Original German WWII Heer Army 25th Infantry Regiment Personal Photo Album with Shoulderboards & Letters Original Items

Original Item: One-of-a-kind. A wonderful personal photo album, covered in “Crocodile Skin” embossed leather, and marked at the bottom Infanterie = Regiment 25. There is a German WWII Heer Stahlhelm badge attached at the top, on tope of an area of the leather that was removed. This may have had some type of insignia on it, or possibly a name.

Inside the front cover it is titled Wehrdienst (Military Service) over Ehrendienst (Honorary Service) and under this is the standard Erinnerungen an meine Dienstzeit (Memories of my Service), message. The title page is maker marked, and there is copywright information on the reverse side. The album overall measures approximately 9″ x 12″, and is secured together by a cord through the spine.

The first 10 pages or so contain a history of the German military, Wehrmacht, and infantry. There are also some pictures of high ranking Infantry Generals from the WWII Period, followed by pages where the owner could add his information and dates the album was collected, but these were left blank. After this are four blank thicker pages, which might be for drawings, signatures, or personal notes.

One of these pages has what we assume are the owner’s Schulterklappen (Shoulderboards or Epaulettes), both with metal 25 insignia on them for the 25th Infantry Regiment. They have the correct Weiß (white) piping, which is the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) for infantry and motorized infantry. The Shoulderboards have a wide flat silver border that goes all the way around, with no extra bars or pips, which indicate that the wearer was of the Unterfeldwebel rank, a Junior NCO rank equal to a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant.

After this there are 8 double sided pages of photographs, with spiderweb print “onion skin” separators to keep the pages from sticking together. There are 89 personal photographs of various sizes, showing all manner of scenes and locations. Some are definitely from time in service, while others are more candid. Most photos seem to be held in by the original adhesive corners, though it is possible that they were reattached over the years.

Inside the album were two envelopes addressed to Karl Hofmann of Grafenwöhr, which have post office ink stamps from 1942! Unfortunately we are not able to make out what the name of the person signing the letters is, whose name is also on one of the envelopes, and looks to be Karl Hofmann’s son.

Overall a really nice hard to find photo album from World War Two Germany with some incredible research potential. Ready to display!