Front line weddings

[paulmfjr2]

These get better and better!!!!! I have found another group of FJ pics of a Ferntrauung, not sure if I can post pics here though

[Michael Fay]

It's not hard to know. The caption to my photo reads "Ferntrauung". I cannot think of another occasion where a table was set up like this in the field. A Feldgottdienst [religious service in the field] had a portable altar... no swastika flag draped over that.

I believe I have a few other field marriage photos in my collection. I'll dig them out.

Jason

if you have a photo with the ceremony actually written on it -I agree it would be very easy!
I have a hundred photos or so (so far) loose photos and only about 20 percent have writing on and/or captions glued on the back. So that helpful clue will not be always available.
To me it is not so easy to tell in all the images shown , especially if it is a blank table with nothing on it.
But I now have a much better idea from this thread.

[Michael Fay]

I've got a document stating the marriage of a couple after the guy was KIA. I'll post it here in the coming days.

This is really interesting. I wonder if the fact these were apparently often done without official religious representatives(as stated in this thread) allowed for such a union?
I don't know for certain, but I have a suspicion some religious doctrinal views might not approve marriages with a person who was dead.-Any one know for certain?

[BEB9]

Here is one that I found in a book on Signal magazine,

Cheers

Nicole

[Capt. R]

interesting topic.

notable to me is the 3 armed candleabras flanking each other as used in the ceremony.

[jmark]

I wonder if the fact these were apparently often done without official religious representatives(as stated in this thread) allowed for such a union?

Religion is it not needed for marriage. The union of a man and woman is a civil/legal matter, usually formalised at a wedding. In many countries, the religious and civil ceremonies are carried out at the same time. The civil ceremony often simply entails the signing of a register during the religious ceremony. I imagine these "long distance weddings" fitted nicely into the Nazi regime's scheme.

What I am curious to know is if these soldiers, now married in the eye of the law, had a religious wedding when they went home on furlough.

[Michael Fay]

Religion is it not needed for marriage. The union of a man and woman is a civil/legal matter, usually formalised at a wedding. In many countries, the religious and civil ceremonies are carried out at the same time. The civil ceremony often simply entails the signing of a register during the religious ceremony. I imagine these "long distance weddings" fitted nicely into the Nazi regime's scheme.

What I am curious to know is if these soldiers, now married in the eye of the law, had a religious wedding when they went home on furlough.

Jmark, it seems as if we are , in reality, asking the same question except for a few details.

Would a "religious(traditional Evang/Kath)," part of such a wedding between a living and dead person really happen?
if not, then if both civil and religious parts of wedding were ,as you say, usually carried out at same time then such a KIA wedding might never get off the ground if the religious aspect was present. =so in a front line wedding without the bride or any religious pfarrer present no one complains this is not doctrinally correct.

Or am I wrong to assume a marriage between a dead man and a live woman would be frowned upon by traditional Euro religious groups (Kath-Evang)?

By the way, I know the NS era had both a civil and a religious aspect to them.
I have many photos of them (in Germany with both of the Brautepaar Bride and groom-not on the front) .

Finally, 'the Nazi regime's schemes' did entail having lots of children (the correct ethnic group of course) born as soon as possible. So I guess getting the marriage part over quickly would allow for the first visit home to be more 'productive.'
But long term, NS ideas wanted the widow to remarry to have more Kinder...which brings me back to wondering about the marriages to a dead man: who cannot sire children.-It seems counter productive to that aspect of NS ideology.
Of course I see the poetic beauty and testament of faithful love such a union could express as well as NS ideology of the never to be Vergessen Helden who were Opfern for the eternal survival of Aryan Germanic Volk.

[dutchcollector]

sorry for the delay, here is the doc i was talking about. grretings rik

[seekwhence]

Here are some scenes from a 3rd SS "Ferntrauung" ceremony.











And now here is an image of a really weird SS marriage ceremony occurring in Russia. A fellow soldier of an SS man who is about to be married has gone "drag" and dressed himself up as a bride to fill in for real one back home.
I shudder to think how the honeymoon went...!




seekwhence