Please Don't Shoot The Piano Player! A VERY Messy Wehrpass & 1918-45 Documents Group

[Rick Research]

We begin our tale with an award document for the 1918 Finnish Medal of Liberty 2nd Class to Machine Gunner Fritz Spiegelberg, "formerly" of the 1st MG Company/ 3rd Reserve Jäger Battalion, per 23 May 1918 on 21 July 1918.

The unusually complete and legible(!) signature of the commander is that of recalled from retirement 53 year old Major aD (last in Grenadier Regiment 8) Gebhard "Graf von der Schulenburg."

Obviously Private Spiegelberg was no longer with his unit!

[Rick Research]

But!!!

Although the DOCUMENT above for the Finnish Medal of Liberty 2nd Class reached Spiegelberg, apparently back in a German hospital... as this cover letter from the Finnish Military Attaché's office in Berlin shows, he only received the MEDAL itself, along with a long delayed 1918 War of Independence Medal and document (those are missing), in 1935!

The award document above is duly returned, along with a Military Service Certificate (see following scans, hmmm), and he is asked to send back the signed receipt for this belated transaction.

[Rick Research]

The Maestro himself, doing a Tony Blair impersonation in 1937!

Note that in Doodad Mad Nazi Germany, his lapel is bare of his earned ribbons, badges, or pins of ANY kind.

[Rick Research]

Something else he was doing in 1937-- playing the piano for war disabled Nazis, for bus fare!

[Rick Research]

His Wehrpass photo and personal information pages, from 1937.

Note: 1937 (this becomes important later!

Although a self described "artiste" (and I think that would probably sound as "precious" in German as it does in English ), One cannot escape One's vocational background: though the Maestro HAS (naughty! ) firmly stricken out "wire drawer" for the ? slightly more upscale "mechanic."

Maybe he TUNED pianos before he started playing them!

[Rick Research]

Now, "1937" becomes significant:

Though made out then, his Wehrpaß is BLANK for military service on page 12, awards on page 23, and frontline service details on page 32-- which is very, very strange! And, though he had the cherished Get Out Of Wehrmacht Service Free exemption slip, there was NO "vital employment" or medical disability notation-- indeed, in 1937 he had been classified "fit for war service!"

Instead, he has THIS, from 1944, glued in. Note that although he was wounded 25 April 1918 in Finland, he never received or applied for a Black Wound Badge!

[Rick Research]

Strangely, although his WW-ONE military discharge circumstances remained "still not determined" in 1944, his additional service in the 3rd Hundertschaft of the Berlin Sicherheitspolizei, as an Unterwachtmeister (= Gefreiter) 26 March to 25 October 1919 was certainly available, if ALSO unnoted!--

[Rick Research]

One thing's for certain, Herr S. was certainly a survivor! Having skated through the entire Second War... tickling the ivories (and he moved on 9 April 1945 as Berlin was about to be encircled!), he moved on smoothly with the new ruling "class."

Here's a Halloween 1945, Year Zero pass from the New Order, proclaiming him a piano player with the "Hobi-Ensemble" of the District Cultural Office, Birkenwerder (north of Berlin in the Soviet Zone), and stating that as a "creative artist" ("Kulturschaffender") he is entitled to "Ersatzkarte 3," whatever that was. Some sort of Extra Goodies from what would soon become the DDR.

Presumably the Commissars were as baffled by his spotty documentation as the Thousand Year Reich had been-- because someone wounded in the Kaiser's army fighting for the "reactionary White" Finns, who had been a member of the Berlin SiPo while Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were getting done for in the streets with the rest of the Spartacists wouldn't have seemed a very ... "popular" sort of guy with the Ulbricht mob--even if he COULD play "The Internationale" without sheet music!

[David S]

Thanx Rick

That is absolutely fascinating !

[Rick Research]

I love a "good read"-- whether it's a career from ribbon bars, or trying to assemble a life from documents like this.

Here is his "Get Out Of The Wehrmacht Free" Wehrpass Exemption ("H" for "army"). NORMALLY these have a line for the bearer's place of employment, with the statement that his continued exemption is dependent on their needs. This one simply states, flatly, that in event of a mobilization he will NOT be called up. The sort of thing we might expect from a Party member... but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Nor was he medically unfit. Some things will remain forever a mystery!

[David S]

I guess he had a music lover as his 'guardian angel'

They also serve . . . those who tickle the eighty-eight

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Rick,

very interesting story!
It must not be always the 10 place medal bar with plenty of enamel!

Best regards

daniel

[JensF.]

Rick, is it possible that Spiegelberg, with that name, had maybe jewish relatives? That would explain a lot.