Researching German Blades

[Frogprince]

Now that the ‘Sturm und Drang’ surrounding the discussion of “Kaltenbrunner” sword has (hopefully) tapered off a little: I think that it might be prudent for anyone contemplating buying a named Third Reich (or earlier) blade to seriously consider doing their homework before making such a purchase. And most especially if any sizable dollar amounts are involved in the purchase. There are books on personalities in the Third Reich some of which have specific details on an individual’s career. Ranks, promotions, dates, specific assignments - all of which can be useful in trying to determine historical facts instead of using guesswork or opinions.

If someone’s interest for example is in SS items there are the various SS-Dienstalterliste. And in the computer age there are on-line sources. Wehrmancht-Awards.com has the “Order of Battle and Individual Research Forum”. It (in turn) pointed me to the “Axis History Forum’s SS & Polizei Forum” which had some fairly complete information on some of the more interesting Third Reich personalities. Including for example Ernst Kaltenbrunner with some specifics on his awards and career in the SS.

It is more difficult to research individuals from the Imperial era. Offhand, I don’t know of a good on-line source. For printed references “Führer Durch Heer und Flotte” IMO is a good place to start, although I personally have a problem reading ‘Fraktur’.

A small investment in time researching something first can pay off in several ways. On the positive side the period provenance/history might be more interesting than you first suspected - with the item being even more desirable and/or valuable. Or, you might discover that the item is not legitimate. And avoid having a serious “meltdown” after you have made the purchase and are stuck with the item knowing that it’s a fake.
FP

[Jay Gillespie]

WWell Said

Very well said.

Almost every big name piece comes with a story and documentation, but there is nothing like good, hard investigative research before writing a big check.

[SCHUPO]

FP,

Excellent advice as Jay said! There is no substitute for doing your own homework when spending a lot of your own money. I think it was P.T. Barnum who said, "A fool and his money are soon parted." And, as we all know Barnum was very adept at separating fools from their money.

We all know that the field of militaria collecting is rife with fakes. Germans and GIs were making fake Nazi stuff in 1945. Gun collecting is a minefield. The more expensive something is, the more incentive there is to make an excellent fake to fool the collector. In spite of this knowledge we choose to collect this stuff. If we don't research what we collect, we are in grave danger of being separated from our money for something that may not be what we thought it was. That is the risk we take. But the fact is, we can reduce that risk substantially by doing research just as you suggest.

Buy books and read them before you start spending real money on material culture artifacts (stuff).

George

[phosphateb]

all very well said!