Waisenhaus-photographs

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Helmond, Netherlands. My hometown is located near
I made an album about the Grosses Militär-Waisenhaus at Potsdam with males
being photographed. I do not know if it will be of interest, but I have quite
some with females at the various Waisenhaus sub-institutions, wearing unified
dresses.

So, hardly uniforms were worn and no insignia, but for various activities the
young women and girls did wear the same type of dress. Occasionally one
does not even know the dress being worn is "unified" and ordered for wearing,
when this is not being told by a former female member from the institution.

I will show one from the war when for the girls a sort of uniform was introduced.
The photograph shows Ingeborg Vientz, wearing such type of uniform! Practically
all female photographs were supplied to me by my "old" GMWP-friend Christa
Kresin.

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When interested I can add some female-photographs to the album. I only
need to know?

best regards
wilhelm/wim
 

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Henrik, I added a smaller grouping of photographs from females at the Waisenhaus-
institution at Potsdam and Zeitz in the GMWP-album.
In spite of the fact I do own about 400 Waisenhaus-photographs hardly any were
found where boys or girls were wearing the HJ or BDM uniform or dress.
 
Forgot to mention the possible reason: during interviews I have learned most boys and
girls did not like wearing the HJ-uniform or BDM-dress. Most mentioned they were not
that "fanatic".
During the years of the Waisenhaus being an NPEA-institution this was different, as the
various uniforms were according to HJ standards (the girls were not a part of the NPEA
system).
When the institution returned to the patronage of the army most often the new style
1939-uniform was worn instead of the HJ-dress, not even during HJ-service. Due to the
use of an army style visored cap and a special style field-cap, both with the army national
eagle emblem, the boys preferred them above the HJ-uniform.
 
Here's a boy wearing the 1939 pattern uniform:

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Garry, I thought I have seen this photograph, published in the Uniformen-Markt-magazine.
Is it right? Checked it and indeed. It was issue 20 from October 15, 1942!

In such style I have tens and tens of quite beautiful photographs with boys, wearing the
field-cap and/or visored cap with army eagle insignia from the institution at Potsdam,
Sulzbach-Rosenberg and Liebenau (this is indicated by the abbreviation with the shoulder-
straps: MWP, MWSR and MWL). MW stands for Militär-Waisenhaus.

Many of the photographs were given to me by many former students at these institutions,
which I learned to know in the later 1990's.
I may own over hundreds of photographs from the institution from the early 1900's up through
1945 (some are shown in the album-thread).
Many photographs with headgear are under embargo for a planned book. When I get it
done it will be volume 6 for the headgear-series from Bender-Publishing. But it will take
some years before this will be released. Maybe I can add some of the later photographs
from 1939 and later to my Waisenhaus-album, when interested, but then over three or four
weeks.
 
Garry, I thought I have seen this photograph, published in the Uniformen-Markt-magazine.
Is it right? Checked it and indeed. It was issue 20 from October 15, 1942!
:thumb:

I'd love to see more when you have time Wim.
 
as soon as when I am done with the control-check for the lay-out for the new book.
I have some that are not under embargo for the earlier mentioned book. What I can
do is make a second Waisenhaus album and start with a few from 1900 through 1933
and then continue with some from 1939 up through end of the war, as NPEA is the
subject for the album which is "in action" already!

For those that are interested and can find an issue: in volume 13, number 1 from winter
2001/2002 I had an extensive article in the "Military Advisor"-magazine from Bender
Publishing. The article was 33 pages and tells about the history, the uniforms, sort
of ranking system and the special flag.
 
