Description
SOLD
Maker marked RICH. ABR. HERDER, SOLINGEN with four pointed star. Hilt shows thinning to plating and areas of exposed base metal. Upper obverse hilt fitting has etched SA rune and riveted bone grip plates with engraved “RFS”: “Reichs Fuhrer Schule”. Blade grades EX+ showing light sharpening and thinning to plating. Spine is engraved with “FELDAFING” (SA school) and obverse blade is engraved with “Ehre-Kraft-Freiheit”: (Honor, Strength and Freedom). Bayonet is complete with undamaged scabbard and retains 90% of the original enamel.
As the SA membership continued to soar in the 1930’s there was an ever growing number of members under the age of 30 and a declining percentage of those with service in World War One, so there was a continual shortage of trained young SA Leaders. This led to the establishment of the “Reichs-Führes-Schule” (Reichs Leadership School) located in a former villa overlooking the Starnberger See in Bavaria. Dedicated by Ernst Röhm on 1 April 1934, the “Reichsschule Feldafing” officially opened on 10 April 1934 as the “National Socialists German Higher School Starnberger See”. Originally stocked with Army cots and bedding, the teachers were members of the SA. Each year every German district (Gau) could send three (3) candidates with the exception of the Gau in Berlin and Dresden… they could send five (5) each.
In 1938 the school got a new, modern building and became known as the “Reichsschule der NSDAP Feldafing (RFS)” (Reichs School of the National Socialist Party, Feldafing, RFS). The school was under the sponsorship of the NSDAP Party Chancellery. Among others, two (2) well known students at the RFS were Alfred Herrhausen (who in 1989 as a famous German banker would be murdered in a bomb attack by the Red Army faction) and Martin Bormarn, Jr. In 1942 a sub-camp of KL-Dachau was established on a neighboring piece of land.
The school was closed on 23 April 1945 and the former students were officially barred from any higher education until 1949.
After World War II the grounds became a U.S. military-run Displaced Persons Camp (NP) for released Jewish returnees.
From 1951 to 2011 the grounds were under the control of the German Bundeswehr.
