to Hermann Tanzer of Innsbruck. He achieved a Meisterschütze badge in each of the years 1941-'44, also gaining the 3 year Gaumeister in '43 & the 4 year spange in '44.

Neither of the other two Meisterschütze were issued. The highest numbers in the awarded groups were in the number range of 2400, there was only one badge issued with a number in the 2700's & two issued in the 2900's but none at all in the 25, 26, or 2800's.......

With regard to the 3 year Gaumeisterzeichen. 1944 was only the second year it was issued, with only 323 given that year. The higest number seems to have been #798. So I think it's safe to be that this too is an unissued/replacement badge.

It's interesting to see so far that a majority of 1944 badges (not just those posted here but others I've checked as well) are unissued. This could be down to passing troops finding them wherever they were kept & taking them back to the US, or boxes of them were found postwar & dispersed onto the market at that stage.

Cheers
Don

Hi Raymond,

Sorry, I missed your post. As I coincidentally wrote above, the largest group of numbers are in the 2400's but there were 3 issued well out of sequence one in the 2700's & two in the 2900's.

It may interst you to know though that in 1944 a total of 2,337 Meisterschütze badges (proper name Gaumeisterschützen) were issued, of which 250 were to young shooters & 62 to females. A total of 31,644 people took part in the 14 day event.

Cheers
Don

Hi Don
As with the 1943 set it seems that they were put together after the war, shame as I had thought they would have been similar to yours and awarded to one man.
Thanks anyway, I apreciate your efforts.

Cheers

Gary

Gary,

I think that with the discovering of these documents, we will be able to shed more light on this previously little known or collected area.

The case I have contained one badge from each year which we now know is how it would have been. Originally it was thought that a shooter would obtain several Meisterschütze in one year. Until these document were unearthed there was no real way of knowing whether my set or yours was how it should be or of being able to ascertain whether groups of badges were awarded to an individual or not.

As a reminder the picture below is how I found the group. It came with an Ehrenkarte with a name for the 3 year Gaumeister, but there was no way until now of confirming that the other badges were part of the same grouping. We still can't with the Gauleistungs but we are at least a step further down the road

Cheers
Don

Nice as always Don- + great info. I'm still waiting for the day that I see something boring out of your collection. Is it even possible?

Thank you for the kind words Lance.

There are many who consider these particular badges boring......

Cheers
Don