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Heran showed in a thread a nice photograph from a Luftwaffenhelfer-guy with relatives.
Here I show some from Waisenhaus-boys and girls with relatives:
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: Amadeo Venutti photographed with his mother in October 1944. He is from the "Liebenau"-institution;




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: Gustav Ahrendt also from the Liebenau-instititon (at left) with his brother Günther Ahrendt from the Postdam-institution. In the middle the brother of their father. The photograph is from 1944 and taken at Königsberg during holidays. Note the rare tunic on the right with the double row of buttons. This is the typical form as worn in the so-called 'Kinderhaus", the home for younger kids;




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: mrs. Viergutz, photographed in 1941 with her sons Hans-Karl, Günther and Jürgen;




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: "Geschwister" (brothers and sisters) Schmid, photographed in 1943. At left the oldest brother wearing a Luftwaffenhelfer-uniform. Hellmut is second left, wearing the appropriate uniform with dark trousers and field-cap. Note the two younger little sisters with their quite, typical "uniform"-style of dresses, but here with non-visible buttons. Compare with the first photograph in this thread!




Enjoy as they all are rare and hard to find photographs!
 

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Does anybody have a shoulderstrap from this insitution ?
 
I do know only two persons that do have a shoulder-strap. I also know that for purposes
of "sign of rememberance" the shoulder-straps are newly made, a souvenir for their
former members that meet (those that still do live) each year. I thought the shoulder-straps
were made in about 1990. This was told by the man that took care for the archive in those
days.
 
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Here photographs from the Litze as worn upon the collar, as visible with some of
the photographs. This is just as for the army. The backing is a darker-green.
The shoulders-trap in the middle with "Kettenstich"- embroidery is an original. The
other one is such a souvenir, so a fake! Note the width of the fake is smaller then
for the original!
 

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Interesting shots from Ebay :

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It would be wonderful to know what happened to the kids who appear in these photos.
 
Not about shoulder-straps, but Weitze is offering an extremely rare set of headgear:
a visored cap and field-cap as worn by the Militär-Waisenhaus from Potsdam
(number 206274). The price is quite high, which one can expect from Weitze (5.000,- euro),
but for this you get one of a kind material. As far as I know such material was
not ever before offered in over 65 years. Both are from the same person (Jungmann),
which is even rarer!!
 
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I had not seen the posts about the caps at WAF, as I am very busy with an exhibition.
This is what I posted there:

Had not seen this post before, but what you see here is one of a kind (from the same Jungmann) and super rare. The rarest in headgear, I think. Such set was not ever offered in 65 years.
REMIND THIS WHEN IN A WHILE SUCH CAPS ARE BEING OFFERED. The visored cap was not available in the archive of the orphanage, but the field-cap was. The caps shown are
without any doubt old originals, that's for sure!

About the orphanage there is a big article, which I wrote for Bender's "Military Advisor", volume 13, number 1 from winter 2001/2002. By now over ten years ago....The entire magazine is dedicated to this orphanage. For those interested a "must have"!

The caps shows are from the period after 1939, as when the orphanage was no longer an NPEA, but returned to the army on January 28, 1938 with the succession of the flags (the Reichskriegsflagge). During a visit of Göring in January 1939 he promised the boys would get a new uniform. This is what is shown with the photographs, the visored cap was for the walking-out dress.

The young guy with the visored cap from post 35 is from the Clyde Davis file and was upon the cover of the MA-magazine, along with the kid from post 46.
The magazine includes 93 photographs and drawings from the institution and the uniforms from the earliest periods up through the end of the war and also includes information about the girls at the institution......

As far as I know the guy from the caps, Dürringer is not one still having contact with his comrads from those days. He is not listed in the annual list of birthday's (I checked their magazines "Die Kuppel" - Rundbrief für alle ehemaligen des Grossen Militär-Waisenhaused Postdam 1724-1945 und seiner angeschlossenen Häuser from June 2012 through June 2013).

Maybe Dürringer has died. When I do not know. Maybe I can find out!
 
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It is a hell of a job to find the boys name, Günther Dürminger (mentioned in the field-cap),
in all the material I have from the Waisenhaus, but he was stated he did survive the war in
a letter from April 1948. He lived then in Steiermark in Austria.
In a list of known names from February 1978 he was not included anymore.
 
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