Question about postwar items.

[SteelhelmJim]

I have a bread bag and butter dish that are supposed to be postwar. The bag has the divider and the dish turns several times to open and close.
The problem is, I can't find any photos of either West german or East German troops using either item. (I have seen photos of West german troops using wartime produced gas masks and canisters).
So what is the whole story concerning these bakelite butter dishes, and very nicely made bread bags? Who made them, why the changes (divider and number of screw turns), who used them, and for how long.
My instincts tell me that somebody thought a divider would be more practical for the bread bag, and having more turns required to open the butter dish would prevent it from coming open accidentally. But who decide these things, and for which army?
By the way, to confuse the issue even more, I've heard reports that there have been ground dug butter dishes, from the Eastern Front, that take more turns to open than the commonly excepted ones that take a quarter to half turn to open.
So, whats going on here? What are the facts? Does anyone know for sure?

[Klaus1989]

The postwar bakelite butterdishes were used by only BGS and possibly barracked Polizei units. Only colours I have seen are tan and grey/tan (I have tan one in my collection). I have never seen period photo of them. In contrast, Bundeswehr and East Germans used aluminium ones.

The breadbag depends. I must see it or have better description to know, since both East and West German have dividers. Only very early West German Polizei breadbags (late 1940s) do not have dividers, but these are rare. West German have leather reinforcment on belt loops, East German do not. West German are also different colours for different organisations and time periods. I do not know about design history of breadbags or butterdishes after war, but like many equipments, they constantly redesign items to make them better.

If you look, many photos of postwar breadbags in wear. Here with BGS in 1957:


regards
Klaus

[SteelhelmJim]

Thanks for the info, and the great photo.

[Asbjoern]

While different in size from the TR butter dishes there is also a version carried by BGS and ZB as well! The BGS issued I own is yellow while the ZB ones are cream white ! I´ll try to take photos...

Jens

[Asbjoern]

Here we go...

pictures of my two different bakelit / plastic butter dishes made for BGS and ZB during the late 50ies.









If someone needs one of the white ones I may dig up some more...

Jens

[SteelhelmJim]

The tan one is exactly what I have. Thanks for the pics.
Is there any way of knowing who produced them, and where?

[Klaus1989]

I have BGS one like first in Asbjoern's post (I had photo but cannot find it). Mine is not marked "BGS" on bottom unfortunately. No idea that white/grey ones were ZB. On underside of lid is very small maker stamp, but hard to describe. It appears to have "1" over "31" and letters "OX" (or "XO"?), all inside circle with design.

I checked and it takes two complete turns and one half of turn to remove lid on my butterdish.

regards
Klaus