Kriegsmarine Dienstglas / Marineglas Binoculars

[floriskok]

Hello Guys,

I would like to know if these binoculars are civilian or army???

I'm selling them on the e-stand and another member wants
me to start a discussion on them.

Here's the link: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...52#post3794252

Let me know!

Kindest regards,

Floris Kok

[Stew]

Hi floriskok,
thanks for the opportunity to research a good question!

I have looked in Rohan's and Seeger's standard texts. In short, I cannot come up with a definitive answer!
It seems that from about 1909 Zeiss and Goerz made a 6x30 and 6x24 marine version of their binoculars, and these were marketed to navies throughout the world ,and civilian mariners.
Zeiss adopted the name Marineglas in 1915 for their "marine" 6x30 's according to Rohan.
Your binos are a marine model but IMHO its hard to say that they were owned by the German Navy without an additional marking:
Whether your binos were used by the Imperial Navy ,Weimar Navy or Kriegsmarine usually is established by an ownership mark:in the case of the Imperial navy it was a Crown over M, the Weirmar marking was a dropped eagle wing over M, and early Kriegsmarine examples were marked with an early Third Reich eagle over M or T.
Perhaps others have a view ?

[sturmann]

Salut,

I was indeed looking at those binos myself but

- they look like civilian Mdl to me
- I would assume pre 33 made ???

Could it have been a civilian batch purchased and issue to the KM .
If so would have they been marked accordingly ??

thanks,
yves

[Lorenz SZ-42]

I posted thiss earlier on the link at the start of this thread:

They are most likely WW1 manufacture for the German navy. Some of these are civilian but the large clamping screw is typical for military orders. Somewhere there should be a second number. It is stamped on the side of one of the cover plates. If it has a “K” stamped into the bridge it was sold to an officer. Zeiss serial numbers from WW1 start around 500.000 for 1914 and ends at around 1.000.000 at the end of WW2. Very late ones have Zink cover plates.

The 6x30’s are generally not a naval configuration today. The 7x50 that came at the end of WW1 is the naval binocular. This piece was manufactured when army binoculars were 6x24’s. The army just adopted this superior compact design.

Kind regards

[sturmann]

re-

the large clamping screw is typical for military orders

I thought that was actually found on pre-war civy mdl ?
thanks for the info

yves

[Lorenz SZ-42]

Early civilian binoculars often have a SMALL clamping screw that has to be adjusted with a pin that is in the carrying case. The civilian clamping screws disapeared quite quickly but the large military ones stayed on till inter bellum.
Regards

[nico78]

Really interesting.

[garys39]

Hi Floris
in the second of your pictures, if you look to the left of the clamping nut, I think just on the edge of the bottom plate, there is a number stamped there ?, this is found on most WW1 issued Zeiss binoculars, as already stated the large clamping nut also indicates military use. The number stamped on the edge there would confirm WW1 issue, though not the service it would have been issued to.
Best Regards
Gary