Reference books on documents

[Jeroen L]

Hello all,

First of all, I’m new to collecting TR stuff and before posting this message I spent hours and hours reading this forum. Read lost of great tips and advices of many members and some of my book purchases are a direct result af that.
My collecting interests are mainly medals and award documents.
So far I purchased the following books:

Thomas Yanacek’s Parade Medal Bars of the Third Reich
Brian Razkauskas’ Iron Cross Award Documents
Robin Lumsden’s Medals and Decorations of Hitlers Germany

By far not a complete list, I know, but IMHO a nice start. Some of Dietrich Maerz books are on my wish list too, so the library is not complete yet (will it ever be, I’m a book guy and one can never have too much books...;-)

Anyway my question is this; are the Forman’s guides to Third Reich documents still
worth buying them, since their release date is quite some years ago.
As I understood reading the forum, lots of the older reference books can be quite outdated and may not be the best beginners choice..

I hope some of you may find the time to help me out, thanks in advance!

All the best!

Jeroen

[hucks216]

The Forman volumes are worth having. The estimated prices in the books for the citations might have changed (while some have remained roughly unchanged) but despite that they contain images of the different types of citations. There isn't another single source book(s) that contains as many examples and for that reason alone they are worth having.

A similar type of book is Verleihungsurkunden des 3. Reich by Lothar Bichlmaier & Lothar Hartung but in my view it is a poor book and one to be avoided. The images are poor and the values can be wildly wrong, even for the period it was published.

There is also German Military Award Documents 1939-45 by Emilie Caldwell Stewart but it doesn't contain anywhere near the amount of images as the Forman books.

I compiled a list of books it is handy to have for collectors of paperwork for various reasons (i.e. some concentrate on the items while others help with the Order of Battles, officer lists etc) on another forum:

https://gmic.co.uk/topic/53049-books...rk-collectors/

[Simon O.]

Hucks's list is very good and as he says the Forman's guides are well worth getting. Also the Lothar Hartung guides to award documents.

My personal favourites are the Die Ritterkreuzträger series of volumes. Some contain more award doc examples than others but they give a much broader range of examples of the same award within that particular branch if service.

[Jeroen L]

Thank you very much both! I much appreciatie your help.

All the best!

Jeroen

[fknorr]

so the library is not complete yet (will it ever be, I’m a book guy and one can never have too much books...;-)

Jeroen,

As long as you stick with your quote above, you cannot go wrong. Good books and knowledgeable friends - like those to be found here, will never steer you wrong.

Welcome and good luck my friend.

Fran

[tompress]

Hi,

Hucks wrote already all about the books

But if you are looking for actual and reasonable estimated prices of awards and citations, I can recommend Price Guide Germany 1871-1945 by Carsten Baldes (I am also using them myself).

Now it is published online only:

https://www.militaria-baldes.de/en/c...115/page1.html

regards
Tomasz

[Jeroen L]

Thank you Fran and Thomasz!

Thomasz; when the shop is open again I’ll apply for a test account and see what it’s all about, thank you for the advice!

All the best

Jeroen