Original items: Very Few Available. We got a few of these identical WW2 German Beer bottles, all complete with wired on porcelain flip-top and original swas marked paper label. Some even still have the original rubber sealing washer, though it will have cracks from age. The labels are all legible and marked in black letter typeface:
Werde Mitglied des
Deutschen Luftsport-Derbandes
This translates to “Become a member of the German Air Sports Association”, abbreviated in German as the DLV e. V.. In the middle of the label is the organizations logo: a swas over a stylized propeller with wings.
These bottles are made from brown glass with various markings cast into the bottom of the glass. Offered in fine condition just a bit soiled from 75 years storage in a basement in Bremen on the North Sea not too far from Hamburg. This was a promotional item used to generate interest in the flying club, which was actually a front for Luftwaffe recruitment.
Nice Condition, ready to display.
History of the Deutschen Luftsport-Derbandes
The German Air Sports Association (Deutscher Luftsportverband, or DLV e. V.) was an organisation set up by the NSDAP Party in March 1933 to establish a uniform basis for the training of military pilots. Its chairman was Hermann Göring and its vice-chairman Ernst Röhm.
Since the Treaty of Versailles officially forbade Germany from building fighter planes of any sort, the German Air Sports Association used gliders to train men still officially civilians for the future Luftwaffe. The first steps towards the Luftwaffe’s formation were undertaken just months after Adolf AH came to power. Hermann Göring, a World War I ace with 22 victories and the holder of the Orden Pour le Mérite, became National Kommissar for aviation with former Deutsche Luft Hansa director Erhard Milch as his deputy. On 25 March 1933 the German Air Sports Association absorbed all private and national organizations, whilst retaining its ‘sports’ title. In April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM – Reich Air Ministry) was established. The RLM was in charge of development and production of aircraft, and soon afterwards the test site or Erprobungsstelle at Rechlin became its testing ground, a military airfield that had been first established in August 1918. Göring’s control over all aspects of aviation became absolute.
The German Air Sports Association was dissolved in 1937 and replaced with the National Socialist Flyers Corps, a corporation under public law and subordinate to Reichsluftfahrtminister Göring.