This one comes up now and again often with people thinking it could be a rare Nazi Party membership pin variety, but no it's not.

The badge illustrated below was handed to Clifford Mishler by a local with the usual "what is it" question and Cliff then passed the question on to me thereby giving me some blog fodder. The black enameled circle has the lettering,"D.V.G." = Deutsche Volks Gemeinschaft. "Westmark (Lothr.)" = Westmark(Lothringen) which roughly translates: German People's Community of the Westmark(Lorraine). By "community" the Nazis were referring to a co-operative like association of Germans living in the former French province of Lorraine. Their use of the term "mark" digs deep into history when a mark was a buffer state established on your borders and settled by your nationals. Austria was called the Ost (East) mark and the Lorraine became the Westmark. So what we have here is a regional association membership badge instead of a Nazi Party membership badge and a badge that I think is much scarcer than the more common Nazi Party membership badges.