Original German WWII Heer Army Belt with Steel Buckle by Paul Cramer & Co. – RZM M4/44 Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice WWII German Wehrmacht Heer (Army) EM/NCO’s Belt with an excellent condition Steel Buckle (Koppelschloß). The buckle is embossed with the Heer motto GOT MIT UNS (“God with us”) surrounding a NSDAP Party Eagle. The buckle a nice 1940 pattern panzergrau blue gray painted steel construction box buckle with a smooth background. The paint on this example is in excellent condition, showing little wear from service, just some chipping from storage. There is no leather tab, however it is (RZM) marked M4/44, for maker Paul Cramer & Co. of Lüdenscheid, a German city which had a large number of companies who made buckles, buttons, and other clothing items.

The black finished belt itself measures about 37” in overall length, and definitely shows more wear than the buckle, which may have been a replacement after the original buckle broke. The black finish is worn throughout, however the leather is still supple, with no cracking or dry rot. It is is faintly marked “95” on one end, for 95cm, which is about 37.4 inches. It also still has a manufacturer information stamp onto the clip end, however it is worn and too faint to read unfortunately.

A very nice example of WWII German Heer (Army) Belt with a great buckle, ready to display!

The Reichszeugmeisterei, or RZM, was was based at the Brown house in Munich and NSDAP party headquarters in Berlin. The RZM ensured that the manufacturers of military items were consistent in design, quality of materials and other characteristics of the items. It also defined standards of design, manufacturing and quality and published an authoritative color chart for textiles. The M4 in the code stands for buckles, and registrant 44 is Paul Cramer & Co. of Lüdenscheid.