BRONZE BEAUTIES

of the THIRD REICH!

      These amazing coins were minted by the Third Reich (NAZI GERMANY!) between 1936 and 1940. The composition of the coins is 100% BRONZE (copper and brass) with a rich COPPER FINISH. Most collectors call these copper coins but they are actually bronze, which is harder to produce than plain copper.

       Not only are these historic coins guaranteed to be original and authentic, they also remain in spectacular condition with hardly any wear. The text, numerals, symbols and dates all remain sharp and clear. Bronze Nazi coins in this condition are extremely scarce!!

        Each coin features a raised spread wing Nazi war eagle clasping a wreath. Inside the wreath is a prominent SWASTIKA!! Inscribed in high relief German Gothic lettering in a semi-circle below that are the words DEUTSCHES REICH (German Empire!), followed by the date (1936-1940). If you know your history, you'll know that 1939 and 1940 were World War 2 Years.

        The other side of the coin has "Reichspfenning" in a semi-circle above the denomination and a mint mark flanked by two oak leaves under the denomination. Interestingly enough, postwar Germany (the Bundesrepublik) continued to use almost the identical numeral and leaf designs on its coinage!

        You will receive one 1 Reichspfennig and one larger size 2 Reichspfennig, the latter being a scarce denomination (just imagine a U.S. TWO Cent coin to appreciate how unique it is). The finish may not be lustrous, but may have attractive light chocolate toning. In that case, a small drop of high quality copper cleaner will remove the toning and turn these gems into gleaming orbs of beauty (instructions below - print and save).

         We will have the cleaning done for you and insert the coins into a special 2-coin display flip with a pre-printed label ("GENUINE BRONZE NAZI COINS Minted between 1936 and 1940 Only) for an additional $1.99, which can be added in the Seller's Charges box or to your mailed payment. As a special bonus, we will make sure that a least one of the coins has a World War 2 date!! Winner, please email that you want the above option, which is an extra service.

         Similar Nazi coins in lower grade or made of brass or zinc are being sold  with cheap gold electro-plating on Ebay for up to $30 a piece. Here is your chance to buy two high grade bronze Nazi coins in their original state for a tiny fraction of that price!!

        Collector Value: $25.00. Buy Now at $9.98 (just $4.99 each!!). SAVE 60% on two coins steeped in history, beauty, scarcity and exceptional quality.

         * Apply a drop of cleaner to each side and spread it with a q-tip without applying pressure. Do not rub or scrub the coin! Wipe it gently with a soft clean cloth. Then use another section of the same cloth to very gently polish or buff it. The results will amaze you!

Großdeutsches Reich Greater German Reich ← 1933 – 1945 ↓ Flag National Insignia Motto "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer." "One People, one Reich, one Leader." Anthem first stanza of "Das Lied der Deutschen" followed by "Horst-Wessel-Lied" Nazi Germany to 1943. Capital Berlin Language(s) German Government Single-party state, Dictatorship Führer (1934-45) / President (1945)  - 1934 – 1945 Adolf Hitler  - 1945 Karl Dönitz Chancellor  - 1933 – 1945 Adolf Hitler  - 1945 Joseph Goebbels  - 1945 Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk Historical era Interwar period/World War II  - Elections in Germany January 30, 1933  - Establishment February 27, 1933  - Disestablishment May 8, 1945  - Allied Occupation July 5, 1945 Area  - 1937 [1] 633,786 km² (244,706 sq mi) Population  - 1937 est.[2] 69,314,000       Density 109.4 /km²  (283.3 /sq mi) Currency Reichsmark

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party (aka NSDAP or the Nazi Party), an anti-Semitic political party that established a totalitarian dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945. Officially, the state was called the Deutsches Reich (German Reich) and after 1943, Großdeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich).

The state was a major European power from the 1930s through the mid-1940s. Its historical significance lies mainly in its responsibility for starting World War II, and its commission of large-scale crimes against humanity, such as the persecution and mass-murder of Jews, minorities, and dissidents in the genocide known as the Holocaust. The state introduced slave labour for those who were not deemed racially adequate to be German citizens. The state also permitted the deliberate destruction of civilian areas of cities during World War II, such as in London during the Battle of Britain; Rotterdam, during the invasion of the Netherlands; and Stalingrad during the Battle of Stalingrad. The state came to an end in 1945, after the Allied Powers succeeded in seizing German-occupied territories in Europe and in occupying Germany itself.

In 1935, Germany was bounded on the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Lithuania, Poland and Czechoslovakia; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. These borders changed after the state annexed Austria, the Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia and Memel, and after subsequent expansion during World War II.

