Wehrstammbuch

[Ian Thomson]

Hi all, I know that wehrstammbuch were similar to the wehrpass, in that they held much the same information, but why? Why was there a separate book containing the same information as the wehrpass. Also is it my imagination or are wehrstammbuch rarer than wehrpass? knowing that for every wehrpass there must have been a wehrstammbuch. Any help with wehrstammbuch would be much appreciated.

Regards
Ian

[Angel Farré]

The three principal booklets you can find relating a soldier are, the Wehrstammbuch, the Wehrpass and the Soldbuch. The Wehrstammbuch was open when the soldier registered for being drafted as was the Wehrpass, but the first was keep by the recruiting office meanwhile the second was given to the man. When this man was drafted in the RAD and/or in the WH he must give it to the company clerk and he received instead the RAD ausweis or the Soldbuch depending were he was serving. One can say that the Wehrstammbuch was the official record of the soldier military life, the Wehrpass is the military records keeped by the owner and the Soldbuch the identification while he was really serving in the WH. Why this three systems, I don't know, but was not uncommon due the obsesion of the germans for the exactitude, so they have three ways to compile the service of a determinated soldier, one is the Wehrstambuch that was always in the recruiting office, the Wehrpass that was keep by the soldier or the unit while in active and the Soldbuch that was enterely responsability of the soldier, if one was lost or damaged, the information was safe as still two other survive. Why of its rarity, I suppose that at the end of the war several was destroyed by his former watchers, others by the conquerors and the suviving examples mantained by the goverment as this is his principal mission, to be in the archives to provide a clear picture of the soldiers career. I have seen several along the years and one is in my posesion, but are not so collectables because not too many knows what really a Wehrstambuch is and also because it looks less military than a Wehrpass or a Soldbuch. Really diferences between a Wehrstambuch and a Wehrpass are really low, as they provide basically the same info, but it seems to be better a Wehrpass, it looks more militar and more "nazi" with the eagle instead a simply catoon cover. I remeber a couple of years ago to see the Soldbuch and Wehrstambuch for Rommel at an auction house. If you have one of more of this pieces are truly highly collectables and you could enjoy several hours researching the dates it contains, also you can find with them several papers relating the man's career, mine has promotion confirmations and award recomendations stored inside of it.

Cheers

Angel

[Gary T]

Hi,
There have been a recent increase in the number of wehrstammbuch available, certainly here in the UK. They usually come with a soldbuch and extra papers. As both these would probably be held by government archives, I do wonder where these have come from.
Gary.

[Ian Thomson]

Wehrstammbuch

Many thanks, Angel and Gary for your assistance.

Ian

[Rick Research]

Gary-- I have only recently seen several of these "whole kit and kaboodle" paperwork packets too, always of overaged home service types born in 190X. What I was told is that these were cleaned out of filing cabinets where they have been sitting untouched for all these years in government buildings, and were saved from going into the trash.

Since I know that the Berlin city government is now engaged in busily incinerating the complete and intact archives of hand copied complete service records of every wounded soldier treated there during WWI (the imagination boggles), I can well believe this is true.

[Ralph A]

Amazing that these records are being destroyed. I supposed they are stored electronically, now, an any event? One would hope so.

A useful site (but in German):

http://www.volksbund.de/

There is a "missing and dead" data bank, among other things. Also see "Grabersuche". But you "on the ball" guys probably already know about the site!

Anyone like to point me in the right direction to acquire a wehrstammbuch? I'll head over to the e-stand!