Mystery letter

[max history]

Can anyone provide any information about this letter sent to a Gauleiter please?
Content?
Signer?
Unit?
Many thanks,
Max.

[Jan Klaassen]

If you'd like to have a translation, here you go:

"Secret matters of command (Kommandosache)!

For the exemplary sacrifices, with which you have served the interest of the past and future Wehrmacht, I would like to wholehartedly thank you - in the name of the late Generalfeldmarschalls von Hindenburg."

Signed by a major, whose name I can't fully read thanks to the green line.

The location, from where the letter was sent, appears to be east Sicily.

[max history]

If you'd like to have a translation, here you go:

"Secret matters of command (Kommandosache)!

For the exemplary sacrifices, with which you have served the interest of the past and future Wehrmacht, I would like to wholehartedly thank you - in the name of the late Generalfeldmarschalls von Hindenburg."

Signed by a major, whose name I can't fully read thanks to the green line.

The location, from where the letter was sent, appears to be east Sicily.

I had actually translated it, but am confused over any significance to the meaning, i.e. reference to the dead von Hindenburg.
As for the signature, I don't think the green line detracts from what is written. I read it as either Mende or Melide. Does anyone know of a Major with a similar name please?
Maybe I should have made it clearer, but thanks anyway.
Max.

[JUNGCO]

Why would a "thank you" note be stamped secret and in the name of von Hindenburg?? Who is he thanking?
Jeff

[Jan Klaassen]

Well, better translate it twice, right? ^^
As for the name; true, I just got a bit distracted by it - eventually even see-ing a "el" in the "d" - but I'd go for Melide.

[max history]

Why would a "thank you" note be stamped secret and in the name of von Hindenburg?? Who is he thanking?
Jeff

Exactly! The note is addressed to Gauleiter Telschow who was not a young man. Does anyone know of the Major? Was he someone close to the dead Generalfeldmarschall who had been dead for several years prior to this letter? Telschow was a little advanced in years to have seen service with this unit, and why is he writing to the Gauleiter from Sicily? All very strange.
Max.

[max history]

Just to dispel any doubts, this letter is not a fake. It is 100% authentic and came from Telschow's office in Lüneburg.
Max.

[jmark]

This may not be of any help but I checked "Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries" by Larry de Zeng and Doug Starkey, no-one called "Melide" but a few called "Mende".

MENDE, Bernhard. 01.09.42 promo to Hptm.(d.R.z.V./Fl.).
MENDE, Ernst. 01.03.44 promo to Hptm.(d.R.z.V.). 01.02.45 Hptm. and Chef 16.(le.Flugm.-Kp.)/Ln.- Rgt. 229.
MENDE, Günter. 01.11.43 in St.G. 151, promo to Oblt.
MENDE, Max. (DOB: 02.07.95). 05.10.39 Maj.(Erg.O.), trf from I./Flak-Rgt. 7 to Stab/Lg.Kdo. II. 10.04.42 trf from Stab/Lg.Kdo. Kiew to Stab/Wehrm.Befehlshaber Ostland. 01.03.43 promo to Obstlt. (Flak).

There's no date on your doc, but the mention of Sizilien East would presumably place it before July-August 1943, leaving the last guy as the best candidate.

Jason

[max history]

Thanks Jason. Mende would be my first choice and I agree with your deductions. I wonder if Max Mende had some connection to the late von Hindenburg? Or was he mentioned because Telschow had a connection which Mende knew about?
Max.

