Announcement

**Rick Research** · 11-21-2001, 06:56 PM

Uh oh. This is a bottomless pit!

These things are NORMALLY a hideous mess of sloppy antique handwriting, pages glued in out of order, pages falling out...

I'm looking at a Soldbuch right now for a Train (supply branch) Unteroffizier who spent years in the 1920s trying to get his Milita"rpass back, because his moron Top Sergeant made all the men hand them in to him when they were demobilizing in December 1918, and he needed it as proof of service. The Reichsarchiv couldn't find any of them either... (Hey--this may be one reason why pairs of these don't turn up more often, huh?)

Once you get beyond that first page of name, birth date/place, parents, religion, profession, entry date/unit...

it's hopeless unless you teach yourself to read the horrid Gothic handwriting script.

Of course, the more entries, the better. I once had an immaculate MP to a man called up into the Prussian GUARDS FLAMETHROWER BATTALION--wonderful stamp!--but he was immediately mustered out as unfit for service!

At least a Milita"rpass will bear on the cover the "Jahresklasse," which will be the year that the man did turn or (by late WWI) WOULD have turned 20.

You want young guys who saw action, not rear area Landwehr types. (Though POW camp guards are not unworthy of scooping up--don't let mere age of the holder keep you from flipping the entries!)

Also be on the look out for ugly field issued award documents, tucked in there among all the various leave and transfer mess. Many an EK2 award document like the ugly one shown in the "Bigger and More Ornate" document thread on this Forum was still snuggled in the owner's MP decades later.

I've always had a weakness for complete groups. What could be nicer than a WWI MP, award documents, WW2 Wehrpass (with photo) and documents, awards, etc?...

But what would YOU like to focus on? To me, a "complete" group to a Musketier with an EK2 is more interesting than one ID book from a senior NCO, even if he got an EK1. (And you know what number entries to check out awards already, I bet, huh?).

And then there are Imperial NAVY versions...

And the "Zivilversorgungschein" given on discharge to career 12 year enlistees...

(CLUE: if you find one of these latter, it is because the guy did NOT get himself a "guaranteed" civil service job--they had to be turned in when that happened....)

These are all VERY MESSY docuents. It is almost always impossible to decipher the signatures of company commanders signing off about unit transfers and so on, but at least you get the "from...to" a man was assigned, the battles he took part in, wounds (Often in precise anatomical detail, none of this "light/heavy" baloney), awards, and so on in a Milita"rpass.

The covers vary from Prussian to Bavarian, Wu"rttemberg, and Saxon, as do the unit stamps. (I like Mecklenburg's stamps best--cow sticking its tongue out!)

So, uh oh. You've fallen into the deep end of the pool if you are serious about getting into these. They can keep you ensnared for years to come--but it's worth it! Rick

PS I know what--maybe we can have a seminar on "Typical Entry Pages And What They Show"
if there are more guinea pigs... I mean collectors... interested?...

[ 21 November 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]

Announcement

FAO Rick,please can you help?

FAO Rick,please can you help?

Comment

Users Viewing this Thread