The honorary edged weapon intended for wear by the leadership of the Hitler Youth organization served as an important status attribute for leaders. However, the number of daggers actually purchased was notably lower than the number of leaders who were entitled to such weapons by virtue of their position. According to the recollections of a son of one of the Hitler Youth leaders, his father preferred to wear a pistol in a holster with his uniform instead of a dagger. The reason was that the dagger had to be purchased with one’s own funds, and at the time it was quite expensive. Therefore, not every organization leader who had the right to wear one actually acquired such a dagger. This circumstance is one of the reasons for the comparative rarity of original examples today. A separate challenge for collectors is the authentication of such items. The market contains fairly high-quality modern reproductions, as well as restored and assembled examples with replaced parts. Consequently, a Hitler Youth leader’s dagger requires particularly careful examination: one must evaluate not only the blade and manufacturer’s mark, but also the grip, emblem, metal fittings, scabbard, and hanger, as well as the correspondence of all components to one another and to the period of manufacture.

The RZM type represents a category of German daggers from the Third Reich period produced under the control of the Reichszeugmeisterei (the Imperial Equipment Office of the NSDAP). Such items were marked with a special RZM code and manufacturer number instead of the traditional maker’s trademark; this was introduced for standardization and quality control of Party edged weapons. RZM-type daggers are characterized by more uniform execution.

The marking M7/36 is an RZM production code assigned to the firm E. & F. Hörster of Solingen, one of the renowned German manufacturers of edged weapons.