Mein Kampf wedding casket

[Steve T]

Very interesting Thorsten, I didn't know that Himmler gifted these to the happy couples.

I took it as he was there so had to take a gift sort of thing.

[Thorsten B.]

A picture being taken in the wedding room of the SS village community house (today the restaurant Otten´s Hof) shows Himmler sitting between both couples and the Allach figurines on the long dining table in front of the couples - the HJ drummer for Franzius and the BDM girl for des Coudres.

Himmler used these as his presentation pieces and wedding gifts that day and I assume that he chosed them to make clear to the couples that it is now the time for continuing and preserving the blood and educate the children to let them become HJ and BDM members in the near future.

This gives us a good hint about the initial introduction of these particular and popular political pieces!

[ErichS]

A picture being taken in the wedding room of the SS village community house (today the restaurant Otten´s Hof) shows Himmler sitting between both couples and the Allach figurines on the long dining table in front of the couples - the HJ drummer for Franzius and the BDM girl for des Coudres.

Himmler used these as his presentation pieces and wedding gifts that day and I assume that he chosed them to make clear to the couples that it is now the time for continuing and preserving the blood and educate the children to let them become HJ and BDM members in the near future.

This gives us a good hint about the initial introduction of these particular and popular political pieces!

Thorsten, can you please post a photo of this wedding?

[Napalm]

A picture being taken in the wedding room of the SS village community house (today the restaurant Otten´s Hof) shows Himmler sitting between both couples and the Allach figurines on the long dining table in front of the couples - the HJ drummer for Franzius and the BDM girl for des Coudres.

Himmler used these as his presentation pieces and wedding gifts that day and I assume that he chosed them to make clear to the couples that it is now the time for continuing and preserving the blood and educate the children to let them become HJ and BDM members in the near future.

This gives us a good hint about the initial introduction of these particular and popular political pieces!

Could somebody ask an SS Mann about his wedding day and if they ever heard of these casks been used?
Thks

[Johnny R]

I took it as he was there so had to take a gift sort of thing.

I like the German definition of "gift" in this sense.

[maestro]

Could somebody ask an SS Mann about his wedding day and if they ever heard of these casks been used?
Thks

now there's an excellent idea!

[maestro]

Here are a couple other variations of the center panel. And one is a horizontal design. They may have been keepsake boxes if not casks. Another member has one that was de-nazified by removing the swas. After examining these so called cask boxes in person, I am quite confident that they were produced during the time period. Collectors are far too willing to declare lesser items to be genuine, as Maestro so aptly observed earlier.

Capt. R, thanks for sharing..

i had not seen any other MK variations till now, other than the one sold by Ulric of England, which i believe a waf member owns. here's a picture of that particular one..

[der-hase-fee]

I love my box !

[Steve T]

Just had a chat with old Fritz, no not that one, Fritz Weitzel. He said that the MK box was a cool idea as a copy of Mein Kampf had to be present at NS weddings, including the SS.

The problem as he sees it is that whomever made the boxes clearly didn't read his book properly, "The Celebrations In The Life Of The SS Family" and that was very disappointing for him so he forbade their use. After the ban he allowed the boxes to be converted to remembrance boxes for the SS war dead.

Further, he explained that in his book the use of runic symbols for the SS family was described and that the rune for SS Weddings is the 'Ing' rune, the rune shows two life carriers linked up and is therefore used at weddings.

He finally admitted a lot of the SS didn't take the 'new religion' too seriously, and that even in the photo shoot for his book the photographer used the wrong plate and because of that the plate with 'Ehret die Scholle...' became the SS Wedding Plate instead of the one with the 'Ing' rune.

[Capt. R]

something interesting is if you draw a line through the center of an Ing rune you get 2 hagal runes. The hagal rune is equally important in significance in this regard.

[Michael Fay]

the 'gift' of droll word play

I like the German definition of "gift" in this sense.

First let me say :While I have no problem believing the "MK" boxes found in the 60's are authentic as the prices then did not really make sense to fake them yet, from the prices I was told they were then...
However, This is pretty good word play .
I always found the old definition of that word to be very interesting. If it is a word whose roots in English and Deutsch are the same(as so many are) and not a false cognate, then I always figured it came from a time with an out break of deaths by poisoning.
Probably Chieftains and royalty eating poisoned 'gifts' of food and drink is my theory.

[maestro]

....Fritz Weitzel said that the MK box was a cool idea as a copy of Mein Kampf had to be present at NS weddings, including the SS.

The problem as he sees it is that whomever made the boxes clearly didn't read his book properly, "The Celebrations In The Life Of The SS Family" and that was very disappointing for him so he forbade their use. After the ban he allowed the boxes to be converted to remembrance boxes for the SS war dead..

[Steve T]

I've been kindly informed that Fritz ist geboren, so apologies for the above post. (I was only kidding with that post, imagining what Weizel would say ) .

The use by the SS of runes such as the Man, Yr and Odal are for example completely in alignment with Weitzel's explanation and the 'INg' rune would seem be an obvious choice for a carving onto a wedding box. On the other hand there is the 'Scholle' plate described in the Weitzel book that does not not look like it has an Ing rune so Weitzel has described the perfect rune for marriage but then not used it on the wedding item in his book.

There are several photographs of what was reported to become a 'craft catalog' for the SS workshops residing the the KZ Buchenwald archives, one of which is a plate with the Ing rune in the center, another plaque or box top with a couple depicted on the top with Ing rune between them which would likely be marriage gifts, so I think we have at least one documented use of the INg runes on a marriage gift. Also there is a Birthday plate and the 'Heil Dem Gast...' carved plate which tells us that script was surely used by the SS. Another interesting shot they have is of the Himmler chair that Germania International have. Being photographed in the KZ Buchenwald workshops along with other carved pieces suggests it was likely made there.

I'm not going to post the pictures here as it will violate what the KZ Buchenwald Photo Archive state as their copyright rules but I'll post the link so you can view. There are several pages and so you will have to scroll through forward and back. You can also see the large ship models they made as well, of the type on my Edda plate shown earlier in the cultural thread, and here you can see one on the mantle piece of the SS canteen, fancy runic ironwork to the fireplace below as well.

http://www.buchenwald.de/fotoarchive...=suche&page=11

[Thorsten B.]

Yes, that DAW-catalogue is a precious gift for sure!

I am also convinced that the Himmler chair was made for and presented to him as his wedding chair - therefore it is possible that two of them were made:

- one with the initials of him

- the second one with the initials of Hedwig Potthast

Perhaps either the second chair was never made and my theory is for the worms - or it was made but never made it into the DAW-catalogue due to privacy issues or the page depicting the second chair got lost.


Fact is that the Himmler chair is almost an identical copy of a wedding chair used by saxonian peasants during the 17th-19th century.

[Matthäus Klein]

There are several photographs of what was reported to become a 'craft catalog' for the SS workshops residing the the KZ Buchenwald archives, one of which is a plate with the Ing rune in the center, another plaque or box top with a couple depicted on the top with Ing rune between them which would likely be marriage gifts, so I think we have at least one documented use of the INg runes on a marriage gift. Also there is a Birthday plate and the 'Heil Dem Gast...' carved plate which tells us that script was surely used by the SS. Another interesting shot they have is of the Himmler chair that Germania International have. Being photographed in the KZ Buchenwald workshops along with other carved pieces suggests it was likely made there.

http://www.buchenwald.de/fotoarchive...=suche&page=11

Steve, you never cease to amaze me.. very cool link and pictures.. thanks for your contribution