Original German WWII Luftwaffe Service Personal Photo Album – Aus Meiner Dienstzeit In Der Luftwaffe – 58 Photos Original Items

Original Item: One-of-a-kind-set. A wonderful personal photo album with some professional shots as well as personal snapshots, some of which have military aircraft and Luftwaffe officers. All photos are held in place with period corner tabs. Front cover features a silver embossed Aus Meine Dienstzeit in der Luftwaffe (From My Service in the Air Force) and Luftwaffe eagle.

A total of fifty-eight photographs fill this album, making it a treasure-trove of images taken from the viewpoint of a young, patriotic German airman. Historical records like this album have become priceless time capsules that provide an incomparable level of insight into the individual experience of the Second World War, now that over seventy years have passed.

The Luftwaffe was the aerial-warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht before and during World War II. Germany’s military air arms during World War I, the Luftstreitkräfte of the Imperial Army and the Marine-Fliegerabteilung of the Imperial Navy, had been disbanded in May 1920 in accordance with the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which banned Germany from having any air force.

During the interwar period, the German armed forces secretly trained pilots – in violation of the Treaty – at Lipetsk Air Base in the Soviet Union. With the rise of the NSDAP (in power from 1933) and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe’s existence was publicly acknowledged on 26 February 1935, just over two weeks before open defiance of the Versailles Treaty through the announcement of German rearmament and conscription on 16 March. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a valuable testing-ground for new tactics and aircraft. Partially as a result of this combat experience, the Luftwaffe had become one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced, and battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II broke out in 1939. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwader (wings). The Luftwaffe also operated Fallschirmjäger paratrooper units.