UBB.threads Forums General Militaria Names, Documents, Photos and Translation Forum Inscribed Police Sword

Hello to the forum,

I have a police officer's degen with a presentation on the blade. One side of the blade reads:

Unserem verehrten Meister des Schule Bernhard Otto, zur Frdl. Erinnerung, an den 7.11.1940 zugeeignet.- Die Kameraden der Personal-Abteilung.

The other side of the blade reads:

Gehorrhen und Befehlen

I'd greatly appreciate a translation. The best I could do was:

"Our Revered Master of the School Bernhard Otto, the friendly reminder, on the 7/11/1940 Appropriated The Comrades of the Staff Department" and the other side was "Obey and Command"

How far off was my translation? Any idea how to research Bernhard Otto? Perhaps he was the head master of a police academy.

Thanks,

Harvey

Hi Harvey,
your translation is very good
I would tranl.to:

Our Revered Master of the School, Bernhard Otto,a friendly reminder on the 7/11/1940 donated by the Comrades of the human resource office.
The word zugeeignet(never heart before so far)is similar
to donated or dedicated,imo

The other side is Gehorchen und Befehlen,you're right!

Regards,
Gerd

I've found one Bernhard Otto, BREMEN

promoted to an Ortsgruppenleiter at 2 May 1932.

Kreisleiter: 1. July 1932 � March 1933

Gerd

Thanks so much for the translation.

Is "Otto" an unusual last name in Germany? Is it possible they would have presented the sword using only his familiar name but omitting his last name?

OTTO is an well known and common last name in germany.

Gerd

How about:

"Our honored Meister of the School Bernhard Otto, dedicated in fond memory on 7.11.1940 - the comrades of the personnel-department"
---------------------------------------------------------
"Obey and command"

This is a police sword and Meister is a senior NCO rank that looses much in translating it to Master, so it is best leaving it as Meister. If the person was the "master" like in head-master of the school, he would have been called something else such as a rank. But the inscription is found on a police officer sword. Well, under police sidearm distribution guidelines, Meisters were authorized to wear the SS-Police Fuhrerdegen.

So you have a nice SS/Polizei Officer Sword that was presented in memory (perhaps retirement or promotion to the position and rank) to Bernhard Otto, who was or became the senior NCO of the Personnel Department of one of the German Police School in 1940.