History

The Third Reich found its context in the wake of the loss of land, the heavy reparations, and the perceived national embarrassment imposed through the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I. Following civil unrest, the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s spurred by the stock market crash in the US, the counter-traditionalism of the Weimar period, and the rise of communism in Germany, many voters began turning their support towards the Nazi Party with its promises of strong government, civil peace, radical changes to economic policy, and restored national pride. The National Socialist party promised cultural renewal based on traditionalism, and it proposed military rearmament in opposition to the Treaty of Versailles; the National Socialist claimed that in the Treaty of Versailles and the liberal democracy of the Weimar Republic, Germany's national pride had been lost. The Nazis also endorsed the Dolchstoßlegende ("Stab in the back legend") which figured prominently in their propaganda as it did in propaganda of most other nationalist-leaning parties in Germany.

From 1925 to the 1930s, the German government devolved from a democracy to a de facto conservative-nationalist authoritarian state under President and war hero Paul von Hindenburg, who opposed the liberal democratic nature of the Weimar Republic and wanted to find a way to make Germany into an authoritarian state. The natural ally of the foundation of an authoritarian state had been the German National People's Party (DNVP or "the Nationalists"), but increasingly, after 1929, more fanatic and younger-generation nationalists were attracted to the revolutionary nature of the National Socialist party, to challenge the rising support for communism as the German economy floundered. By 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag. Hindenburg was reluctant to give any substantial power to Hitler, but worked out an alliance between the Nazis and the DNVP which would allow him to develop an authoritarian state. Hitler consistently demanded to be appointed chancellor in order for Hindenburg to receive any Nazi Party support of his administration.

On January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by Hindenburg after attempts by General Kurt von Schleicher to form a viable government failed (the Machtergreifung). Von Schleicher was hoping he could control Hitler by becoming vice chancellor and also keeping the Nazis a minority in the cabinet. Hindenburg was put under pressure by Hitler through his son Oskar von Hindenburg, as well as intrigue from former Chancellor Franz von Papen, leader of the Catholic Centre Party following his collection of participating financial interests and his own ambitions to combat communism.^{[citation needed]} Even though the Nazis had gained the largest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they had no majority of their own, and just a slim majority in parliament with their Papen-proposed Nationalist DNVP-NSDAP coalition. This coalition ruled through accepted continuance of the Presidential decree, issued under Article 48 of the 1919 Weimar constitution.

The National Socialist treatment of the Jews in the early months of 1933 marked the first step in a longer-term process of removing them from German society. This plan was at the core of Adolf Hitler's "cultural revolution".

Consolidation of power

The new government installed a totalitarian dictatorship in a series of measures in quick succession (see Gleichschaltung for details).

On the night of February 27, 1933 the Reichstag building was set on fire and Dutch council communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found inside the building. He was arrested and charged with starting the blaze. The event had an immediate effect on thousands of anarchists, socialists and communists throughout the Reich, many of whom were sent to the Dachau concentration camp. The unnerved public worried that the fire had been a signal meant to initiate the communist revolution, and the Nazis found the event to be of immeasurable value in getting rid of potential insurgents. The event was quickly followed by the Reichstag Fire Decree, rescinding habeas corpus and other civil liberties.

The Enabling Act was passed in March 1933, with 444 votes, to the 94 of the remaining Social Democrats. The act gave the government (and thus effectively the Nazi Party) legislative powers and also authorized it to deviate from the provisions of the constitution for four years. In effect, Hitler had seized dictatorial powers.

Over the next year, the National Socialist ruthlessly eliminated all opposition. The Communists had already been banned before the passage of the Enabling Act. The Social Democrats (SPD), despite efforts to appease Hitler, were banned in June. In June and July, the Nationalists (DNVP), People's Party (DVP) and State Party (DStP) were forced to disband. The remaining Catholic Centre Party, at Papen's urging, disbanded itself on July 5, 1933 after guarantees over Catholic education and youth groups. On July 14, 1933 Germany was officially declared a one-party state.

March at Reichsparteitag 1935.

Symbols of the Weimar Republic, including the black-red-gold flag (now the present-day flag of Germany), were abolished by the new regime which adopted both new and old imperial symbolism to represent the dual nature of the imperialist-Nazi regime of 1933. The old imperial black-white-red tricolour, almost completely abandoned during the Weimar Republic, was restored as one of Germany's two officially legal national flags. The other official national flag was the swastika flag of the Nazi party. It became the sole national flag in 1935. The national anthem continued to be "Deutschland über Alles" (also known as the "Deutschlandlied") except that the Nazis customarily used just the first verse and appended to it the "Horst Wessel Lied" accompanied by the so-called Hitler salute.

