Jos Fuess GPB

[Jon Fish]

Removed

[sjl]

"Well played" is an English idiom used when someone makes a good point in a debate.

Didn't realize everyone was so delicate...

Stephen

[ErichS]

Wow, I wonder what Fuess did to piss off the leadership of the Party? It's really interesting to see the workings of the early Party and the key players by someone who was there from the beginning. It's also interesting to see Oskar Koerner's name come up since we were just discussing him in the Coburg Badge thread.

[JoeW]

The Account of Herr Fuess, Munich

I took time for the research assistant to copy the file for me, but I received the mysterious Fuess File from the Hoover Archives. It is contained in a section labeled Hauptarchiv NSDAP. This was apparently the historical collection of the Nazi Party that was housed in Munich under control of the NSDAP.

I am displaying at this time the first two pages of the material. The first document is a File Listing Page titled No. 1923 II that lists a series of documents and folders.



The first listed is "Bericht Josef Fuess ueber die Entiwicklung der Partei 192o-1923". Now Bericht can be translated as Report as member JosefFueß has suggested, but also as Account. I suggest that given the entire title on the File Listing Page, this is a Josef Fuess Account about the Development of the Party from 192o-1923, rather than a report about Josef Fuess himself. This is important to consider when you see the title page of Josef Fuess' account of the party history.

Here we have the first page of what as been called the Report of Mr. Fuess, Munich. That is what the first line reads of course, but the title on the File Listing Page is more detailed and is a more accurate description of what is contained in the following pages.



First you will note that this typed page has been hand annotated apparently by a Dr. Klimmer on the same day the recollections were dicated and typed: 20.2.1935. Perhaps Dr. Klimmer was the interviewer or simply an editor. The number of pages in Fuess' account of the party history numbered seven, as indicated in the upper right corner. From my interpretation of this document, I do not sense the apprehension in Fuess' answers or any ominous tones in the document. I do not think Fuess did anything to piss off the NSDAP leadership Erich. We know he did not disappear from the circles of the NSDAP as we have the Reichskanzlei document indicated Frau Winter had ordered GPBs from the Fuess firm in 1937. I take the Account of Herr Fuess to be his recollections of the infancy of the NSDAP. All that was remembered or perhaps answered from specific questions related to the very early days and what was involved with it. The first party badge, the first Standarte and flag and information about the Blood Order, as it was so closely connected to the Putsch.

But was Fuess' current activities (1935) that important to the history of the NSDAP. Was whether he manufactured or assembled GPBs that important to be asked? I think not. Whether Fuess mentions or did not mention his association with the GPB was irrelevant to the history being gathered by the Hauptarchiv.

A quick correction to the English translation above lists the seven founding members of the NSDAP, but only provides six names. The seventh is the name Michel. And the name Hiddel is actually spelled Riedl according to the typed text.

I will post the other pages of the Fuess Account later. These are my interpretation of the facts. And of course, that is how history is written isn't it.

[Br. James]

This is EXCITING stuff, friends! Thank you, Joe and Jon, for opening this area of historic research to us in new ways! I can hardly wait for your next postings!!

Br. James

[Erich B.]

I agree--very interesting!
So far (I haven't seen this report/documentation before) it may be interpreted that Dr. Klimmer was assembling information to write an article about the early party history or about Fuess himself--it doesn't sound like an interrogation or anything sinister (at least in the few pages presented here). I was able to find that Dr. Klimmer worked on the historical archive of the party as of the end of August 1934, involving Orts- and Kreis histories, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other documentation. This is per the BA NS26 catalogue description. This would make sense if he was documenting Fuess' part in the early NSDAP/Putsch/etc.
Is there anything in the interview that does suggest Fuess was in trouble? It doesn't seem that Klimmer was an interrogator.
Erich

[JoeW]

Erich, that is very interesting information about Dr. Klimmer. I can not discern any sense of danger facing Herr Fuess.

I am adding the second and third page of the Fuess Account. I think the comments from member Josef Fueß regarding evidence of Fuess' involvement in the manufacture of the GPB should still be considered. The Fuess marking on the pin plate is significantly different than the Ges.Gesh. impressed into the back of a Deschler badge. And given the propensity for the NSDAP to share contracts, it makes perfect sense that Fuess received parts from a third party manufacturer and assembled them, marking their pin plate accordingly. Thus Frau Winter could request of them additional badges for the Fuhrer.

This is page two of the Account. The corrections in the spelling of the name and additional one of the seven founders is at the bottom of this page.



This is page three of the Account.

[ErichS]

Joe, very interesting and like most things an interview can be interpreted in many different ways. You're right that even though he never mentions the GPB doesn't mean that he didn't have a hand in it's manufacture. I find the history of the early Party most interesting part of the hobby and thanks Joe for sharing this info.

[JoeW]

Here is page four of the Fuess Account:



And page five. I hope the Forum members find these interesting:

[Wim Vangossum]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for this wonderful information. The most important information for me is that you mentioned about someone who ordered GPB's from him in 1937. This indicates that he at that time still was responsible for this award in one way or another. My best guess, and it's only a guess, is that he was only supervising the proces that was done by a firm with the necessary tools. It doens't make sense to me that he would work alone in a little gold smith work room and produce GPB's form the morning to the evening.

Regards, Wim

[JoeW]

Wim, that was the 1937 Reichskanzlei letter relating that Hitler had asked Frau Winter to order additional GPBs from Josef Fuess Firma. If he had a simple work shop as our member Josef Fueß has explained, I seems to me that it would not be difficult for Fuess to assemble GPB on order from parts that had been prepared by other companies, then applying his company name to the pin plate. The Nazi Party was keen on sharing contractual work with several companies, as evidenced by correspondence concerning the production of the RZM PL Walther PPK and correspondence concerning the production of SS-Polizei Degens that I wrote about in my article in Wittman's book.

[Wim Vangossum]

Wim, that was the 1937 Reichskanzlei letter relating that Hitler had asked Frau Winter to order additional GPBs from Josef Fuess Firma. If he had a simple work shop as our member Josef Fueß has explained, I seems to me that it would not be difficult for Fuess to assemble GPB on order from parts that had been prepared by other companies, then applying his company name to the pin plate. The Nazi Party was keen on sharing contractual work with several companies, as evidenced by correspondence concerning the production of the RZM PL Walther PPK and correspondence concerning the production of SS-Polizei Degens that I wrote about in my article in Wittman's book.

Sounds like a very reasonable explanation to me.

Regards, Wim

[JoeW]

Here are the final pages of the Fuess Account. Page six:




And finally page seven:

[JoeW]

Found this interesting list that is apparenlty the list mentioned in this quote from the English translation from the Fuess Account that corresponds to the bottom four lines of page five of the original text.

[Matthew]

dealt with or not?

Just stumbled on some info on our friend Fuess (the original that is). For a guy who supposedly fell out of favor with ze Natzees he sure shot up the industry ladder.
As chronicled by the website on the top of the shots dated respectively 1935, 1936 and 1937 his professional career was taking off in a positive direction.
Also his shops adverts are mentioned in address books in the 40s so I really do not think he got on the Nazi's bad side too much.

cheers
Matt