The term Reichsarbeitsdienst, abbreviated RAD, is best translated as "imperial/homeland work service" and was the name of an organization directly controlled by the Reichsarbeitsminister Franz Seldte and his subordinate, state secretary Konstantin Hierl. Due to alterations in the corresponding laws, Hierl's title on 1935-06-26 changed to Reichsarbeitsführer.
From June 1935, every male had to complete six months of compulsory labour service before his actual military service began. After the outbreak of the Second World War, young women were also required to do the same for six months. The plan was to take people otherwise considered "useless" (mostly the unemployed, but also people with antisocial tendencies) off the streets and provide labour for the physically demanding pre-war preparations (e.g. road work, extended farm work and quarry work) for which volunteers were hard to find.
The term Reichsarbeitsdienst is sometimes found as an additional mark on porcelain/ceramics, so an explanation of the term was needed. Please note that items marked with this term were not made by the Reichsarbeitsdienst itself, but were actually made by various manufacturers and then marked accordingly.
Many people incorrectly refer to the MdASdA mark as "RAD mark" due to an translation error. In the context of the Nazi period, "RAD" is the short form of Reichsarbeitsdienst. The general German term for a cogwheel is Zahnrad, often simply shortened to Rad ("wheel") when referred to in a descriptive context. Many German sources refer to the MdASdA mark as "Radmarke" ("wheel mark") instead of "Zahnradmarke" ("cogwheel mark"), hence I can only assume that somebody came to the incorrect conclusion that the descriptive term "Rad" was equal to the "RAD" abbreviation. Again: the office providing the MdASdA mark was a sub-division of the Kraft durch Freude (KdF) and therefore controlled by Reichorganisationsleiter Robert Ley, whilst the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) was a sub-division of the Ministry of Labour and controlled by Reichsarbeitsführer Konstantin Hierl. Hence the MdASdA mark has absolutely nothing to do with the Reichsarbeitsdienst as both belonged to completely different head organizations.
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