Further consolidation of power was achieved on January 30, 1934 with the Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs (Act to rebuild the Reich). The act changed the highly decentralized federal Germany of the Weimar era into a centralized state. It disbanded state parliaments, transferring sovereign rights of the states to the Reich central government and put the state administrations under the control of the Reich administration. This process had actually begun soon after the passage of the Enabling Act, when all state governments were thrown out of office and replaced by Reich governors (German: Reichsstatthalter). Further laws ended any autonomy in local government. Mayors of cities and towns with fewer than 100,000 people were appointed by the governors, while the Interior Minister appointed the mayors of all cities larger than 100,000 people. In the case of Berlin and Hamburg (and after 1938, Vienna), Hitler reserved the right to personally appoint the mayors.

In the spring of 1934 only the army remained independent from Nazi control. The German army had traditionally been separated from the government and somewhat of an entity of its own. The Nazi paramilitary SA expected top positions in the new power structure and wanted the regime to follow through its promise of enacting socialist legislation for Aryan Germans. Wanting to preserve good relations with the army and the major industries who were weary of more political violence erupting from the SA, on the night of June 30, 1934, Hitler initiated the violent "Night of the Long Knives", a purge of the leadership ranks of Röhm's SA as well as hard-left Nazis (Strasserists), and other political enemies, carried out by another, more elitist, Nazi organization, the SS.

At Hindenburg's death on August 2, 1934 the Nazi-controlled Reichstag merged the offices of Reichspräsident and Reichskanzler and reinstalled Hitler with the new title Führer und Reichskanzler. Until the death of Hindenburg, the army did not follow Hitler, partly because the paramilitary SA was much larger than the German Army (limited to 100,000 by the Treaty of Versailles) and because the leaders of the SA sought to merge the Army into itself and to launch the socialist "second revolution" to complement the nationalist revolution which had occurred with the ascendance of Hitler. The murder of Ernst Röhm, leader of the SA, in the Night of the Long Knives, the death of Hindenburg, the merger of the SA into the Army and the promise of other expansions of the German military wrought friendlier relations between Hitler and the Army, resulting in a unanimous oath of allegiance by all soldiers to obey Hitler. The Nazis proceeded to scrap their official alliance with the conservative nationalists and began to introduce Nazi ideology and Nazi symbolism into all major aspects of life in Germany. Schoolbooks were either rewritten or replaced, and schoolteachers who did not support Nazification of the curriculum were fired.

The inception of the Gestapo, police acting outside of any civil authority, highlighted the Nazis' intention to use powerful, coercive means to directly control German society. An army, estimated to be of about 100,000, spies and informants operated throughout Germany, reporting to Nazi officials the activities of any critics or dissenters. Most ordinary Germans, happy with the improving economy and better standard of living, remained obedient and quiet, but many political opponents, especially communists and Marxist or international socialists, were reported by omnipresent eavesdropping spies and put in prison camps where many were tortured and killed. It is estimated that tens of thousands of political victims died or disappeared in the first few years of Nazi rule.

World War II

German and Axis allies' conquests (in blue) in Europe during World War II.

Conquest of Europe

The "Danzig crisis" peaked in the months after Poland rejected Nazi Germany's initial offer regarding both the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor. After a series of ultimatums, the Germans broke from diplomatic relations and shortly thereafter, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. This led to the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe when on 3 September 1939, the United Kingdom and France both declared war on Germany. The Phony War followed. On 9 April 1940 the Germans struck north against Denmark and Norway, in part to secure the safety of continuing iron ore supplies from Sweden through Norwegian coastal waters. British and French forces landed in Mid- and North Norway, only to be defeated in the ensuing Norwegian campaign. In May, the Phony War ended when despite the protestations of many of his advisors, Hitler took a gamble and sent German forces into France and the Low Countries. The Battle of France was an overwhelming German victory. Later that year, Germany subjected the United Kingdom to heavy bombing during the Battle of Britain, and deliberately bombed civilian areas in London in response to a British bombing of Berlin. This may have served two purposes, either as a precursor to Operation Sea Lion or it may have been an effort to dissuade the British populace from continuing to support the war. Regardless, the United Kingdom refused to capitulate and eventually Sea Lion was indefinitely postponed in favor of Operation Barbarossa.

A member of Einsatzgruppe D killing a Jew who is kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. The back of the photo is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa".

Barbarossa too was briefly postponed while Hitler's attention was diverted to save his failing Italian ally in North Africa and the Balkans. The Afrika Korps arrived in Libya in February of 1941. In what was to be one of many advances in the North African Campaign, the Germans took back much of what the Italians had so recently given up. In April, the Germans then launched an invasion of Yugoslavia. This was followed by the Battle of Greece and the Battle of Crete. But, by the time North Africa and the Balkans were subdued, February, March, April, and May were lost. Because of the diversions in North Africa and the Balkans, the Germans were not able to launch Barbarossa until late in June.

