A couple of Cultural items

[Thorsten B.]

Thank you very much, Steve!

Now there is a wedding plate visable that nor Willem neither anyone else can "detect" as being not from the period:

19.6.1943 - that was the Saturday before summersolstice, who would celebrate a wedding ceremony within the week when the guests cannot be there?
So they made the best of it and chosed the weekend before - therefore they chosed a good carver as well. On both sides of the wedding date we can find a blooming flower as a symbol for beauty and juvenileness for the bride and a book (Mein Kampf I suppose) with a sword on it for masculinity and the will to stand up and fight for your family and your beliefs for the man and soldier.

I hope all of you enjoy the pics!

[JoeW]

Furniture catalog..

Here is another one, though this has many other Handwerk items produced in the Gaues. Though I must say there is a lack of the SS culture displayed in items here that is missing in the furniture and items in these catalogs. Were there special catalogs for the SS?

[Michael Fay]

Guys,

let us not start to declare everything TR. The broach is obviously Gahr inspired but is not of the heavy quality silver that Gahr would produce. It is probably some sort of fairly recent reproduction as celtic, Lord of the rings stuff is quite popular in the alternative lifestyle scene. Witchcraft is hot - well at least a couple of years ago. These days you can get Thorhammers and Irminsuls as necklaces - also in Germany.

The candle holder is nice, but this stuff was also en vogue sometime after the war (seventies). My parents used to have one of these and I am pretty sure my mother has it still somewhere in the attack as it is no longer in style. And although everything can be given a voelkisch significance let us not go overboard. It is a fairly basic design for what it is: a iron worked candle holder.

Cheers, W

I concur that a healthy dose of distrust is applicable. Perhaps some evidenciary TR era documentation , instead of abject faith in any experts say-so would be welcome here.
MF

[der-hase-fee]

Here is another one, though this has many other Handwerk items produced in the Gaues. Though I must say there is a lack of the SS culture displayed in items here that is missing in the furniture and items in these catalogs. Were there special catalogs for the SS?

Is anyone going to post pictures of those little wooden figurines next that the folks in the Erzgebirge still carve for Christams today ???

[Thorsten B.]

If you can just do it.

Meanwhile I will get prepared to show some pieces of my Heimatwerk furniture so that everybody can be satiesfied with doubtless evidence ;-)

And yes, I even do own a big wrought iron lamp which is visable in the big Heimatwerk catalog and I received it with several other items ordered and made by the Heimatwerk - in this big Heimatwerk household some more wrought iron lamps surfaced - all of the very same design elements and the man from whom I bought it stated that all was ordered in 1943 by his grandparents. That´s enough evidence for me regarding my pieces, as I said before: it´s all a matter of personal development and experience.

If we would already know about the existence of any piece being produced it would not be such a lot of fun :-)

I can also add pics here when this whole lot of Deutsches Heimatwerk pieces was still standing in that household as well.

By the way: the SS produced pieces of which you would never believe that they belonged to their production range but pictures for documentation made by the order of the SS show a lot of them.

[Steve T]

DH Furniture for Thorsten

[Steve T]

More DH..

[Steve T]

..and more!

[JoeW]

Very nice Steve. For what it's worth, I had an original copy of the furniture catalog Steve has, but passed it on to another collector displaying more interest in the material, retaining a photocopy for myself. I kept the smaller book illustrated above as it contained more interesting photos of all types of DH production, not just furniture. And in one of the photos, is the exact same chest shown in the corner photo in the SS Family Book. So, the chest seems to have been standard DH production, not necessarily for SS consumption.

[Thorsten B.]

Joe,

Just for clarification regarding your important point about the chest shown in the Weitzel book:

The appearance in that pic in the Weitzel book of the chest with the Julleuchter on top and the tapestry gives the doubtless evidence that it was introduced and used as the SS Yule chest.

Already in the Weitzel book all the shown cult pieces for the use ONLY within the SS family are presented and described as pieces of the production range of the Deutsches Heimatwerk which can be ordered and bought within their two bigger shops in Düsseldorf - Weitzel´s headquarter as being leader of the SS-Oberabschnitt West and leader of all police units in Düsseldorf.

The Weitzel book dates from about 1938 - the big catalogue of the Heimatwerk is definitely from 1940, at least I have one version with that exact date on the cover of the catalogue and another one - exactly identical - without any year on it´s cover.
So the version without the year on cover could be from 1939 and only the one combined with the year 1940 on the cover from that year.

I think we can get in common about the fact that only this big catalogue is the most complete and important one for showing the whole range of furniture offered by the Heimatwerk when they were on the zenith before the war had an influence on the possibility of receiving material, the presence - or better absence of skilled craftmen and logistics.
And it is combined at the end with the exact articel number (which obviously was the order number as well) and the prices onby.

Nonetheless the Yule chest shown in the Weitzel book is not included - that means that it was not offered for the public.

[JoeW]

Thorsten, my DH catalog copy is dated 1940 like yours. However, the articles therein are illustrated by line drawings, not by actual production photographs. So you really cannot state that the chest shown in the SS Family Book is not included in that catalog,nor can you state that it was not offered for sale to non-SS consumers. Moreover, I indicated the exact chest is illustrated by photograph in the small catalog I pictured above showing DH consumer goods produced in the various Gaues. To me that indicates the chest was available on the open market.

[Thorsten B.]

I think there were no special catalogues from the Heimatwerk for the SS - at least nothing has surfaced yet.

Nonetheless you are right that the Yule chest is shown in the smaller booklet.
The booklet itself is - due to what is stated within it - from later wartime since it is said that the responsible CEO is absent due to military draft.

So in my opinion the booklet is from winter 1943/44 - I can´t imagine that the CEO of such a cultural enterprise would have to join the army earlier.

The main shops in Düsseldorf already had to be closed due to the fact that both houses were completely bombed out in 1943 - probably the SS had other problems in 1943/44 than controlling the content of this Heimatwerk booklet.

The same happened for example in Posen: Himmler took time in 1942 to visit the Allach store in the city (they sold Heimatwerk furniture as well) and had to find out that the SS-flag bearer (SS-Fahnenträger) was exhibited in the main presentation shop window.

He got so upset about the fact that a political figurine was shown to the public which was not for sale to the public that he wrote a letter about that to Oswald Pohl and due to this mistake the responsible CEO at Allach (Sturmbannführer Wartenberg) was fired and shifted to another working place.

[Thorsten B.]

Joe,

I cannot follow your argumentation at all:

The line drawings do show the actual production range - they just did not use photographs but line drawings, that´s all.

So what is your point regarding "actual production photographs"?

That is just no argument.

Fact is indeed that the Yule chest shown in the Weitzel book is not included in the Heimatwerk catalog - in that point I am right and you are wrong, that´s it.

[Thorsten B.]

To your second thought:

Only the fact that the Yule chest is shown in the Heimatwerk booklet does not necessarily means that it was really for sale to non-SS-members nor is it an indication.

With the picture shown in the Weitzel book it is more than crystal clear that it is the Yule chest for the use within SS-families made by Deutsches Heimatwerk - can there be any better documental proof?

Surely not.

[Thorsten B.]

OK,

first I was asked/forced by some members to show pics of my collection.

Now I started to show - earned some half-chicken-a** comments and it seems that suddenly nobody really takes notice or likes what I did and wanted to share.

This forum sucks since it seemed to be filled up with envious and self-seeking people.

Thanks for that lesson - I give up now being a giver and better turn into a consumer as well.