German Soldier.....Johann Gillessen

[Guest beejaysoo]

Found with my fathers keepsakes, I have a small booklet that would have belonged to a German soldier...Johann Gillessen. The pocket size booklet of about 20 pages contains personal information, what may be activity records, pay records, etc???

He was from Aachen, born in 1893, and father was a locomotive engineer. Entered army 16 Jan 1915, 10th Company Infantry, regiment number 389.

Can anyone tell me more about what this booklet was called and used for. Where this regiment fought during the war? Any ideas on the possibility of tracking down the family and/or returning the booklet?

Thanks

[bob lembke]

Hi, Bejaysoo!

Your booklet is either a Soldbuch or a Militaer=Pass. If your father came across it in the course of his military service it almost certainly is a Soldbuch, which translates as "Salt-book" or "Salary-book". This name comes from the Latin, and is related to the supposed fact that the Roman soldier was partially paid in salt. This is the story that you read, but I know a bit about that stuff, having been a serious collector of Roman coins, and I have not read that from the other end. The pay of the Roman soldier was denominated in Denarii, a nice silver coin, thank you, and doled out or credited to their "pay-book" in fairly generous amounts. That would not prevent them from drawing a salt ration.

The soldier carried his Soldbuch, and for this reason it both usually was found in a more beat-up condition, and does not contain information of much use to the enemy's MI people. The Militaer=Pass was kept at some HQ level (I am not sure where) where it was not likely to be captured in a sudden advance, and contains considerable info that might be interesting to MI. When a soldier left the service, and that included the end of WW I, the Pass had its info completed and was given to the soldier, and was used in later life to prove service, etc. So these generally are not war souviniers but are put on the market over time by the family, etc.

The Soldbuch contained some personal information, as you have found, plus pay coupons and info, plus info like vaccinations. I have a few, but have collected the other book, have about 40. They are fascinating, but hard to read for a bunch of reasons, including the use of some cryptic forms and abbreviations.

As to value, a typical salery-book might fetch $10; a Pass say $20. Elite units will bring more. There does not seem to be a collectors' organization for these.

I don't think most families would care much to get it back, unfortunately. Twice I have bought a Pass from the bearer's grandchild for $8 or about 4-5 pounds. In one case as I showed interest the seller threw in some unit photos and even an original wedding photo of the soldier. Nice touch but does not indicate a lot of interest in the family history, etc. Of course I am generalizing. A good deal of the history of the 20th Century involved persuading the Germans to lose interest in military things, and the effort was quite successful, generally. Did you note the enthusiasm with which the Germans joined the Yanks and Brits in going into Iraq? (Pardon the present reference - of interest to me - if you can believe it a colonel wrote me to ask me to sign up and go to Iraq as a translator. I am 66 and have been collecting Social Security for four years.

Back to the topic. The front cover should state which booklet it is. (There were a few possible other ones.) You should be able to read the title on the front cover, even if you do not read German. (I taught myself to read German and the old handwriting systems to read my father's Militaer=Pass and his and his father's letters from the front.) You could post some sharp scans of pages where there is hand-written entries, and I or some other initiate could read some stuff. But the hot stuff is in the M=P.

As far as finding the family; the last name is not too common, a bit help. You could take a shot in the dark and go to the Deutsche Telekom web-site and run the name for Aachen and the family name on the German "white-pages" on-line system.

Bob Lembke

[Guest beejaysoo]

Thank you for your input. Yes, the booklet is a Soldbuch and quite worn. From what you say I probably don't need to spend a lot of time trying to find the family. I would like to keep it with my fathers stuff anyways. Those of us who collect or do things like genealogy think a little different about some of these things.

Thanks again,

[bob lembke]

Thank you for your input. Yes, the booklet is a Soldbuch and quite worn. From what you say I probably don't need to spend a lot of time trying to find the family. I would like to keep it with my fathers stuff anyways. Those of us who collect or do things like genealogy think a little different about some of these things.

Thanks again,

Yes, "Different strokes for different folks." I have occasionally had a momentary interest in tracking down the family behind a Militaer=Pass, but then realize that the family in question probably sold the book to some sort of dealer for $2. I refer to the nice person (actually two) who sent the wedding photo with the Pass; how much space would it take to keep the Pass and the photo? (Of course I can throw nothing away; those people in those magazine quality homes probably get there by throwing everything away.)

With your book it could be different; it being in your father's effects probably means that it was taken off a dead soldier or from a POW. So the family might be very interested, as opposed to a Pass, which usually comes from the family. Let me think about this a bit. We might have an adventure in cyber-space.

Do you want to tell a bit about your father re: WW I?

Bob Lembke

[bob lembke]

Bejaysoo (???);

I overcame my lethargy, and went to a German on-line phone book and ran on the family name and Aachen as a location, and amazingly had 57 hits on the name, including one Johann, plus what may be a family web-site. You could do so yourself. Try www.dastelephonbuch.de, and put in Gillessen and Aachen in "Ort", which means "location" or "district".

This is an amazing number of hits on an odd German (or possibly non-German) name for one city; it must be a whole tribe of Gillissens over there. How is your German? Do you have cheap phone access to the continent? This is really something. Were I you, I would start calling or writing (the listings have both the phone number and the address, including postal code.) However, I often launch foolish projects.

This might lead to your being adopted into an entire tribe of Teutons. If I can help. I would be happy to do so. Lots of Germans speak and read English, if that is a problem. (My father came out of secondary school with German, Latin, Classical Greek, English, French, and some conversational Russian he had picked up on pre-WW I visits. He later learned Spanish.) Incidentally, my spousal unit, a hardened Anglophile, born Megan Foley, reads 11 European languages well, including Old Anglo-Saxon. (See, the rumors of a Brit genetic language defect must be untrue. But, her family came over from England to here in 1634.) Or I could draft an outrageous letter in German for you to mail to some of these addresses; I think after a few letters you might hit "pay-dirt". (I was in the California Gold Rush country earlier this week, sparking the gold-mining jargon.)

(Despite being one-quarter English), I remain your Hunnish Yank friend,

Bob Lembke

PS: I might be able to pluck more personal data off the Soldbuch if you post scans of a few pages, especially material from the front.

[Guest beejaysoo]

[Do you want to tell a bit about your father re: WW I?

Bob Lembke

Hi Bob....Here is some info on my father from other posts.....

My father was with the 4th CMR when he was wounded near Ypres on Mar 28th 1916. He was eventually transferred to a hospital in England for recovery. I'm having difficulty tracing his records after that. Is it typical that he would stay in England until the end of the war. He was eventually re-united with the 4th CMR and sailed home March 8th 1919. I can't find much on what he was up to during 1917 and 1918? His wound was a gunshot to the abdomen but not reported as too serious. I'm just wondering if the wounded ever got sent back to the field or were they assigned activities in England?

-answers to above post suggest he was assigned other activities in England

Re: my age, I am 62. My father was born in 1899....I was born in 1943. An interesting story about my father is that he 'lied' about his age when he enlisted...declared birth date as 1896. While he was in England he was promoted to Corporal but when they later found out he had enlisted as a minor he was put back to a private and his pay adjusted accordingly.. His war record says he 'lied' and the pay adjustment was "punishment". You'd think a bullit in the side was enough punishment.

[Guest beejaysoo]

Bob Lembke

PS: I might be able to pluck more personal data off the Soldbuch if you post scans of a few pages, especially material from the front.

Hi Again Bob,

I think I'll just let Johann rest....while I carry on with other interests....thanks for your offer to help.