Original German Pre-WWII NSDAP Membership Book of Kriminal Kommissar Fritz Oellermann Original Items

Original Item: One-of-a-kind. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), commonly known in English as the NSDAP, was a political party in Germany between 1919 and 1945. It was known as the German Workers’ Party (DAP) before the name was changed in 1920. The party’s last leader, Adolf AH, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by president Paul von Hindenburg in 1933. AH rapidly established a totalitarian regime known as the Third Reich.

All members who joined the NSDAP “party” were given Membership books, which would contain their picture, personal information, and basic information about they party. It also contains pages listing when they paid their Partei-Beiträge (party dues), indicated by stamps, as well as further contributions to the party. It also would contain information regarding any changes in their residential location, as they were required to notify the Ortsgruppe (local group) when this occurred. This tracks the various locations the other was stationed during the NSDAP period.

This NSDAP membership book is named to Fritz Oellermann, born 4. Januar 1895., and a resident of Magdeburg when the book was issued. His Stand oder Beruf (Status or profession) is listed as Krim. Kommissar, a “Criminal / Detective Inspector”. This indicates he was a member of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police), often abbreviated as Kripo, is the German name for a criminal investigation department. “Kriminalkommissar” is listed as a part of the “senior law enforcement service”, and in military rank was roughly equivalent to an SS-Obersturmführer or Oberleutnant. The membership book contains all the correct stamps, and is in very good condition.

Of note: the persons filling out the books often wrote using Kurrentschrift, an older form of Germanic script writing, which is why the all the “u” letters are written as “ŭ”. In this script the lowercase “n” and “u” are identical, so the latter gets the arc shaped mark over it. This is not indicative of an umlaut or other diacritical marking.

These documents make great translation projects, and thankfully this example came with a small summary on a notecard that really helps to summarize the contents. There are date stamps from 1936 up to 1943, and there is also a small Dansig-Westpr. stamp next to a 4.44 / 64. marking, on the first page, which could be another date. This stamp would have come from Reichsgau Danzig–West Prussia, made from captured territories.

Really a great piece of German WWII identification material, ripe for further translation and research!