German soldier information

[ruzz69]

I have been loaned a genuine set of WW1 German dog tags to research and I know that the soldier was killed in WW1 near the Aisne. I have contacted the CWGC equivalent -Volksbund ' but it appears that their records are very poor and want to charge me to do a search. Is this correct? I have the soldiers DOB, Service No. Town and full name.

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

The German War Graves records are still somewhat spotty at best. They have some basic material on-line for general research. They also have a lot of detail in written form that hopefully will be placed on-line in future. I know of several projects where individuals are adding further details to the entries and the database is constantly expanding.

They do very good work on grave restoration, maintenance and of course expanding into areas that have been cut off for many years. I am not surprised that a fee would be charged for the information.

In the case of your identity tags you might want to place the details on the forum as many members already have some of the official Verlustlisten and many have details from regimental histories as well as post-war regional studies such as the Ehrenbuch der Gefallenen Stuttgarts 1914-1918 that contains over 10,000 names and particulars to name just one I can see in my library.

It is a difficult task to trace German soldiers but there is a way to get information. The local villages and towns still have a great deal of information to provide and there is always the possibility of relatives. In one recent case a body of a German soldier was discovered, identified and the family, a rather large one, had quite a bit of information about him including photos from his service in 1900-1902 as well as his wartime service.

Post the details and we will see what we can do. In the meantime if you do decide to take the German War Graves people up on their service you will have access to the records most of us do not. Good luck.

Ralph

[CROONAERT]

I have contacted the CWGC equivalent -Volksbund ' but it appears that their records are very poor and want to charge me to do a search. Is this correct?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Strange that. I've been in contact with the VDk for many years now with regards to individual research and not once have I been charged a fee.

However, I've always offered a donation to their (extremely worthy) cause. You have to bear in mind that they're actually a type of charity that relies on public donations etc. for survival. Maybe they are "tin shaking" at you, rather than demanding a set fee?

I feel that what I have received from the VDk far surpasses what they have got from me any day and never hesitate to support them in their stirling work.

Dave.

[bob lembke]

"ruzz69";

An important question is the circumstances under which the dog-tags are in private possession. Could I ask what you mean by a set? It implies the multiple. If you describe what you have (A whole dog tag, a half dog tag, two halves broken but together) we can tell a lot more about where you might find info.

How do you know that the soldier was killed in battle? I assume that you have a complete dog-tag, and it was a battle-field find. In that case most likely the soldier was not found and buried. Does anyone know if the graves society keeps data on dead who are not in known graves? And if they have that, do they release that, in contrast to the data on the fallen in the graves they maintain? I have had limited dealings with the graves society, but my assumption is that their on-line data base only covers graves under their care.

I am sorry I sould like "Inspector McRuff". But some info on what you have would help someone to assist you.

Bob Lembke

[the gunners dream]

I feel that what I have received from the VDk far surpasses what they have got from me any day and never hesitate to support them in their stirling work.

Dave.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I totally agree with CROONAERT here. They offer an excellent service and are working towards an extremely difficult task in what they do, i.e. locating fallen German soldiers, especially on the Russian Front in WWII.

I'd recommend them, like all things it can take time.

The other option is the bundesarchiv which might be able to help you.

http://www.bundesarchiv.de/

Steve Smith

[CROONAERT]

I assume that you have a complete dog-tag, and it was a battle-field find. In that case most likely the soldier was not found and buried.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In all actuality, the majority of dug-up WW1 German ID tags belong to soldiers who either survived the war or were killed and buried and have graves somewhere rather than belonging to a "missing" soldier. (This is not the case for WW2 Eastern front finds).

Not including a batch of 5 which were given to me by a member of the VDk, I have approx. 40 - 50 German "dug up" tags and out of all these, only one belongs to a KIA ( and he's buried in the VDk cemetery at Maissemy).

The "turn over" for German tags during WW1 was far greater than that of other nations. It wasn't unheard of for a soldier to have gone through 6 or 7 tags throughout his service with the other 5 or 6 finding their way into the ground or back home.

Dave.

[bob lembke]

In all actuality, the majority of dug-up WW1 German ID tags belong to soldiers who either survived the war or were killed and buried and have graves somewhere rather than belonging to a "missing" soldier.

Dave.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dave;

Very interesting! Didn't know that so many were "lost". I guess the army didn't get crankly about a lost tag. Another factor could have been that, I think, there were supposedly three main styles, with the later ones having more info on them. Perhaps they were tossed when guys got new ones. However, you would think that the material would be carefully collected for scrap. I have only one, but it is my father's, so I value it. Based on info on it, and a cold e-mail to the hamburische Staat=Archiv, I discovered a whole branch of my family that I did not know about. I can offer a possible info swap; I have built a roster of about 1200 members of Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment (Flammenwerfer). (Three years I had two names, and I had the regimental CO's name wrong, as US Army Intelligence also did.) Only yesterday I started a second roster, for Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr).

A public plea: If anyone has hard info on members of these units, I would love to add the soldier to these rosters. I inactively collect Militaer=Paesse, also have about 50, but when I have gotten a Pass from either one of these units (I only have three), I have discovered very interesting things about those two units each time. If anyone has an interesting Pass, I might be persuaded to study it and write a 800-1000 word synopsis of the Pass in exchange for a good copy of same. Its about two hours of work.

I have, as I am wont to do, drifted OT.

Ruzz69;

I am sorry that I sounded a bit interogatory, which I was, I did have an image of some buddy of yours finding a complete but tattered Landser, having stuffed him into a locker at the Verdun train station, and asking you to find out who he was. (Do people actually do this? There are all sorts of collectors.)

You could just post the info on it, and someone might, for example, be an expert on that unit, or have the guy's city Ehrentafel ("table of honor", or roll of the dead) and you might have your info. If his name is odd one might actually find the guy's family.

Bob Lembke