My New Baby: Recruiting Officer Waffenrock

[DonC]

I can't wait, Mark!

Don

[MASteel]

Absolutely stunning piece, congrats !

[DonC]

LDR and JC, here's a scan of the nametag label - I'll try to post the Holters neck label in a bit:

[J C Gray]

Nice one Don, yet another one to add to the confusion. Your example (a new one for me) brings the total to 8 different variations of Holters nametags that I am aware of. Can't wait to see the neck label, as I already know of 3 versions of it.

Cheers for posting.

[DonC]

Thanks to the detective work of Rick Lundstrom and Hardy (Naxos) on a sister forum, I have been able to give the Herr Hauptmann a little more detail. Thought I'd share. And yes, JC, I never got around to getting a shot of the neck label - yet.

He passed away in 1938 as Major Wilhelm Konrad Karl Rodrigo (Wilko) von Doering, serving on the staff of the Wehrsatzinspektion Stettin of II Armeekorps. He was an Ergänzungsoffizier (E) - a retread, essentially. He gained promotion to Major a few months before dying young at 48. He has five children from his marriage. Perhaps some are still alive today.

Although one can never die at a "good time", here's a man who lived through the pomp and circumstance of Wilhelmine Germany, Imperial Germany's collapse, the disorder of the early and later Weimar years, and who lived to see Germany begin a return to greatness with a resurgent military and the Anschluss in March 1938. He never had to see, or live through, the result.

Don

[Norman LaBarge]

That sure is a stunning Rock.

[Johnny R]

Don,

Very cool tunic. What was the Johanniter Order awarded for? My friend out in California recently picked up a Kriegsmarine mess dress jacket and blue vest that belonged to (later) Vizeadmiral von dem Borne and he was also a recipient of this award. He was awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords First Class and the German Cross in Silver on 31 July 1944. This was his Captain's mess dress jacket and you can see where he was promoted up from Korvettenkapitan. I'm guessing that when he made admiral he just got a new one; but then again he may not have had need of a dress jacket during the war:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=228194

My friend just picked up an Army Feldwebel of Panzer Bandsman Waffenrock tunic with the musician's swallows on each shoulder.

As for Holters: Premier tailor of the Third Reich. Does anybody know if his books survived the war? I know of a tailored tunic with the owner's name cut out of the label but the customer number and date are there and I was wondering if Holter's books survived and there was any way to find out who the tunic may have belonged to. The tunic was tailored at the shop near the Wilhelm II Cathedral, which was destroyed by an RAF bombing raid in 1943.

Bob

I have been trying to look into this for the Traugott Rahne firm in Hannover , I have an SS officers set with the name cut out but retaining the order number and the date. The only place I could think to look would be Stadtarchives but not the most interesting documents aside for us. I have not tried to do this yet or to see what is at Cellerstrasse 1 now. It is still there on Google Earth but you cannot tell if it has been rebuilt etc.

Very nice Don.

[adlerfan53]

Stunning Waffenrock. Thanks for the lesson on the unusual award. learn somthing new every day. Congratulations on the new addition to your collection.

[K Bandow]

Amazing rock!
I saw he was from Mecklenburg, and my heart skipped a beat. My family is from there, so any time I see something military related to that state, I drool .
Congrats!!

[Kurt]

I have been trying to look into this for the Traugott Rahne firm in Hannover (...) I have not tried to do this yet or to see what is at Cellerstrasse 1 now. It is still there on Google Earth but you cannot tell if it has been rebuilt etc. (...) .

Hey jhodgson, Celler Strasse is pretty close to the train station in Hanover. I live pretty close by... would you like me to take a photo of the building for you?

Best regards from Hanover/Germany... Kurt

[Johnny R]

Hey jhodgson, Celler Strasse is pretty close to the train station in Hanover. I live pretty close by... would you like me to take a photo of the building for you?

Best regards from Hanover/Germany... Kurt

That would be great, a fellow member told me that the firm still exists but has moved to Einbeck, also in Niedersachsen. If the old prewar building is still there maybe the records survived. The tunic is dated June 1944 and the shop at that time was at Cellerstrasse 1, on google earth it looks like it would be very close to the train lines. Thanks, post it on here.

[Johnny R]

The family cut out the typed name but the order number and date are still there.

[DonC]

In re-readng this thread I realized I have never posted a photo of the tailor's label in the recruiting Waffenrock - my apologies!

Don

[J C Gray]

Thanks for posting Don & nice to see that both the labels have the matching Wilhelmstr. addresses, which fit with the pre 1937 (Tauentzienstr.) time frame.

[airborne_steve]

Don,

Killer tunic! Did it come with stone grey dress pants with the orange waffenfarbe down the legs? Steve