Quedlinberg SS Commemorative Badge Add to Watch List Watching View Watchlist >

This is a 1936 commemorative plaque honoring the 1,000th anniversary of King Heinrich I (919–1936) in Quedlinburg, Germany, an event heavily promoted by the Nazi regime as part of its effort to link the Third Reich to early medieval German kingship. The plaque reads “Quedlinburg,” “König der Deutschen 919–936,” and “2. Juli 1936,” marking the anniversary celebration held at the historic Saxon royal site closely associated with Heinrich I’s burial church. The portrait shows a stylized medieval king in profile, with the twin towers of the Quedlinburg collegiate church in the background, while the SS runes at lower right reflect the ideological appropriation of the event by the Schutzstaffel. During the Third Reich, Heinrich I was elevated as a symbolic forerunner of German unity and eastern expansion, themes emphasized in the 1936 ceremonies attended by senior Nazi leadership. Comparable plaques and badges from the 1936 Quedlinburg millennium celebration appear periodically on the militaria market—often described as “Heinrich I Tausendjahrfeier” pieces—and are typically encountered in cast metal with similar relief detail and dimensions. This example represents a politically charged commemorative object that blends medieval imagery with National Socialist symbolism, characteristic of propaganda art produced for state-sponsored historical anniversaries in 1930s Germany.