40 Piece SS-FM Document Grouping

RARE SS-FM AND NSDAP DOCUMENTS

RARE 40 PIECE
DOCUMENT
GROUPING FOR A
SS-FÖRDERNDE
MITGLIEDER
MÜNCHEN-LANDSBERG

(This amazing grouping was purchased as a lot in München (Munich), Germany many years ago by Ray & Josephine Cowdery, authorities on Nazi paramilitary and military identity documents and authors of the full-color reference book “Papers Please!”. Because of the quantity in this grouping the entire lot is shown on TWO webpages, this one, and a second one which you can access by clicking on the appropriate link at the end of this page.)

All the documents in this grouping belonged to one Ernst Hastetter of the Stadt Schulerheim in Landsberg am Lech, Bayern (where Adolf Hitler served his prison sentence). He was a music teacher and joined the SS-FM (SS-Fördernde Mitglieder or SS Supporting Member) very early, on 22 November 1933. Hastetter moved three times during the Third Reich and each move is recorded in his SS-FM Membership Book; to Karlstraße 110/II in München, to Hohenzollamtstraße 128/IV in München, and to Adolf-Hitler-Platz 62 in the town of Burghausen.

When World War II began Hastetter was drafted and became a “Kanonier”, quickly advancing through the ranks to Unteroffizier and Company Clerk in an Artillery Battery on the Eastern Front. He received the Kriegsverdienstkreuz 2nd Class with Swords and the Ostmedaille for his service in Belgium, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary. He was fluent in German, English and Latin.

All SS-FM member documents are very rare. After the war SS-FM members were treated as members of the Allgemeine SS and other SS formations in a legal sense. Hastetter’s black linen hardcover SS-FM Membership Book is in remarkably good condition. The silver blocking on the front cover is in perfect condition.

The book is SS Form Number 173, measures about 4 x 5-1/2 inches, and contains 24 pages. One page displays a statement by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler over a facsimile of his signature, another is a full-page portrait of Adolf Hitler, and yet another is a copy of Hitler’s application for membership as a SS-Fördernde Mitglieder.

The book contains the names of all SS members martyred for Germany through August 1933, and all FM-SS monthly dues stamps or correct notations from November 1933 through August 1939 (70 in all).

The 31 year old Hastetter joined the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP or Nazi Party) on 1 May 1937, and his Membership Card number 4810784 containing dues stamps for 1938, 1939 and 1940 is included in this grouping. That Mitgliedskarte also contains authentic stamps for Gau München-Oberbayern Kreistage in 1939 and 1940 and one for Reichsparteitag 1939, the State Party Day that was never held. A superb NSDAP membership card. Also included with this grouping is a SA lapel pin and a SS-FM lapel pin, provenance unknown.

Hastetter was a member of the German Red Cross Association (DRK), the National Socialist Volkswohlfahrt (NSV), the Reichsluftschutzbund (RLB) of Landesgruppe Bayern and the National Socialist Lehrerbund. Six membership cards for these organizations are included in the grouping.

The rest of the Hastetter documents in this 40-piece SS-FM grouping are displayed on the next webpage. To go to page 2, click here.