Before and after the German attempt to take Britain, Germany's navy, the Kriegsmarine, was raiding Allied convoys in the Atlantic Ocean which were sending Britain needed supplies from the United States, Canada, and British colonies. British forces were forced to spread out to protect their convoys from submarine attacks by German U-Boats, as well as stopping surface raiders. The British successfully repelled a number of German surface raiding attempts during the war, the two most famous battles with surface raiders included one with the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and a British cruiser squadron in 1939, which set off a political controversy when the German ship attempted to take refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo, later being forced out and destroyed by her crew to avoid capture. The other was in 1941 with the German battleship Bismarck, Germany's largest and most powerful warship that sunk Britain's largest warship, the battlecruiser Hood. Bismarck was then pursued and sunk by British naval forces shortly afterward. Attacks by U-boats however, proved to be very successful and the most serious in damaging supply lines to Britain. Over time, the Allies developed improved defence tactics and new escorts that managed to reduce the numbers of merchant ships sunk. The German war machine managed to keep up with the steady losses of U-Boats because of their simple designs which allowed the U-Boats to be mass-produced and still remain a threat to the Allies throughout the war.

Erwin Rommel, the German commander of Axis forces in North Africa, famous for his strategic brilliance.

Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 and on the eve of the invasion, Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess, attempted to negotiate terms of peace with the United Kingdom in an unofficial private meeting after crash-landing in Scotland. These attempts failed and he was arrested.

By late 1941 Germany and her allies controlled almost all of mainland and Baltic Europe with the exception of neutral Switzerland, Sweden, Spain (debated whether it was an Axis ally), Portugal (debated), Liechtenstein, Andorra, Vatican City (arguably an Italian dependent state), and Monaco. On the eastern front, the German Army was at the gates of Moscow and engaged in a long winter war with the Red Army. Eventually the German army was forced out of Moscow, but held much of the Baltic territories spanning to the Black Sea.

Nazi Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This allowed German submarines in the Atlantic to fight US convoys that had been supporting the United Kingdom and although Nazi hubris is often cited, Hitler presumably sought the further support of Japan. He was convinced of the United States' aggressive intentions following the leaking of Rainbow Five and hearing of the foreboding content of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor speech. Before then, Germany had practiced its own policy of appeasement, taking drastic precautions in order to avoid the United States' entry into the war.

Persecution and extermination campaigns

The persecution of minorities and "undesirables" continued both in Germany and the occupied countries. From 1941 onward, Jews were required to wear a yellow badge in public and most were transferred to ghettos, where they remained isolated from the rest of the population. In January 1942, at the Wannsee Conference and under the supervision of Reinhard Heydrich, who himself was commanded by Heinrich Himmler, a plan for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage) in Europe was designed. From then until the end of the war some six million Jews and many others, including homosexuals, Slavs, and political prisoners, were systematically killed. In addition, more than ten million people were put into forced labour. This genocide is called the Holocaust in English and the Shoah in Hebrew. Thousands were shipped daily to extermination camps (Vernichtungslager, sometimes called "death factories") and concentration camps (Konzentrationslager, KZ), some of which were originally detention centers but later converted into death camps for the purpose of killing their inmates.

American soldiers cross the Siegfried Line, the border between Germany and France.

Parallel to the Holocaust, the Nazis conducted a ruthless program of conquest and exploitation over the captured Soviet and Polish territories and their populations as part of their Generalplan Ost. According to estimates, 20 million Soviet civilians, three million non-Jewish Poles, and seven million Red Army soldiers died because of the Nazis in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis' plan was to extend German Lebensraum ("living space") eastward, a foreseen consequence of the war in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, said by the Nazis to have been waged in order "to defend Western Civilization against Bolshevism of subhumans". It is estimated that at least 51 milion Slavic people were to be removed from Central and Eastern Europe in the event of Nazi victory. Because of the many atrocities suffered under Stalin, the Nazi message was interpreted by many to be legitimate in parts of Soviet Union. Many Ukrainians, Balts, and other nationalities fought, or at least expected to fight, on the side of the Germans. Many nations that fullfiled racist classifications of Nazi Regime the enlisted in the infamous and numerous Schutzstaffel (SS) divisions.

German prisoners being searched by Red Army soldiers.

Allied advances

As the Soviet war economy recovered despite the loss of industrial territory to the German occupiers, the Red Army put up a strong front against the German army. By 1943 the Soviets had defeated the Germans at Stalingrad and began the push westwar