can someone help me track down a name

[Wijtman01]

hy guys, i just cant find this man

Hans-Hermann Grams

he was a artillery luitnant

i own his tunic, and thats it, the reason i want to track is because he has a breast pocket full of loops

cheers and thanx in advance

[tenoriodj]

The 1939 Army Ranglist (Das Deutsche Heer 1939) has one Grams, Oblt. Grams, of Aufklärungs-Abteilung 7 (Reconnaissance Battalion) Munchen, date of rank 1.12.34

The 1944-45 Army Ranglist has (it appears) the same guy, listed as a Major with Pz. Aufklärungs-Abteilung 7, mentioning that he was promoted to Oberstleutnant in 1.1.45. Neither of these published ranglisten show first names.

I also checked the list of holders of the DKiG, Ehrenblattspange, and the list of Generalstab officers. No Hans Hermann.

I think that, since you have full name and rank, you should contact Bundesarchiv Militararchiv Freiburg. They will have to check at least the following card file systems and other sources inherited from the Heerespersonalamt:

Suchkartei, Beförderungskartei, ZV Offiziere kartei, Verlustkartei, Abgangskartei: (officers who left active service), Kriegsreserve kartei.

Plus the record group they call "Pers. 6" which includes personalakten (Personnel files with many details such as recommendations from superiors etc). They have 222,280 personalakten of officers of Heer and Luftwaffe

Its work, but you can never be sure unless you have had all these checked. Certainly you cannot rely only on the published ranglisten.

They much prefer if you can supply date and / or place of birth, but with the info you have you have a good chance. Lastly, do NOT say you are a militaria collector

Good luck!

[tenoriodj]

In order to understand the difficulty inherent in doing German Heer officer research on the basis of a name, I think its important to keep in mind the following figures, as of late 1944: (Source: Dirk Richhardt, "Auswahl und Ausbildung junger Offiziere 1930–1945 Zur sozialen Genese des deutschen Offizierkorps" p. 185. Ph.D. dissertation written at Philipps–Universität Marburg, available on the web http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokser...=975984101.pdf )



Add to that the figure of Heer officers KIA throughout the war: 71,612, same source as above. Of course, for these, we are lucky to have the online database of the Volksbund, however, you are still looking at nearly 350K men, 280K of which were Reserve offiziere, which means, not included in published ranglisten. ...