Original Item: One-of-a-kind. A wonderful personal photo album, covered with “Alligator Skin” textured leatherette, and marked on the front with the Wehrmachtadler Eagle in the upper left corner. At the bottom is regimental designation I. / Artillerie = Regiment 63, or I company, 63rd Artillery Regiment. Inside the front cover is a page labeled Geschichte der I. Abteilung Art.=Rgt. 63 (History of the I Company Artillery Regt. 63), which gives the regimental history over 2 pages. After this is a title page with Wehrdienst / Ehrendienst (Military Service / Honorary Service) over the standard Erinnerungen an meine Wehrdienstzeit (Memories of my Military Service) message, with publisher Wilhelm Limpert=Verlag, Berlin at the bottom. The album overall measures a large 9″ x 12″.
After this are 15 pages, the first 5 showing portraits of AH and other top level military official, followed by short histories of the Wehrmacht and of the Artillery. There are then two pages where normally the owner would add their information, however none has been added in this photo album. After this are 9 thicker pages for photos with “onion skin” separators to keep the pages from sticking together. There are 34 photographs of various sizes, some of which are professional portraits and military shots, while others are smaller personal photographs. Many show artillery related scenes at military reviews and possibly parades.
Overall a really nice hard to find photo artillery regiment album from World War Two Germany. Some really fantastic research potential!
Context is everything when preserving old photo albums. The order in which an album was put together meant something to the creator and may give you clues about the
photographs if they’re not identified. If at all possible, keep old albums in their original order. It’s okay to remove loose photos, but make a note of where they came from.
The older albums such as these usually withstand the ravages of time. The leather or fabric covers may wear, but the pages stay well intact. The black paper albums of the early 20th century are more fragile, while the glue from magnetic albums can damage photographs. And, as with all old photographs, keep albums in a safe, climate controlled environment