[max history]

Could this be Erich Mende, Major and Knights Cross winner? Here is what Wikipedia says about him...............
Dr. Erich Mende (October 28, 1916 in Groß Strehlitz – May 6, 1998 in Bonn) was a German politician of the FDP and CDU. He was the leader of FDP 1960 - 1968.
Mende was born in Gross-Strehlitz, Upper Silesia, (today Poland). His father, Maximilian Mende, was the director of a secondary school and, as was usual among Catholics, a supporter of the Centre Party.
On graduating from grammar school in 1936 he decided to become a professional soldier and enlisted in the Wehrmacht's 84th Infantry Regiment at Gleiwitz, on the German-Polish frontier.
As a lieutenant of infantry he was badly wounded on the third day of the German invasion of Poland in 1939. He was wounded on two further occasions. In January 1945 as a major, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) for holding the front and thereby helping 10,000 East Prussian civilians and wounded escape the advancing Red Army. A little later he managed to get the survivors of the Silesian 102. Infanterie-Division (102nd Infantry Division), about 4,000 men, to the relative safety of being prisoners of war of the British.
On his release from British custody, Mende took up the study of law and political science at Cologne University, gaining his doctorate in 1949. He also helped to found the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in 1945.
His party was the most freemarket-orientated of the three main German parties. Mende was elected to the Bundestag in 1949 and rose swiftly through the ranks of his party. By 1960 he was national chairman of FDP. He held this post until 1968.
As a member of parliament Mende worked tirelessly on behalf of former soldiers, those who were released after lengthy captivity (the so-called Spatheimkehrer), and those condemned as war criminals. He took a rather conservative, traditionalist view of how the new German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, should be structured and trained.
He was something of a thorn in Konrad Adenauer's side. Adenauer's Christian Democrats were the main government party with which the FDP was in coalition. After the FDP increased its vote in September 1961, in the wake of the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, Mende urged his party not to join Adenauer in another coalition. The FDP did not take his advice. He refused to take office, only changing his position once Ludwig Erhard had replaced Adenauer as Chancellor in 1963.
Under Erhard Mende served as Vice-Chancellor (deputy head of government) and Minister for All-German Affairs. His task was to promote relations with Communist East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, not then recognised by the West Germans. During his period of office West Berliners were permitted, for the first time, to cross the Wall for Christmas visits in December 1963. From 1964, East German senior citizens were allowed to visit West Germany.
Mende inaugurated agreements on road building, especially on the autobahn near Hof to facilitate better communications with West Berlin. Also during his time in office over 4,000 political prisoners held in East German prisons were "bought free" by West Germany.
The FDP lost office in 1966 with the fall of Erhard. His successor at the head of the Christian Democrats, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, decided on a coalition with the main opposition party, the Social Democrats of Willy Brandt. In opposition Mende turned his attention to his finances and worked as representative of the American international investment bank, IOS. His party veered to the left and he was replaced in January 1968 by Walter Scheel.
In the following year the FDP became the junior partner in Brandt's SPD-FDP coalition. In protest against Brandt's new Ostpolitik and the recognition of the Oder-Neisse Line Mende left the FDP in 1970 and joined the Christian Democrats in opposition. His defection did not have much impact on the coalition or his party's fortunes. He failed to make much impact in the ranks of the Christian Democrats.
Erich Mende was married twice. His second wife, the young war widow Margot Hansen, he met in 1947 at an FDP meeting. They married a year later. Margot Mende played an active role in her husband's career.
Mende is mentioned in several articles on President von Hindenburg and may well have been on the old man's staff.
Regards,
Max.

[Jan Klaassen]

He was only 17 when Hindenburg died... That does not appear to be a very realistic age to be on "the old man's staff" - but what about his father?

[Hank C.]

Could this be Erich Mende, Major and Knights Cross winner? ...edit....

Not being overly familiar with command structure among the branches, would an Infantry officer be a Fliegerhorstkommandant? I'd think that'd be more a Luftwaffe role...

Just my thought.

best
Hank

[max history]

I agree with both above comments. Maybe Mende hero worshipped the old man? I don't know. I suppose the connection could have been his father. Mende was seriously wounded on the Eastern Front and could only take on an admin role thereafter. It's all guesswork on my part, but I must admit to being mystified by this.
Max.

[der-hase-fee]

What about the upper left hand stamp ?

Fliegerhorst-Kommandantur E 38/IV was located in Comiso (Sicily) between Jun 1941 - Jul 1943. That's a few years after Hindenburg's death.

The handwritten note says "relocated to C.H.", whereever that is. The link shows it between Aug 1943 - Apr 1944 in Bologna (Italy)