Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice Pre-WWII German Wehrmacht Luftwaffe EM/NCO’s Pebbled Aluminum Belt Buckle (Koppelschloß), with the correct brown leather belt. Interestingly, the entire interior of the belt has felt padding on it, even under the size adjustment tab, meaning it was made this way. We have only seen a few made this way before, and are unsure of what purpose the padding serves.
The buckle is embossed with an early pattern “Droop Tail” Luftwaffe Eagle inside a laurel wreath on the front. Only the earliest Luftwaffe material was marked with this eagle, which later had a tail that extended out more to the left. It is the standard stamped aluminum “box” pattern with a pebbled texture on the front, and the insignia is a separate piece riveted to the body. The buckle is in very good condition, with the pebbling very well retained, and most of the detail in the eagle present, which is definitely a rarity! There is no maker marking on the buckle itself, so we assume it originally had a marking on the leather tab, which is now missing.
The belt itself measures about 41” from end to end, made from thick leather with the standard leather tab with 7 pairs of holes attached to it for size adjustment, though an extra pair was added very close to where it is stitched on. The end of the tab is marked 95 Leibweite (Body Width), for a size of 95cm (37.4in.), so the belt may have stretched over time. There is also a LÜNESCHLOSS EXTRA-KOPPEL maker mark on the stitched end of the tab. The belt is in very good shape, with no cracking, though the felt padding on the inside shows wear and some moth damage.
Overall a very good example of a hard to find early pattern WWII German Belt and buckle with a very interesting belt. Ready to research and display!